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Published: June 21st 2011
Travel to Bolivia is not really about cities and that, in my humble opinion, is a good thing for the Bolivian economy. Not that there is really that much wrong with places like Potosi and La Paz. The parts where tourists tend to visit seem safe enough, the standard of accommodation is fine – and generally cheap – there is not a lot of litter and rubbish around, restaurants and cafes are generally pretty good and the traffic isn't too bad. It is just that, in comparison with what is outside the cities, they don't have a lot to offer.
To be fair, most people probably go to Potosi for what it was rather than what it is now. Claimed to be the highest city in the world, Potosi was once larger than Paris. The Spaniards reputedly dug enough silver out of the hills here to build a bridge to Spain made of the stuff. Certainly, the place has been emptied and the few remaining miners do it very hard in the, now, cooperatively operated mines still working in the hills. It is still a reasonably large city and there are still signs of its former glory along with many
reminders of its age, but this is not a city that is going anywhere fast.
For us, one of the wonderful things about Potosi was the fact that there was a heater in our hostel room. Bolivian hostels and the more budget hotels don't routinely come equipped with heaters. We have been told that this is because the cheap and efficient heaters that might be used are dangerous. They can use up all of the oxygen in a room and deaths of backpackers have been reported. It is reported that, after these deaths, all of the heaters were removed. It can be very cold at altitude at night and a heater is very welcome, perhaps even essential, but it does make sense to always have an adequate air supply.
Potosi does have some good museums. One, dealing with clothing of the various Bolivian regions, was small but well presented. The “Museo Etno-Indumentario Potosi & Artesanias Palomita” is near the centre of the city, a couple of streets from the central market. The lady running the place is very keen on her subject. She provided a lot of information and, although all in Spanish, most of us were able
Electronic translation?
If you haven't been to Latin America, it is one of the signs telling you not to throw the toilet paper in the toiletto follow most of the explanations. She did a good job of using the changes and differences in clothing styles and fashions to explain and provide a commentary on the way people had reacted to the influence of the Spanish and some of the other political and economic influences on people across the country.
Museo Casa de la Moneda is another excellent museum, although on a different scale from the clothing place. It is in the old mint and is probably the best museum in Potosi. The mint used to provide the coinage for Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. Its mint business is closed now. The impressive building was constructed by the Spaniards in the late 1500s. Massive walls. Good exhibits, mainly about money – as you might expect - but some good local art works, an impressive but not terribly well presented collection of precious, semi-precious and other stones and some archaeological material.
There was a theory operating in some elements of the party that Potosi, being the site of one of the largest silver mines the world has ever known, would have masses of excellent silver jewellery available and at very good prices. The alternate view was
Hardware store
The shops that sell only bricks were nearby that this was unlikely. We did search but without any real success. There is plenty of the normal tourist stuff but not a lot of any quality. We decided to look again in La Paz.
La Paz is an overnight bus ride from Potosi. We would have preferred a daylight bus but could only find buses that left at night. Contrary to the advice in the LP, we could have caught a daylight bus to Oruro and then caught another, also in daylight, to La Paz but we haven't learnt yet to always check everything. The bus itself was OK. Not top of the line but comfortable enough. It may have helped our view of the comfort that we had to spend 5 hours sitting in the Potosi bus terminal. In summer this may not have been a hardship but, in the middle of winter and at this altitude, it was very cold. Getting on a bus with 40 or so other warm breathing bodies was an excellent alternative.
One diversion from the cold was the appearance, at different times, of two different bridal couples. Each couple paraded around the bus terminal while a woman with a video
camera filmed them. We're not sure if the choice of the bus terminal has something to do with the fact that it is the largest building (we spotted) in Potosi, or whether it is a good venue for a lot of people to see you on your big day.
The agenda in La Paz had four key items: go to the Brazilian Consulate to obtain a visa to visit Brazil; shop for goodies (souvenirs that is); have a look around this interestingly located city; and put together a package for postage to our lovely and very accommodating 'home liaison officer'.
La Paz isn't the largest city in Bolivia – that is Santa Cruz – and it isn't the constitutional capital – that is Sucre – but it is the seat of government, the business centre and the centre of administration. The site has to be one of the most interesting for a city in the world. The rich live at the bottom of the valley, the poor live in the heights. The location is spectacular. There are plenty of shops, a reasonable downtown area, some good tourist type shopping areas and some good museums. We especially enjoyed the
Museo of Music which provided some exceptional displays of Bolivian and other musical instruments. Its quality was completely unexpected with displays utilising nice touches of humour, and the opportunity for visitors to have a bit of fun with some instruments.
