Cochabamba, strikes, being stuck in Sucre and silver mines in the highest town in the world

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Haven´t been able to get to a computer for a while so apologies for the lack of updates....

Cochabamba

We arrived in Cochabamba on 1st June quite late and had a couple of days to explore the town. It wasn´t anything amazing but it was good to meet the new group etc. We went out for a Chinese on our first night there - quite an amusing experience - the owner/waiter was very funny. A couple of the group ordered piranha fish - they were huge - had a taste - quite nice but so many bones in it.

Everything seems to close in Cochabamba on mondays. We headed to the local markets to have a look around - usual stuff, clothes, food, bags, wooden carvings etc. In the afternoon we attempted to go to the Palacio de Portales - it was closed, then to the Templo de la Recoleta - closed, we also wanted to walk up to the Cristo de la Concordia - closed - so we were to have a busy day the next day.

So we gave up and went back to the hostel (which had a pool - although freezing) and just chilled out for the rest of the day.

Had a random experience in the evening. We were sitting in a local bar which only sells drinks by the bottle - you´d think that would be okay but when it´s a bottle of rum or singani (the local drink - bit like pisco or vodka except has a flowery taste - still around 40%!)(MISSING) it´s a different story. So we got a few bottles of beer, a bottle of singani and had a fun night. A guy came up to us trying to sell us pictures that he´d cut out of magazines - pretty funny and sad at the same time. I guess at least he was trying to sell us something rather than just begging but we couldn´t help laughing at the pictures he´d cut out. One of the guys bought one.

3rd June

Managed to walk the 1,250 steps up to the Cristo de la Concordia today. Statue of Christ at the top of a hill - walked up at midday - not clever as pretty hot. Then to the Palacio de Portales - beautiful gardens. We had a tour round the house in Spanish - didn´t want to wait for the english tour. Didn´t really understand much of it but nevermind. It was a pretty impressive house and gardens - nice to be able to see it.

Then had a fantastic chocolate caliente - sooooo delicious. Ended up buying lots of chocolate too - don´t worry - we´re at high altitude therefore need the extra energy!!

We were supposed to leave Cochabamba on a night bus tonight but due to a transport strike being on none of the roads were open - all blockaded - so we had to stay an extra night and get a flight out first thing the next day. Unfortunately it wasn´t covered with our trip so had to pay extra - hoping insurance will cover it but not sure.

Sucre - 4th June

Arrived in Sucre after getting up at about 6am and catching two planes - the first to Santa Cruz and then a second 25 minute journey to Sucre. We managed to get great views of the city from the plane - but was quite surprised it landed ok - the land was incredibly hilly surrounding the airport and I was wondering where the landing strip was. We survived though!

We walked to the main square (Plaza de la 25 Mayo) - it is quite a beautiful city - full of colonial style buildings. All white - you aren´t allowed to paint them another colour (or need permission too). The capital of Bolivia. It is so small in comparison to La Paz but has a very safe friendly feel about it.

Luna and I went to the Casa de la Libertad where the declaration of independence was signed. Quite an interesting building - lots of statues etc to Simon Bolivar. He didn´t sign the declaration though as he was from Venezuela and didn´t want to influence the other governers. We started a tour round the building but snuck out after an hour - we´d only covered two of the six or seven rooms and were getting a bit bored!

5th June

Wandered round Sucre again today. Went to Bolivar Park which has a mini eiffel tower and arc de triumph - didn´t find out why but it was nice to have a bit of time to myself and just let the time pass by. Really just another wandering day - wandered through local markets, through stalls selling silver, through random streets etc.

Went out in the evening to a local club and met up with another couple of tour groups. We were supposed to leave Sucre today but due to the strike we couldn´t get out so decided to get drunk instead. The local bar/club was good fun. Had a few caiparinhas and one of the guys in our group who speaks pretty good spanish had been chatting to a couple of the locals. One of them wanted to dance with me so we headed to the dance floor and stayed there for a couple of hours - he was trying to teach me the local dance ¨reggae tan¨or something like that. Music doesn´t seem to change though - same rhythm throughout, but makes it easier i suppose. Then more drinks and some more locals tried to talk to us. I tried to explain that i didn´t understand but he really wanted to dance. The Bolivian I´d been dancing with before saved me and made me dance with him again to some real traditional dances - very difficult - they seemed to be doing some sort of bull fighting dance. There was no way I was any good at that. Then we left them to it and headed home.

