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Published: April 2nd 2012
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We left Bonito the following morning, and entered Bolivia via a combination of overpriced taxis, buses and minibus to find out that the death train was full so we would have to take the bus. Sitting at the bus station in Quijarro (on the Bolivian side of the border) watching chickens running around made us realise we'd entered a different world to that of Brazil, as did a supermarket shop for three packets of biscuits for 75p.
The bus was also a bit different, with people hopping on and off trying to sell you what looked like regurgitated empanadas. We did have films, however, each of which highlighted their obsession with UFC fighting. We rolled into Santa Cruz, the biggest city in Bolivia, at 7 in the morning. Our second overnight bus in a row to Sucre didn't leave until 4 30, giving us time to check out a bit of Santa Cruz. There wasn't a huge amount to see, but we went to the zoo where we did finally manage to spot the jaguars and pumas we'd missed in the Pantanal, alongside several other South American animals including a hilarious monkey with ridiculously long arms. We also sampled Bolivian
food for the first time at La Casa de la Camba, rumoured to be one of Bolivia's best restaurants. It didn't disappoint as we indulged in a buffet of various meats, potatoes and rice. Satisfied, we hopped on the bus to Sucre, judicial capital of Bolivia.
Smelly, we arrived there in the morning after manoeuvring past a landslide. We went to book a trek for the next day before, going to see the biggest area/collection of dinosaur tracks in the world. Although we were quite a long way away, they were very impressive, and we also glimpsed the BBC filming a documentary that will be appearing on a screen near you shortly.
We went to bed relatively early after a much-needed (cold) shower and psyched up for what had turned out to be a two-day trek in the mountains around Sucre. The pictures you (hopefully) see don't really do the scenery justice, but what you can see is the amazing variety of it. Cheeks stuffed full with coca leaves, we descended an Inca trail startying at 3700 metres and ending at a river that we had to cross. We nearly lost George to quicksand but (un)fortunately he managed
to wriggle free. We then walked up the other side of the valley in the midst of a variety of colourful rocks (copper, iron and cobalt), before descending into the Crater of Maragua, where we were to spend the night.
The crater was formed by a meteor strike 350,000 years ago, and consisted of a huge bowl witha plateau in the middle where the magma exposed by the meteor had risen and solidified, much like when you drop a stone in a pond. We also ventured to the Devil's Mouth, a site placed spectacularly above a waterfall, reached by a narrow path, where human sacrifices were made to appease the earthquake gods until as recently as 1948!
Then we went to the cabanas where we were staying and purchased the entire beer supply of the village located in the middle of the crater, before drinking them whilst playing cards and listening to ghost stories from our guide, which were a bit too believable to dismiss! We woke to wall-to-wall sunshine which, combined with the altitude and malaria pills, proved a bit much for our gringo skin. Charlie's nose is peeling, again, whilst George is grateful for his father's
dodgy blood.
We ventured out of the crater, into another colourful valley, this one punctuated by more vegetation, sheep and the odd local trying to sell fossils. It also contained some more dinosaur footprints preserved int the volcanic rock, which this time we could touch and take silly pictures of. We arrived at Potolo, another village, a little while later and took a bus back to Sucre, where we enjoyed a free, if not slightly rushed, beer (for Charlie) and hot chocolate (for the shivering George). The bus to Potosi followed, a relatively short three-hour one, and spent the night in a hotel, costing a staggering two and a half quid.
We were going to visit the mines that day, but, since it was a public holiday and sunday, there wouldn't have been any miners there, so saved it for today. Instead we went to the huge local market with three Danish girls we met from our trek. There, after stumbling and crouching past zillions of stalls selling everything from adapters to pumpkin-sized papayas, we wolfed down some llama and bought a mini speaker that hopefully works.
This morning we headed off to the mines, inside the
huge Cerro Rico, a mineral-rich mountain that bankrolled the Spanish Èmpire for 200 years. Our first stop was the miners´s market where anyone could buy the ready-to-explode combo of dynamite, fuse and ammonium nitrite for two pounds, or splash out on some 96% alcohol for the same price. We did try a tiny sample of the alcohol, which was enough to warm us up considerably, as well as burn our chapped lips. We also purchased the dynamite and coca leaves to give as gifts to the miners. After seeing how the minerals were processed, the time had come to enter the dark abyss.
It was shocking. Led superbly by our guide through impossibly narrow passages, clogged with water in places and infused with toxic gases everywhere, we crouched and crawled, George once again grateful for his genetics. We visited El Tio, god of the mines, before continuing deeper into temperatures of up to 40 degrees. The working conditions were horrendous, some using machines (or dynamite) to extract their prized metal ores, others chiselling away like they had for centuries before. We had a go at shovelling ourselves, which only heightened our respect for the miners. Admittedly, once we saw
sunlight again, we were thankful for the lack of health and safety, but whilst in there it all felt a bit surreal, epitomised by a dynamite explosion shaking the mountain and the passage we were walking through.
We intend to head off to Tupiza tonight in an overnight bus, but it gets in at 4 in the morning, so, if the bus station has Wifi (a big if), we have conjured up a cunning plan to listen to the cricket via George's iPhone and our newly-acquired speakers. Wish us (and the cricketers) luck...
This is getting ridiculous as we still are unable to upload any photos however we have made it our mission tomorrow to upload hundreds to get back up to date.
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