Snake oil salesmen, Stupido gringos and Herculean tasks.

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Oruro

One of the interesting features of travelling long distances by public bus is the appearance of salesman on the trips for the first hour or so. They preach the benefits of coco tea, multivitamin powders, arthritis creams and all sorts of other forms of snake oil. The surprising thing is that they are extremely successful with sales to 40-50%!o(MISSING)f the passengers.

We initially struggled to find a room but eventually ended up in Hostal San Miguel (70 Bs/night). Being a Sunday the City seemed deserted and very little was open apart from the Central market. We eventually found an open cafe and had the three course set menu (being the only option), in the evening we poked our heads out of the hostal door and decided to stay in for the night as there was no-one in sight and nothing open for the length of our street.

Things looked much better in the morning with the street full of kids on their way to school and we found a cafe serving breakfast. We then walked up the hill to a church that had a Mineral Museum in its basement. The museum is based in an old mineshaft and was interesting especially as the dampness had allowed a number of sulphates to form on the walls of the shaft. After lunch we travelled south to the University to view their mineral display. It took some time to run down the keyholder who turned on the lights and after giving me permission to photograph the specimens promptly disappeared. About 20 mins later he reappeared in a rush with the Curator and a bunch of keys and then frantically rushed around locking all the cabinets. I had been alone with a great collection of classic pieces from not only the Ouro mines but also Siglo XX, Llallagua and Poopo mines, including some large cylindrite specimens!!!

The following day we headed off to attack the Siglo XX mine dumps at Llallagua. The mine and town was about 2.5 hrs away by bus on a dirt road and the intention was to catch an early bus and then get bus back to Ouro at around 3 to 3.30. On arriving at the bus Terminal we found that the earliest we could get on a bus was 11 am. The only seats we could get were right at the back of the bus and the trip started as usual with a salespitch, this one was slightly different as he was selling expanding bracelets with enamelled pictures of saints and also magnetite necklaces with crucifixes. Obviously he´d made the trip before as the central part of the trip included a climb up the mountainside via a steep series of switchbacks with sheer drops down to the town below. Jill was concerned about how safe the road was and I made the comment that if it wasn´t there would be a lot of wrecks down in the gullies. Of course there was a wreck in the next gully! and I refrained from pointing out two more that I saw as the trip proceeded.

When the mine dumps came into view we tried to leave the bus but the aisle was now full of extra passengers and they were not about to let these stupid gringos leave the bus before it arrived at the terminal in Llallagua. Fortunately the dumps continued almost to the town limits so it was only about a 15 min walk back to the dumps. As I proceeded to bash all the rocks in sight looking for minerals, I probably only confirmed the locals earlier assumption on my mental status. All too soon 3 pm came so we started walk back down the road towards the town with the intention of flagging down the bus. We ended up back at the terminal at 3.35 with no sign of any bus only to find that there was a fiesta on in town and the next bus wouldn´t leave until 5.30. This of course would mean the return trip would mainly be in the dark over a windy, dangerous dirt road. We also managed to get stuck on one of the switchbacks for over 30 mins where a petrol tanker had broken down and all the other traffic had to edge around it. We eventually got back to the hostal late but safe and with only a few specimens to show for it!!

Next stop Potosi

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Comments

[elvis ordonez]

gracias por aserme ver ami llallagua estoy lejos de nuestro pais pero me comformo con las fotos