The Altiplano

Hello friends,

We are having a wonderful time in Bolivia. Our frightening bus ride beginning has not been repeated, and we have experienced some of the most beautiful places!

After our last post in Tarija we headed to the bus terminal to try and buy bus tickets to Tupiza, which is only a few hundred kilometers away. We were advised not to go directly because the road is extremely dangerous during the rainy season (and we ended up not going at all because it would be a full 24 hours bus if we did the detour). Instead we headed North to a city called Potosi. It is ¨the highest city in the world¨ and comes in at a whopping 4090 meters above sea level. It is on the altiplano, which means high plain in Spanish. It is a region of the Andes that is very wide and very flat and very elevated. As we rode the eight hour bus to get to Potosi we found our ears popping and our heads start throbbing. After arriving in Potosi we started drinking coca tea and I started chewing the coca leaves to help deal with the elevation. By our second day there we were doing much much better with the elevation. We stayed at a wonderful hostel, with loads of blankets (which are vital on the extremely cold nights) and with hot water during the mornings (which is really wonderful to help deal with the chilly temperatures).

On our first full day there we did something else to combat the cold, visiting a natural thermal pool in the mountains outside of Potosi. We took a local micro (a minivan that works as a bus) for about twenty minutes until the local people on the bus told us to get off. We then followed a gravel road for about ten minutes on foot, when we reached the Ojo de Inca, a perfectly round pool that is about 100 meters in diameter and is full of steaming green water. The Inca people used to travel here to get refreshed and for healing purposes. We spent a few hours swimming in the hot water and enjoying the incredible surroundings. It was a truly amazing experience, and we only were sharing it with about twenty others!

Potosi is a town that was built up by the Spanish as they exploited a neighboring mountain, called Cerro Rico (the one in the photograph below), for silver. They had many Aboriginal slaves, as well as African slaves, that worked in the mine. Many millions have died since the mines were opened in 1546 due to the terrible conditions, lack of safety measures, and exposure to asbesthos and other toxic minerals and gases. The mountain is now essentially emptied of silver, and miners work independantly in the mine searching for other minerals. What ever they find they sell for themselves. Now the mines are also a huge tourist attraction and there are hoards of companies offering tours. It was a difficult choice to go on a tour, but I decided to go. Nathan decided to spend the five hours wandering the city, touring a convent, and going to a local barber as an alternative due to his claustraphobic tendancies. I ended up taking the tour with an ex miner named Senon who took a group of us from the same hostel. He was very hush hush about it as he was technially not allowed to take us because the hostel had its own tour company that did the tours (but this way he could give us a discount and pocket the cash). The tour made me slightly uncomfortable as we just stooped throughout this maze of small tunnels full of water and dust, bringing gifts of potent alcohol (96%), coca leaves, soda, and cigarettes to the miners working the grueling conditions. I learned a lot from the experience, but would definitely not recount it as fun or entertaining. The photograph below was taken by Nathan from the roof of the convent he toured while I was deep in the mountain. The history of this beautiful city is extremely interesting and in ways very terrible. One interesting thing that Nathan learned while walking around is that all of the Spanish churches face the moutain as it is the source of their wealth, while all of the Native churches face away from the mountain as it is the source of their death.

After departing from Potosi we went to a town called Uyuni. It is located in the desert of the Altiplano and is completely overrun with tourists. This is because it is the point of departure for tours of the Salar (salt flats) and the surrounding area. We ended up doing a three day tour with four other lovely people in a Toyota Land Cruiser from the 1980´s. It surprisingly held up great (go Toyota)! The first day of the tour took us to the Salar, which is covered in two to five centimeters of water due to the rainy season. This means that instead of just seeing kilometers and kilometers of blindingly white salt (which would also be quite a site), you see the sky reflected in the thin and expansive lake. It was an absolutely phenominal site, especially from the roof of the vehicle where our driver let us ride.

The next day we drove through the desert, which is cold with almost no vegetation because of the altitude. The beauty of it was well complimented with dozens of volcanoes dotting the skyline. The below photo is of some rock formations (of which there are many) that formed after the volcanoes errupted and the lava was carved by the wind whipping across the desert.

We also stopped at many lakes of many different colours. The one below is called Laguna Verde.

What added to the spectacular nature was the thousands of flamingos that called the lakes home. In one of the lakes, called Laguna Colorada (at 4300 meters), there are as many as twenty five thousand flamingos! It was the most beautiful place I have ever seen, with red water, pink flamingos, and green moss, and a backdrop of volcanoes. The photographs really do not even come remotely near to conveying the beauty. It was amazing. The one thing that could have been better about the tour is if it was two weeks instead of three days, and if I was on a bicycle instead of an SUV... then lapping it all up would have been more possible.

We got home from the jeep tour last night at about six, quickly gobbled a pizza in Uyuni, then jumped onto a night bus to La Paz. We plan on being here for three days more before heading to Lago Titicaca. We spent today napping and exploring an incredible market. To give you a taste of Bolivia I will run down what we had for lunch: peanut soup with vegetables and noodles (classic Bolivian almuerzo, set lunch, that you can buy from street stalls), freshly made mango juice made with milk (better than any milkshake I have ever had), follwed by two pastries (one coconut and one chocolate). This cost us a total of fourteen Bolivianos, which is two Canadian dollars. We really love eating in the local markets and not only for the price. The food is outrageously delicious and you get to sit along benches in tight spaces and chat with whoever happens to sit next to you. It is a wonderful way to eat and meet and enjoy.

Thanks for reading and thanks for caring!

Big love,
Chloe (and Nathan)