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Published: April 20th 2006
Cerro Rico
The mountain that eats men; something like 9 million men have died over the last 500 years.We eventually escaped the evil clutches of the bus strike - they were striking because they were being asked to pay 80 Bolivianos (6 GBPounds) tax a year - and headed overnight to Sucre, Bolivia's second capital.
White-painted, red-roofed colonial buildings and numerous historical sights abound, but the main draw was... the Dino Truck! We were a little sceptical of this gringo-magnet, complete with pictures of dinosaurs on the side, but the guidebook told us to leave our scepticism aside - so we did just that. The truck drives (cue kids running down the street yelling "gringo!") up to a limestone quarry. Several million years ago, the area was a lake bed; after some tectonic upheav.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! and a bit of mining, a 200m high mudrock wall stands, covered in dinosaur footprints. Very impressive.
The footprints prove that most dinosaurs minced and tottered around, unable to large steps. The demonstration of events, complete with plastic dinosaurs, taught you everything you'd ever need to know. Mel was made to pretend to be a giant prehistoric armadillo, complete with 60km/h spiky tail. The rest of the group was astounded!
Determined to continue with our Bolivian sightseeing success, we moved onto Potosi
the next day. Once upon a time it was the richest city in all the world due to its vast silver mines in Cerro Rico. It is now home to miners of varying fortunes, but mainly very poor ones. The visit to the mine was a very unusual experience, starting with the purchase of gifts, dynamite and a swig of 96% alcohol.
Inside the mine, it is dusty and horrible, and the majority of the miners still remove ore by hand. Life expectancy is an exhausting 45 years old, and to travel between levels you must crawl through tiny holes. As our guide pointed out, it's weird toursim - they get paid to go down there but we pay to go, it's not a very nice place, why? The answer for a few people might be simple - you get to blow stuff up!
After spending so much effort getting dirty for a day, it seemed a nice plan to spend the next day getting clean. There is a thermal lagoon 25km from town, surrounded by mountains. We swam in a hot, big, pond until every surface of our bodies was prune like, and returned to town to
see a parade of varying size Jesuses and Virgin Marys, re-enacting the bible stories.
Deciding that Bolivia easily wins the most random country award, another bus brought us to the final attraction.
We arrived in Uyuini with one purpose; to go and see some salt. Someone picked up all the weird landscapes possible and dumped them in an area the size of Belgium. With the help of Kate and Ken, Luke and Katy, and Ken's mp3 player, we air-guitared our way over the area in a jeep. Babbling on for ten pages would not sufficently describe it, so it's lucky for you that we have some pictures.
After a highly traumatic trip in a 4x4 (15 people in a Toyota Landcruiser at 5am, complete with dodgy stomachs), we are back in Argentina now, eating steak, drinking wine and doing nothing. It's great! We've managed to meet up with the same people that we've been annoying since Potosi, including a dairy farmer who is lactose intolerant and scared of cows.
It won't be long now Seren and Marc, we're looking forward to your big day!
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Dad K
non-member comment
Impressive scenery
Will Box Hill ever seem the same again?