Looking around La Paz presents a challenge or two. El Alto – in theory a separate city – is perched along the ridge at the top of the valley. We were accommodated about half way down the valley. The rich people living at the bottom experience different weather and have a lot more oxygen to breathe. Moving up and down requires a good set of lungs and a good supply of coca lollies or leaves, or a vehicle. We did quite a bit of walking but didn't make it down to the bottom, or even up to the top on foot. We did find a hop-on, hop-off bus that took us down the bottom and we drove through El Alto a few times. We can confirm that there is a difference between rich and poor.
For some reason we had missed the requirement that we needed a visa to enter Brazil. Visas have been very easy to obtain
right through Latin America. Turn up at the border, fill out the form and get the stamp. Not so for Brazil. The relevant Brazilian web site indicated that it would take over a week to obtain a visa in Buenos Aires but just 3 days to obtain one in La Paz. The procedure was a little convoluted. Turn up at the Consulate, provide your passport and proof that you have a ticket out of Brazil. Then go to an internet cafe and fill out a form on-line, print out the form and take it back to the Consulate. Receive an account code and go to a Banco de Brazil about 15 minutes walk away. Pay $35USD each into the account – and consider yourself lucky not to be a US citizen because the Brazilians are into reciprocity – and return to the Consulate. They take your passport, photos and receipt and tell you to come back in 3 days. All done. The only catch is that you have to stay in La Paz for 3 more days.
We used some of that time for some souvenir hunting. There are streets of shops selling guitars, charangos, weavings, silver jewellery and
Recycled building materials
This church was built with materials taken from the temples and pyramid at Tiwanaku thingys, llama foetuses (dead ones to bury under the foundations for your new house for luck) and all manner of clothing and such. We made a few purchases. Prices here are good and, if you search, you do find some good quality.
You hear and read all sorts of things about posting boxes home. I know the risks of speaking too soon but I have to say we were most pleasantly surprised by our experience in La Paz. So far, we have found that, while every post office in the world knows how to charge, some are much more accommodating than others in dealing with the size and type of packages we normally want to send. Most have rules about the overall size or weight of packages with all larger material having to be despatched by a courier service. Not so in La Paz though. Here they know what their sellers can do to a tourist.
The main post office is in downtown. We walked in carrying our loot in a number of bags. The lady in the handily placed information booth smiled and directed us downstairs to 'number 8'. The lady at number 8 took one look
at what we had and sent us to a couple of other ladies (one of those women only employment places I guess) in another room. There we were more or less swallowed up in the efficiency and enjoyment of the process. Our lady surveyed what we had, laughed at the bottle tops and small stones, made an assessment of the size of the box required and away she went. Not a lot of negotiation was possible and nor was it necessary. She knew what she was doing and that it was important that this stuff get home safely.
The expertly packed box was duly wrapped in reinforced plastic and addresses were affixed. We had to write a number of times in large letters 'DO NOT RETURN THIS TO BOLIVIA'. The customs declarations were made. Our lady also made sure that she was happy with what was written. Throughout this exercise I was wondering how much it was going to cost for this service. Memories of India where the number of rupees determined the speed of the wrapping flashed through my head. Not here though. All finished and with a big smile we were hustled out to a cashier. It
did cost us to have the wrapping/packaging done but it was all part of the service and all official. Now if only all post offices world wide could copy La Paz?
And after a wrap like that will the package get home? Who knows but I am sure it wont be the fault of those ladies if it does not.
Tiwanaku is a day trip from La Paz. A day spent looking at ruins seemed a reasonable idea even though Tiwanaku doesn't get much of a write up in the guide books. We are able to confirm that, in this aspect, the guide books are probably right. It was a long ride out to Tiwanaku from the city. The van had to take a circuitous route due to road works and some blockades (i.e. action by various sectors of the citizenry) that had been put in place. We had a good guide who made the best of the fact that there is really not a lot of Tiwanaku that is left to look at. There is no doubt that it was an important place and that it is evidence that there was a major civilisation before the Incas,
but they did build largely in adobe and that is gone. Some of the stone structures are still there but it is a little hard to appreciate the grandeur of the constructions that were there on the basis of what is left.
The Brazilian visas came through and we headed immediately north to Copacabana and Lake Titicaca. Time to get back into the country.
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Damien Engelhardt
non-member comment
Just looked up your blog!
Hi! Not sure if you remember me - I was part of that group that visited the Jungle in Ecuador. This is the first time I've looked at your blog (unfortunately only the first) and it's amazing! So interesting, it's making me miss S.America. And you guys put so much care and thought into it, it's really lovely. Funnily enough, I just celebrated the indigenous Bolivian New Year! I am in Maputo, Mozambique and am friends with a Bolivian lady who informed me that it, as of yesterday, the year 5518 according to the indigenous Bolivian calender. To celebrate, a big group of her friends rocked out to the beach to watch the sunrise and drink coca tea. It was great. Did you guys see any celebrations? Anyway, I hope you are doing well. Take care, safe travels. Damien