Day 187: Sucre

Today, I got up early and joined a hiking tour to a volcano crater just outside or Sucre. The ride up there was terrible. Only 5% of Bolivian roads are paved; I got to experience that 95% today! Not only were the roads dusty, the inside of the van was dusty, making it hard to see the driver in the front. I couldn't breathe without my jacket over my mouth. 

We started our adventure at a really old church where we had "breakfast," which consisted of a piece of bread and coffee; not the best thing before a hike. 

As we began our hike I learned that this path is an Incan Trail, what a nice surprise! The Incan Trails allowed the indigenous people to transport goods from people to people or to markets. Once the Spanish came, they destroyed most of the trails in order to separate the indigenous people. This trail is one of the few that remain; all that I know of is this one, one in La Paz, Bolivia, and one in Cusco, Peru. This trail was created around 1470, of course there has been maintenance to keep the trail alive, but it is cool to be walking on something so old.

Luckily the walk was mostly down hill, we started the hike at around 12,000ft, so I could definitely feel the altitude. The trail was a little hard to traverse, since it was made up of rocks, I had to always be looking at my feet to make sure I didn't break an ankle. I took the walk down slow, I just relaxed, enjoyed the view and took in the silence. All but two people from the group were in front of me. Two older people were behind me, which made it so I could take my time. Whenever we would stop and wait on the older couple, some of the girls would talk about the altitude and how hard it was to breathe... If its hard to breathe then don't be quickly walking at the front of the line... I thought these things were common sense?! Regardless, I enjoyed the peace and quiet I had on my own. I feel I was able to absorb much more of the history and my surrounds in this silence.

Once we got down to the bottom, we all piled back into the van and headed to some farms to see how the locals live in Marawa. We got to see an old Bolivian lady making clothing. It was amazing to see this. A piece of fabric that is about 1ft by 1ft would take here about three months to do. Careful precision and too much patients, all while squatting!

(She is already a month into this one)

After we visited with this lady, we made our way to a "waterfall" to have lunch. It was much of a waterfall, more like a fire hose of water, but it was a tranquil place to feast!

After lunch, we walked down to see the Devil's Throat, which is a cave formation that looks like a scary mouth; many adult locals are scared of this and wont come down here. I tried, but I couldn't see this scary mouth that they pictured, it just looked like a cool cave!

We then made our way back to the van for a way too long of a bumpy dusty drive back! Once we got back to our hostel, we enjoyed a complementary mojito. Quite the elixir to a long dry day.

I spent the last little time of sun light exploring the town. I picked up some street for a little later before I returned for dinner. Once I got back, I was dead tired and called it an early night.

Day 186: Sucre

Today, I went out to explore the city. First, I dropped my laundry off; much needed cleaning that hasn't happened since Santiago.

Sucre is a beautiful town and since the altitude isn't bad, it's easy to traverse. My first stop was the park, which is close by to our hostel. I grabbed an ice cream cone and began to explore.

The whole city center is pretty much white and you really don't get the feeling that you are in Bolivia's capital. There are a couple people on the side of the street selling Bolivian things like blankets, hats, etc. they are all really beautiful things and used by the locals as well as the tourists, so you really don't feel like a gringo walking around wearing all this stuff. 

I just walked around for about an hour and then headed back to the park to relax and enjoy the atmosphere. It is amazing how how cold it is really depends on what side of the sidewalk you walk on. If your in the shade, your cold and wearing a jacket, if your in the sun, your on the verge of sweating and wearing a short sleeve shirt. I made sure to grab a spot in the sun while I relaxed in the park!

Later that night, the Dutch girl and I enjoyed dinner with some other backpackers. One of the different things about this hostel is that many backpackers are temporarily living here. Since Sucre is cheap and the weather is good, many stay here to unwind and relax or even work here; others stay to learn Spanish. I will admit that I am enjoying the weather!

After dinner, the hostel put on a traditional Bolivian dance. The best part about it is that some of the backpackers staying here for an extended period of time were in the dance, so they had been practicing all day long.

It was a fun way to end the night!

Day 185: Sucre

I was a terrible tourist for my first day in Sucre. I got some sleep, enjoyed the complementary breakfast, wrote a bunch of these late blog posts, and connected with friends. 

Later that afternoon, I ran into a Dutch girl that I had met on the Atacama tour. We hung out for a bit and then learned that our hostel was having all you could eat pasta for $5, it was really good. I enjoyed the heaps of pasta with some fellow backpackers. After dinner, we all stepped out to walk around in the town. Close by our hostel there is the big park, it is really nice for Bolivia. We then ducked into a cafe and shared stories about where we are from. One thing that I found interesting: when it comes to a job, something called a Life Contract is highly sought after in Europe. What is a Life Contract? Just a normal job in the US, one that doesn't have a stated end date. Most jobs in Europe are set up in time limits, 6 months, 1, or 2 years. Jobs security for them is terrible. In Holland you have to have a Life Contract in order to buy a house. Wow that's crazy. To my understanding, most jobs in the US, once you start, you have the potential to retire there as long as you do good and the company does good too.

After we hung out for a bit, we all headed back to the hostel and called it a night.

