Chaotic Cochabamba, elegant Sucre and tragic Potosí

---

---

My first stop after leaving Santa Cruz was Bolivia’s third city, Cochabamba. The bus ride from Santa Cruz has to rate as one of the worst ever, just because the bus was so ridiculously hot and cramped. The road itself was surprisingly good. If I hadn’t just had 2 night buses in a row, I would have probably only stayed in Cochabamba for 1 day and then left in the evening, but a third consecutive night bus was not that appealing. And I did manage to fill up my two days in Cochabamba without too much difficulty. The city is situated in the Andes, at a mere 2800m above sea level (not high at all for Bolivian standards), so it was much cooler than stifling Santa Cruz. Probably the most famous attraction in the city is the statue of Jesus known as Cristo de la Concordia which overlooks the city. They built it to be a few centimeters taller than Rio’s version, making it the largest statue of Jesus in the world. The cable car up the hill was unbelievably cheap (30p each way), which was useful given that it is advised not to walk either way as it is common for tourists to be robbed on the path up the hill. The views from the top were good, though clearly can’t compare to the views from Rio’s Christ the Redeemer.

The southern half of Cochabamba’s centre seemed to be entirely given over to markets. A market known as “La Cancha” claims to be the biggest open-air market in South America, so this is the third time I’ve been to a different market which is supposedly the biggest on the continent. This one probably was the biggest one though. A labyrinth of narrow alleys crammed with stalls selling food, tourist souvenirs, electronics and counterfeit branded clothes amongst other things, with a lot of things being crazily cheap. After wandering for an hour or two and getting lost many, many times, I eventually realised I hadn’t even made it to the La Cancha market; there are so many different markets that just seem to merge into one. That was more or less everything in Cochabamba, so I bought a ticket on to my next stop of Sucre. After some rather uncomfortable night bus journeys, I wanted to pay for a more expensive bus for this journey, but for some reason only the cheapest buses were available that day, so it was another uncomfortable journey. But so cheap (40 bolivianos or £3.80 for the 10 hour trip). And it was much better than the 2 previous night buses.

Sucre is my joint favourite city in South America (with Cusco in Peru and Ouro Preto in Brazil). Sucre was the capital of Bolivia before independence (back when Bolivia was known as Upper Peru and Sucre was called La Ciudad de Plata or the City of Silver) and was the capital of the republic until La Paz took over as the de facto capital at the beginning of the twentieth century. Though technically, Sucre is still the official capital of Bolivia, and is home to the Bolivian Supreme Court as well as other national institutions, whilst La Paz is the seat of government. Sucre is also the fourth largest city in Bolivia, but as nearly everything of interest in the city is in the centre, is doesn’t feel that big. Because of the wealth of the silver mines in nearby Potosí, the city has a stunningly beautiful colonial architecture, and as there are strict planning rules (every building must be whitewashed once a year), the city looks more or less the same way it did 200 years ago. Because of this Sucre is known as La Ciudad Blanca de las Americas, or The White City of the Americas, and is a UNESCO world heritage city. These days Sucre is also known for its chocolates (lots of expensive boutique chocolate shops) and as a big university city (one of the best in South America).

The first site I visited is probably the strangest Sucre has to offer. About 6km north of the city is a cement factory, within which is Sucre’s Cretacious Park, known as Cal Orko, home to the world’s largest collection of dinosaur footprints. On a vertical wall there are 5000 or so prints from over 150 species of dinosaur, dating back millions of years to before the Andes even existed (which explains why the footprints are vertical). The museum at the park was probably the most interesting part - you can’t get anywhere near the actual footprints themselves so you need binoculars or a good zoom on your camera. Plus visiting in the morning turned out to be a bad idea, as the wall was in shadow and we had to wait for the afternoon. The park also had lots of life-size dinosaur models, but the sound effects made it seem more like a children’s attraction.

At the dinosaur park I met a couple of guys heading to the Glorieta Castle, the other attraction out of town, so I thought I may as well join them. Definitely the weirdest “castle” I’ve ever been to. The army had taken over most of the grounds and built a barracks there, whilst the castle itself seemed to be a mixture of Moorish and gothic designs. All of the rooms inside were completely empty, so the tour was pretty boring. The best part of the day was in Sucre itself. I visited San Felipe Neri, a former convent a few blocks from the main square. You can pay to go and have a look around the cloisters, which are nice enough, but you really pay to see the views of the city from the roof of the convent and adjoining church. Simply spectacular. After an hour or so at Neri, I headed to La Recoleta, a church and monastery halfway up one of the hills overlooking the city. The views of sunset over Sucre were pretty good, but the views from Neri were much better.

The following day I stayed more or less in the city centre. At its heart is the main square (the Plaza 25 de Mayo), with a large statue of independence hero Mariscal Sucre in the centre (after whom the city is named). On one side of the square is the Casa de la Libertad, which was the birthplace of South American independence and where Bolivian
Independence was formalised in 1825. As with seemingly all attractions in Sucre, if you want to take your camera in, you have to pay more or less double admission.