Sucre/Potosi - 6th June

Had a little bit of a headache in the morning - not surprisingly. Packed up though as we had to check out.

Then were told our options for leaving Sucre - leave at 6pm that evening hopefully when the strike had cleared, although we would potentially have to walk through some of the road blocks with our packs etc and get taxis and then walk more and then get our local bus or leave the day after when it would all have cleared. We decided to leave at 6pm as we didn´t fancy another early start so had more time to chill out in Sucre.

Luna and I walked to the other end of the city and up to the Recoleta - it was a nice walk and the views from the top were great. A really nice square - really liked it up there. Very peaceful and beautiful arches at one end - could have stayed there for ages. Even saw a hummingbird!

Then back to the hostel in time to leave that evening. It was great as we bumped into people from the last group who´d just arrived from Potosi and had managed to get through the road blocks. They´d walked about 6km some with their back packs - others had paid children to push their back packs in wheel barrows. They looked pretty exhausted though. Was great to see them and really nice to see Jess again. We had to leave so didn´t have much time to catch up.

The road blocks had pretty much cleared by the time we went through and we swapped buses once and had a three hour trip to Potosi arriving at about 10pm. We were in the highest town in the world - 4,100m. It´s so much colder here and I had a bit of a headache from the altitude. Can´t wait to get to sea level again. Feeling light headed and dizzy just sitting in bed - so frustrating!

7th June

Still felt pretty strange when I woke up - bit dizzy and lacking in energy and a bit sick. Really annoying how altitude affects me. Had a quick breakfast before heading out to wander round Potosi. We went to San Francisco church to have a look around. It was full of children - they seemed to be having confession or something. Tried to go up to the tower to get some good views of the town but it was closed.

Then to the main square (10 de noviembre). Similar to quite a lot of the main squares - lots of beautiful buildings surrounding the square and a statue in the middle of someone important! The streets in Potosi are pretty narrow and the majority are one way -our bus had a lot of difficulty navigating through them all the night before.

We went to a few market stalls - Luna was convinced i needed some warmer clothes for Salar de Uyuni so ended up buying an alpaca jumper - yup - finally succumbed - and then a fleece lined jacket - god knows how I´ll carry it all but it will at least keep me warmer - apparently gets down to -15 or so at night at the salt plains so I´ll be glad of it!

Silver Mines in Potosi

Luna and I spent the afternoon looking round the silver mines. Firstly we went to the miners market to buy them some gifts - coca leaves, cigarettes, 96% alcohol (which we had to try - wow it burns) and some dynamite. Yup - I bought some dynamite - how great is that!?!? We then went to the mine - approximately 20,000 people work there, the youngest being 12 and the average life expectancy of the miners is around 45 years old. The miners work incredibly long hours - hence living on coca leaves and alcohol. As we were driving up to the mine entrance we could see one of the miners staggering down the hill - obviously he´d survived his shift drinking the alcohol.

We got dressed in the correct gear with helmets and torches tc before entering the mine at 4,262m. We only saw one miner as it was payday and most had gone home at lunchtime, but normally they work all day - if not 24 hour shifts. The tunnels were pretty small and we had to climb down a few holes using ropes and balancing on planks of wood and avoiding big holes. We heard an explosion whilst we were in the mine too and could smell the gas from it. It was a real eye opener seeing the conditions they work in - slightly different from the mines in Wales! We only touched the surface too - the lower galleries are much more dangerous but more profitable for the miners - they just have to decide whether money or their lives are more valuable to them.

The miners are taught the ropes by their fathers and if they don´t have fathers who´ve worked the mines before they just have to work it out for themselves and invariably it´s the young inexperienced miners that get injured or killed - not leaving enough time after an explosion before going back into the mine, not knowing where the loose rockes or holes are etc. We were in the mine for about an hour and saw all the minerals in the seams of the rocks, but to the miners they are mostly waste materials as they are only really interested in the silver.

We had a boy with us too helping us through the mine. As we left there was an even younger boy at the entrance of the mine trying to make a hole in the rock to place some dynamite in. It was our guides´younger brother. He was too young to actually work in the mine but just plays at the edge. Their house was right next to the entrance of the mine. They have no father so no one to explain to them the ropes. The eldest boy works in the mine all day and in the evenings goes to school - a pretty tough existence.

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