Day 184: Sucre

This morning, I got up early and headed out for a tour of the silver mines. At first I was thinking it would be a rather simple tour, but they had us take off our shoes and jackets and put on full miner gear, pants, jacket, hard hat, boots, backpack, and lamp. Once we got all geared up, we headed to the miner's market to buy some "presents" for the miners. I wasn't to excited when I was told I had to buy something for miners, but whatever, it was really cheap and these guys probably work for next to nothing. Our guide was telling us how the miners will chew on a massive ball of coca leaves to help with the altitude and give them energy. They also drink this stuff that is 97% alcohol, and will also pour some of it onto to ground in the mine as an offering to keep them safe.

(Dynamite)

(A lot of coca)

After we explored the little shops we were free to explore the area. There was absolutely nothing to see aside from the three shops, so I just took pictures of these really old ladies. Old Bolivian women are so interesting. They all wear these different sized hats; have very long pig-tail braids that go down past their waist and have these things attached to the end of their breads (they look kinda like the knots at the end of a deadly whip; they all wear sandals and these thick skirts; most of them wear an apron; are really bundled up; and they are all really tan, have leather skin, and are over weight.

While I was standing there, I started talking to one of guides. He was surprised at how much it cost me to get into Bolivia, I said, "well the Bolivian government doesn't like the United States," to the he said, "the Bolivian government is sh** my friend, look at this town... What does the government do for its people?"

We then made our way to the mine and met our mine guide, his name is Loco, which means crazy in Spanish. As he was describing what we would be doing in the mine, he looked at me and said, "your f***ed, your way too tall to go in a mine," great news! We shall see. So the mine in the Cerro Rico mountain is home to some high producing mines and silver foundries. These used to all be owned by the government and mainly worked by local and African slaves. The silver boom lasted about 100 years in the 17th century and really put Potosi on the map. It was said that you could build a bridge from Potosi to Madrid, Spain with all the silver that was mined, yet you could build one there and back with all the bones of the death miners. The miners would have to stay in the mine for weeks at a time to meet quotas and in 1626 4,000 people died. And our Unions are struggling to hash out deals... Now the government doesn't run the mines so anyone can go in and out. He said now if you want to go in drunk and play with dynamite, go right ahead. The miners mine in groups, whenever they see another miner or group of miners mining in their area, they might throw rocks at them, get in a fight, or even throw little things of dynamite near them (seriously).

(All this white and yellow stuff is arsenic)

In the beginning it wasn't too bad, but it eventually became pretty bad, I was constantly in the squatting position, getting few breaks to stand upright. I'm not really sure why, but Bolivians hate Chileans. Our guide kept going on and on about how much he disliked them. When we stopped to check out this really concentrated area of arsenic he started telling us about it. "If you want to give some to the Chileans, I'll help you bag it up."

We eventually got to the area where there was a big mining operation going on.

We climbed up this rickety ladder and then up this dirty pathway that lead to an even smaller pathway then to an even smaller one. Eventually, I couldn't fit, I was too tall to get around the bend; only one of the girls in our group could fit through the hole. So we all waited while she went up to the mining spot. We waited for quite a while, I was constantly thinking that some explosion would go off and everything would cave in. We eventually decided to cut off all our head lamps. Pitch black dark. After a while I was trying to wave my hand right in front of my eyes to see if I could see maybe the movement, nothing. We just sat there in the darkness, pretty freaky. Then we started hearing some rumbling, we turned of our lights, and these rocks came tumbling through the opening above us. Luckily, we were got out of the way in time. Got to stay on you toes in here.

Eventually, they made it back. One of the girls was already starting to freak to because it was hard for her to breathe, the other girl was to considerable to get through any holes, and the guy wanted to leave. So it was just going to be me and that other girl, but our guide said the next one was even smaller and I definitely wouldn't fit through the whole. So we all headed back. I was pretty upset, I didn't even get to see a mining operation, why didn't they tell me about this before hand, or have a sign that says "you must be this short to enter."

On our way back, Loco said we were going to set off some dynamite. We all huddled around at the end of a tunnel as loco prepared the dynamite.

Once he lot the fuses, he just stood their and started drinking the alcohol. We were all getting pretty nervous about it exploding in our faces. He eventually walked away and shortly returned. He had us cut off our headlamps and wait. Two of the girls started to freakout, complaining, and yelling "I'm scared!" Granted I was a little scared as well, but the best was to scare everyone is to verbally express your fear. Eventually, boom! and a shockwave rippled down they tunnel. A couple seconds later, BOOM! an even larger explosion rippled through the tunnel. It was pretty cool to feel the two varying powers of the dynamite! I can check blowing dynamite up in a mine off my bucket list.

We then proceeded to make our way out, passing by a rikity elevator that went 15 "floors" down.

(This flower was not put here. I have no clue how it grew in the pitch black?!)

We then made it out of the tunnel. Man was it great to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

We ended up having to wait for some other people for quite a long time until we finally got to return to the hostel. Once we got back, I got out of the miner clothes washed off and got ready to catch a bus to Sucre. Sucre is the actual capital of Bolivia and is called the White City because of all the white buildings.

The bus ended up taking twice as long as it was supposed to. I don't know what's up with these bus schedules. The hostel that I'm in is really cool; it run by a German man, so it caters to tourists much better than the Bolivian run hostels. It is a large restored mansion, so there's a big center courtyard, bar and restaurant, classroom to teach Spanish, and the dorms have lofts. Not to mention the weather is better here, it's still cold, but better. We are also no longer above 10,00ft, so I can breathe normally.

Since I got in rather late, I just unpacked, talked with a group of Irish people in my dorm until I fell asleep.