Beyond the main square, the city is filled with a plethora of colonial churches, convents and monasteries. Just behind the other main square in the centre, the Plaza de la Libertad, (which contains one of these churches as well as the theatre), is the Parque Bolivar, complete with the Supreme Court and Bolivia’s version of the Eiffel Tower. (just a tiny bit smaller). In the evening, the park was jammed with dog walkers, a brass band and some sort of open-air dance school. Plus beyond “The Eiffel Tower” is a fountain where every night they have a “Dancing Water Show” - essentially the fountain and lights choreographed with music (ranging from tangos to Strauss).

After a few days in Sucre, it was a mere 3 hour bus ride to my next stop, the city of Potosí, which was completely blocked last time I tried to get there after visiting the Salar de Uyuni. Fortunately it is more or less back to normal now. Potosí is the highest city in the world, at 4,100m above sea level, but also has the record of being the city with the worst quality of life in the world. This is due to the main industry in the area - mining. Overlooking the city is a hill known as Cerro Rico, where huge deposits of silver were discovered in 1546. Since then, mining has been the main source of employment in the area. The silver deposits found turned out to be the largest ever excavated in the world, and even though today there is not that much silver remaining, the extraction of other minerals, such as tin, zinc and lead continues. At its peak in the 17th century, Potosí was the second largest city in the world and bigger than New York, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro combined. The wealth from the mines paid for a beautiful colonial city (which today is a UNESCO world heritage site), but the city doesn’t have the same elegance as Sucre and a lot of the fine buildings have fallen into decay. It’s quite a sad city really. All the wealth that was once here (and consequently shipped to Europe) has gone and poverty is very much prevalent. Because of the extreme working conditions in the mines, it is estimated that around 7 million people have died in the mines, most of whom were African slaves and indigenous workers. Which nearly equates to Bolivia’s population today.

One of the main reasons for coming to Potosí was to see the mines. The city is filled with agencies offering more or less the same thing, though some seem a bit irresponsible (allowing tourists to set off dynamite for example). The agency I chose seemed reasonable enough (and most importantly they have had 0 accidents in their 23 year history). The tour started with kitting us out with suitable clothes and a miner’s helmet. It’s expected for the tourists to bring gifts to the miners for having a look inside their mines, so our group collectively bought a stick of dynamite, a fuse, a giant bag of coca leaves and some soft drinks. They do drink alcohol in the mines - in fact more or less pure alcohol (96%) as this is dirt cheap. But the taste (our guide gave us a cap full to try) was unsurprisingly disgusting.

12,000 people still work in the mines, even though their life expectancy is quite low. The dust in the mines contains silicon which can lead to silicosis, and water dropping from the walls contains arsenic and cyanide. Around 50 miners die in the mines in Potosí each year, so it really is a hazardous job, and so poorly paid. But there are few alternatives in the city. There are 200 mines still open in Potosí, and the one we visited was one of the easiest and safest to get around. The first couple of hundred metres of the tunnel were very low and cramped; after then a lot of the tunnels widened and sometimes I could even stand fully upright. As the miners are constantly pushing carts filled with ore out of the mine and the empty vessels back in, we had to rush so as to not get in their way, as these carts are difficult to stop if someone is blocking the tunnel (and there aren’t many passing places near the entrance). We spent just under 2 hours walking around various tunnels, looking at the different processes and speaking to some of the miners. Most of the passages were easy to navigate, though in a few places there were rickety ladders or steep, slippery slopes to pass. After the first 500m or so the tunnels became uncomfortably hot. It was definitely interesting to visit, though I can’t imagine how the miners work like this every day.

Besides the mines, Potosí’s main attractions are its churches and convents, though some could definitely use some repairs. Potosí is also home to what is supposed to be one of the best museums in South America: the Casa Nacional de Moneda (the former mint), and it was actually pretty good. The building is like a gigantic fortress, and was the main mint for Spanish South America for 2 centuries. Just next to the Moneda is a tower known as the Compañia de Jesus, which is all that remains from a Jesuit church. The views from the top of the tower over Potosí and Cerro Rico were worth the breathtaking climb.

Obviously being so high up, Potosí does get rather cold, at night at least. Though the hostel I went to had central heating so I didn’t really notice it. One evening though there was a terrific hail storm - the biggest hail stones I have ever seen.

Because Potosí was not built in a regular grid shape like Sucre, it has narrow, cobbled streets and traffic is a big problem in the centre. The main form of transport are these ancient minibuses, clearly imported used from China and Japan (the Chinese ones often have Chinese characters and occasionally pictures of pandas on them, whilst the Japanese ones have had the steering wheel and pedals changed from the right to the left side, but the dashboard has been left on the right).

Before leaving Potosí, I went to visit the Tarapaya hot springs, which were recommended by the hostel and a few people I met who had been there. The hot springs themselves were not that interesting, being just a pool of hot water (I would guess around 60 degrees C), but the walk around the springs and the Tarapaya Lagoon with spectacular mountain scenery in the background made the trip worthwhile.

Having finished in Potosí, I have taken my last night bus in Bolivia to La Paz. The next blog will come from there.

---

Photos

Glorieta Castle near Sucre
The clock tower is allegedly based upon Big Ben. Clearly the architect never went to London.