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Hi all hope you all well, some of you I am sure are excited with IOW festival and Download looming!
Anway what have i been up to this week?
Well we left Le Paz after our two night stay, well i say all but Le Paz was the end of the trip for all but seven of us heading to Rio over the next 30 days.
Phil the aussie left to do some volunteer work in Bolivia, Erren the same but in Guatemala, Matt and Natasha went home to England, Simon Daisy Jo Sean and Matt went on the Uyuni salt flats excursion seperate from Gap before heading home (except Simon who has more travels).
Strange with so many faces gone but getting used to it! We have three new Gappers Kerry from Belfast and two retiree ladies from Newcastle.
So now we are ten in our 28 seater truck!
We also had a new tour leader, Martin from Switzerland.
So we left early doors with a long drive down the west side of Bolivia down towards the southern corner.
About half way we found the tarmac
roads dissappeared and were now on gravel roads which were very bumby, so bumby we had to switch to USB stick on the dvd rather than dvd lol. We even had to cross traintracks and rivers without bridges, truly overland!
We arrived at the town of Uyuni where we stayed one night going out for a nice pizza and stocked up on water and rum and coke!
Uyuni is where most of these type of excursions begin from, originally grown i suppose due to the salt mining and is out in the middle of nowhere!.
The salt flats are the largest by area in the world covering 74440 square miles at an altitude of 3800m above sea level (asl). We were informed that sattelites use the salt flats for calibration due to the reflective surface, size and flatness of the area.
The salt flats had been part of a sea captured by the andes but then evaporated, more than 8000 years ago.
We were met by three 4 x 4 landcruisers the next day around 1030 and set off. The first visit was to a locomotive cemetry, the trains had
been used to transport the salt years ago but at some point the steam locos had been left and never removed, now a playground to tourists!
We then visited a salt museum with salt scupltures and then off into the salt flats. Our guide Martin explained how they mined the salt, forming mounds so the water could drain before taking the salt away to refineries dependant on its useage.
Then out into the salt flats, amazing views as the flat white ground went on forever with mountains out in the distance.
We stopped at fish island to climb some steps to admire the views and have lunch. The drivers cooked us lunch, alpaco chop with potatoes corn and tomatoes, very civilised sat at solid salt tables, table cloths and cutlery!
Obviously we were not on our own out there with other tour groups bumping into us at different stops, but for most of the time it seemed as though it was just us.
After lunch we head further intom the salt flats and spent an hour or so taking pictures as you can use the landscape to take "strange" pictures!
Finally we head out of the salt flats towrds our hostel for the night, situated at the edge of the flats and made out of salt! Electricity was only available from seven to ten thirty with a room for the girls and one for the boys, with one communal bathroom for the entire hostel.
There was one other GAP group of 14 staying at the same place. There was not a lot to do so we played card drinking games, by candle light at one point, and all got quite sloshed!
It was very cold at night!
Next day we set off travelling more south down the border of Chile and heading towards the Argentinian border stopping to view a live volcano and many different lagoons, stopping for lunch on the way. Due to mineral content or algaes the lagoons were of different colours, green red etc
Eventually we reached our next hostel, which was at 4600m asl and was even colder at night than the last place! Again shared rooms and limited electricity and have to say it again it was freezing even indoors, glad i invested in a
new jacket and some thermal underwear!
We set off really early next day around 0500 to see some active geysers (at 4850m asl), difficult at night, and then to some hot springs. As we arrived at the hot springs the sun was just rising over the mountains.
Even though it was cold we stripped to our swimmies and took the plunge, it was lovely especially with the scenery around us and the fact not had a shower for 2 days. Mind you it was freezing jumping out and getting dried and changed behind a 4 x 4 door!
We then had a long drive back to Uyuni with a lunch stop on the way. Even though the excursion had meant lots of time in the car it had still benn great, to see things like this you have to travel!
Though it did not seem as though we were in the 4 x 4 s all the time, mainly due to the frequent stops and things to see and oh yes sometimes the car seeming to slide slightly!
We stayed another night at the same Uyuni hotel as before having
a lovely hot shower and out for pizza and wine again. Next day we set off in the truck towards the city of Potosi the highest city of its size in the world at 4070m asl, cant wait to move down lower for more oxygen and heat!
We arrived at Potosi around lunch time checked into the hotel then were picked up by a bus for the silver mine tour around 1400.
Potosi is famous for its silver mine, the mines have been worked for over 500 years with estimated eight million deaths! The silver produced supported the Spanish empire for 300 years and various slaves were used to work in the mines, sometimes for 6 months at a time.
At the time Potosi had greater population and wealth than the great cities of the time London and Paris!
The mines are still worked today by co-operatives including children as young as 12. The estimated life of a miner is 45 years due to siliconosis a lung disease from the chemicals and dust present. The mine is manual intensive no big mining equipment, with trucks being pushed, dynamite and shovels.
On the way to the mine we stopped at the "miners market", as part of our tour was to purchase a bag full of goodies for the miners a sgifts as we visited, which included stick of dynamite, coca leaves, alcohol 97 percent proof and biscuits.
We then stopped to get our protective clothes, helmet and head lamps. We had asked for an adventurous visit as in tight tunnels and climbs but when the tour guide stopped and stuck her head in there were no miners working so we headed up to another entrance.
She explained that the weekend just gone the miners had had their yearly event where they kill a llama and spray its blood at the mine entrance, then barbeque the llama and get very drunk on strong neat alcohol, hence not at work!
Eventually we entered the narrow mine entrance (noting llama blood and head!) and walked along avoiding deep air holes and crossing planks along the way.
The tour guide showed us a devil efigy that the miners worship daily to protect them and provide good silver production, giving him cigarettes, coca leaves and alcohol. By the
way they chomp coca leaves all the time as it keeps you awake, prevents hunger, stops you wanting to go to the loo etc
We stopped at a place where several miners were bringing up minerals removing from lifting bucket and wheelbarrowing to a truck then out of the mine. A few of us climbed up and gave them a hand and were rewarded with a small pice of silver/lead/zinc ore.
After this we continued further into the mine the more adventurous bit! climbing higher into the mine, quite weird to be underground in a mine but still over 4000 m asl!
We left thru a small tunnel and then the tour guide took some of the dynamite left moulded into a ball inserted a detonator and then added some fertilizer, lit and gave to Charlie and Emily to take to a distance and run back, after 3 minutes fuse they exploded!
We then went back into the mine via another entrance and our guide detonated some dynamite inside so we could see what it was like! a bassy thump and felt the earth move!
Eventually after climbing down some
more tunnels we left the mine and returned back to the hotel, showered then met for dinner. Bolivia is pretty cheap had a fillet mignon steak, half bottle of wine, wobbly coffee (baileys and amerretto) plus tip for a tenner. We then ended up in a karaoke bar to early hours, i sung three songs lol
Next mroning we had to ourselves, a few of us visited the Mint museum, where coins had been made from the silver then shipped to Spain. It had been working since the 1500s and only closed last 50 years or so, was very interesting with lots of original equipment to see.
We left Potosi at lunch time with a short three hour journey to our next stop (for 3 nights) Sucre at a lower altitude of 2800m asl, again looking forward to getting even lower!
larf
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Esme
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Hey hun, great pics and blog again. Off to the IOW tomorrow, not gonna be the same, will be the first one without you :( trying to decide whether we'll need the wellies or not, hopefully the sun will shine on us. Take care hun xxxx