Sucre and Potosi

After spending what we felt like was a bit too long in La Paz, we excited to get to Cochabamba. We got in on Sunday night and unfortunately the next day was a holiday so everything was closed. It was kind of eerie and I was constantly looking over my shoulder to fend off a zombie attack. Luckily we found a touristy part of town where a bunch of resturaunts were open so we were able to make the most of it and watch two world cup games with a bunch of other (mostly South American) tourists. In the evening we took a gondola to a giant concrete Jesus but I forgot the camera so you'll have to take my word.

Our original plan was to use Cochabamba as a jumping off point to a national park called Torotoro where there are weird rock formations, caves and dinosaur footprints. On Tuesday when everything opened up again and my zombie fears were overrun by hundreds of thousands of people on the streets we were able to get some information from the tourist office. To our dismay busses only left for the park 3 days a week and at either 5:30 am or 6:30 pm and either way we would have had to spend another day killing time in Cochabamba so we decided to cut our losses and move on, there are plenty of dinosaur tracks in the prehistoric sea.

Emily plays it cool - Sucre

We took an overnight bus that same night to Sucre. As far as 10 hour bus rides go it wasn't so bad. We got into the Wasi Masi Hostel in Sucre at 6:30 am very tired but happy to find ourselves in what proved to be one of our favorite hostels we have stayed in. After a napping until 10 or so we went out and checked out the "white city" so named for all of the white colonial buildings. Sucre had a lot to offer us including an awesome fruit market (50 cents for an incredible breakfast fruit salad with yogurt), delicious local chocolate, specialty sausages famous to the area and nice streets to pick our way around. As relaxing and beautiful as the city is, we had other plans around Sucre so on that same day we made arrangements for a 3 day trek in the surrounding highlands.

Breakfast!

Plaza in Sucre

Our tour company was called Condor Trekkers which is a volunteer run and non-profit organization which benefits local communities. The morning that we were to start the trek we were waiting in the office when one of the volunteers came in to tell us that the Bolivian guide had called in sick. They had no other guides available and that, if we were willing, he could guide us himelf. He had done the trek 3 or 4 times before and was confident in his ability but he wanted to make sure we knew it would possibly be a bit more of an adventure. Emily and I agreed that we could still go as did the third guy in our group so we stuffed our backpacks full of food and gear and we set off.

The first day was long and beautiful. The landscape was a bit like Death Valley with colored sand and desert plants perfectly spaced into infinity, however we are still in the Andes so there were a lot more mountains. We walked for about 7 hours the first day and got to camp right about sunset time. Shortly afterward a full moon rose and provided all the light we needed to set up camp and eat dinner without the help of our flashlights.

Full Moon Rising

The second day was to be the hardest. In total we walked 10 hours with our full packs on and the two last hours were at night luckily by the light of the moon once again which made the final climb and picking our way around a trail with a steep drop manageable. By the time we got to camp Emily and I were exhausted but the day of walking provided a lot of great sights including the Maragua crater, the remote village of Maragua right in the middle of the crater, Dinosaur tracks! (I told you there would be more) and a killer cave called the Devil's Mouth that strangely enough looked just like a devil's mouth...or what you might imagine it to look like.

Devil's Mouth, a nice place to relax

Strange formations of the Maragua Crater

Day three of the trek was a short 3 hour walk down the mountain and through a huge dry river bed laden with rocks and crystals of all colors. We ended up at a "camion" stop which is a big flatbed with a sign on the side which appropriately describes it as "mixed transport" because you could throw a donkey in there with a few sacks of potatoes, a bunch of hay and about 30 people, no problem! Luckily for us it was only people and hay...no donkeys. Unluckily it was a 4 hour drive up and down mountain dirt roads with no seats on a hot day. It made the bus rides not seem so bad. All in all it was a difficult but amazing trek, special thanks to our volunteer tour guide Paul who stepped up to the challenge.

Inca Path on Day 1

Mixed Transport

We spent one more day relaxing in Sucre and we also visited the artesinal market in Tarabuco which was definitely worth the hour micro ride. We went big on gift shopping because our last two months will be in Chile and Argentina which will be more expensive. The next day we headed off to Potosi, the city famous for being the largest single provider of silver to Spain and the rest of the developing world during colonial time when it was larger in population than any European city. Also famous for being, at 4,060 meters, the highest city in the world. The big draw here besides all of the history is that the same mountain, Cerro Rico, that provided enough silver to bankroll the Spanish and help the rest of the Western world is still producing, still being mined by (now by cooperatives instead of slaves), and for tourists who don't feel they tempt fate enough tours go into the same tunnels that were begun in colonial times over 500 years ago. So we decked ourselves out in hard hats and headlamps and headed into the mine (edit: we both headed into the mine, but I (Emily) headed right back out after I lost sight of the entrance. Yikes!). The entrance is covered in what looks like splattered black oil but it is actually sacrificial Llama blood that the workers believe will help to keep them safe. For the first 100 yards or so you can still see stone lined tunnel work that was built by the Spanish (actualy indigenous slaves) over 500 years ago. As the tunnel goes on, the ceiling gets lower and at one point we have to get quickly into an alcove to let an ore car pass by. The brakes evidently would not be effective enough to prevent a collision with a miner or a tourist.

Miner Mcgurt

Soon we left the main "gallery" through which the ore car travels and we started crawling through the tiny tunnels that the miners use. It is hard work especially at about 4500 meters and with the dust and the dificulty breathing, claustrophobia started picking at the back of my brain. This fear wasn't helped by seeing makeshift eucalyptus trunks propped up against huge masses of rock that in a moment could either crush you or perhaps worse yet, block the passage out of the mine. After walking and crawling into the mine for about 45 minutes we met several miners. Men who had worked down there for 26 years, telling us about their day- to- day work as they stuffed Coca leaves which we had brought as gifts into their mouths. Most of them work 9 or 10 hour days in the mine doing the same thing all day...shoveling, or hammering, or pushing ore cars. After 30 years they qualify for a small government pension. Remarkably they don't seem miserable as I imagine I would feel if I had to work in these conditions. This is work that they choose to do and with their fellow miners it seems like they may share a certain amount of comaraderie which keeps up their spirits and keeps them coming back day after day for the better part of their lives. It might be the money too, the men who work for cooperatives make more than most other opportunities available in the area.

The black stuff above the entrance is Llama Blood

By the time we got out of the mine after an hour and a half I was very happy to see daylight and breath fresh air. We celebrated by lighting off a stick of dynamite wrapped in amonium sulfate. Boom!

Dinosaur Phone