Sucre, Bolivia

We had Mango with our breakfast this morning, one of the surprises for me has been how plentiful and good the fruit is in Bolivia. The market has stacks of bananas, pineapples, melons and tropical fruit alongside traditional vegetables. The north and east of Bolivia is lush green and tropical, so I assume this is where they are farmed. I paid 70p for 12 bananas, and 20p for the best mango I have tasted. I don’t have school today as my teacher asked for a long weekend to travel, so I agreed to do extra hours next week….. I persuade Rachael to come with me to the gem museum, it is number one on TripAdvisor so I am hopeful it is more interesting than it sounds. Museo del Tesoro is one of the oldest buildings in Sucre, on the main plaza. It markets itself as a place to learn about the origin, technique and art of Bolivia’s metals and stones. We do a one hour tour with Herbert, a very passionate guide. Herbert tells us about the art of working with gold and silver and more on what life is like in Bolivian mines. We see geodes of crystals that are found encased in lava including a metre long one that makes our eyes light up with all its sparkles. There was one found in Uruguay last year that was bigger at 2m x 5m, the biggest in the world is in Spain and it is big enough to walk through! Herbert shows us some stones unique to Bolivia; a blue stone called Sodalita and a cool crystal called Ametrine. Ametrine is a mix of yellow citrine and purple amethyst. It is beautiful, but all carefully kept behind glass as they represent some of the most valuable gemstones in Latin America. We finish with the evolution of Bolivian jewellery from pre-Columbian times to the present day, showing key pieces from significant historic ladies. It is indeed a great museum and the jewellery shop at the end is amazing. A shame I am on a budget, and I wouldn’t feel safe carrying decent jewellery for the rest of my trip. Rachael is keen for another visit to the Chocolate festival, and enjoys a few more samples. The chocolate is excellent but I still don’t fancy putting too much on my stomach so I abstain. For dinner we enthusiastically head to the British pub in town, the Red Lion. It disappoints, half because of my stomach but mainly because the fish & chips aren’t hot enough. Probably a mistake to think it was going to be the same as home…

Sucre, Bolivia

After an interrupted nights sleep, I am feeling okay in myself and decide I can manage my Spanish lesson. It is tough going but I survive till the end and head back to bed once it is finished. I am annoyed as today the city has bigger parades with a full on military one this evening to celebrate the 25th of May. I manage to see a few groups on my way home, they come from every department in the country to take part. The president of Bolivia also comes and watches the days activities. I am much better once I have a sleep, just really lethargic so I eat the rice from last night mid afternoon. Spend the rest of the day in bed listening to the festivities and parades outside.

Sucre, Bolivia

Today is the start of Sucre Chocolate festival. I didn’t realise that there would be so many good chocolate shops in Sucre, and being here when they showcase for 3 days is a bonus. Visiting the festival even formed part of my lesson today, with us enjoying Spanish conversation over a dulce de leche stuffed churro. As we walked back to the school there were parades in the plaza of the kindergarten schools. One group looked super cute in a military style uniform similar to the foreign legion. Rachael met me after school and we went to the market for lunch. I was keen to try a chorizo burger from the 7 sisters stand and it didn’t disappoint. We both enjoyed the single sausage in a bap with salad and mayonnaise. The afternoon had to include another visit to the chocolate festival, Rachael is an committed chocolate lover and enjoyed chocolate fondant and alfajores. There is a great view of Sucre from the top of the building. By late afternoon my stomach is feeling a little unsettled. Rachael, Shivani and I head out to a Thai restaurant tonight. I am really excited to have Thai, it’s been ages. My stomach doesn’t agree however and as the main is put down in front of me, I make haste to the bathroom. It’s no good, I have to go home. I do take the meal as take away for when I am better and leave the girls enjoying their food. A night of bathroom visits follows. No plans to eat in the market again anytime soon.

Sucre, Bolivia

School again today, we actually take the lesson outside and go to the market. This is a safe way to practice some key phrases and also some food. Andrea introduces me to Toma which is a egg shaped fruit that tastes like passion fruit. I found a great ice cream shop near the plaza, so I enjoyed a scoop of chocolate and a rice pudding flavour post lunch. We had been told a great museum for Bolivian history was Casa de Libertad. Only 25bols to get in and a English speaking tour was just starting. The first room had lots of intricately carved furniture from the Jesuits. There was a bureau with secret compartments and several chests with scenes crafted using different inlayed woods. Our guide showed us a original map of the continent under Spanish rule. Sucre was a significant city that controlled the area. It was established because the Spanish needed a base near the silver production of Potosí where the altitude would not be an issue. The city has the oldest university and the students used to have to defend their thesis in the hall of this Casa. The museum focuses on the heroes of the revolution, Simón Bolívar who’s name the finally independent country took. Sucre is named for Antonio José de Sucre a great friend of Simón Bolívar, independence general and the second President of Bolivia. One of the most interesting characters for me is a woman called Juana Azurduy Padilla who was a Bolivian guerrilla military leader. Azurduy and her husband joined the Chuquisaca Revolution, which on May 25, 1809 dismissed the president of the Real Audencia of Charcas, Ramón García de León y Pizarro. This uprising ended in 1810 when the revolutionaries were defeated by the royalist troops. They were imprisoned but on release went on to fight for the freedom of Argentina and Bolivia. Juana was pregnant when during one battle her husband rode back to help her and was shot. She continued to fight, returning to the field shortly after giving birth and commanding a army of 6000 men in one battle. An amazing woman who is now a hero in both countries but who died in relative poverty and whose remains are in this museum. Tonight the girls are keen for a Salsa lesson, lots of laughs and a good workout! Note: there is no indoor smoking ban in Bolivia so my clothes stink of smoke.

Sucre, Bolivia

Today we move to Sucre, Vanessa & Shivani are still here but the others left yesterday. I am really excited about Sucre as I have heard great things about it. Right now I am mostly just wanting some warmth and a laundry. We eat breakfast and run errands, we have decided to get a taxi to Sucre as it is £20 for the 3 hour trip. I have to go to the pharmacy, not wanting to get too graphic but I can’t breath through my nose. I learn later that it’s common and the blood is from blood vessels bursting with the altitude…..it’s disgusting! Anyway, we say goodbye to Potosí and clamber into our taxi. The road has loads of bends that our driver speeds round, and he seems to prefer overtaking on blind ones but we make it to Sucre in one piece. He charges me an extra 20 bolivianos to drop me at a different hostel which annoys me after our agreed price but for £2 I just go with it. The sky is blue and it is about 5 degrees warmer which is lovely, I am already liking Sucre. We settle in to our respective hostels (Rachael from BA is joining me Tuesday, so we wanted a nicer place) and wander the streets a little. Sucre has a Unesco protected central area and is very beautiful with its white walled buildings and churches. We chance on a great restaurant for tonight, called Florin with a international menu and I have a great bowl of pasta.

Villa Imperial de Potosí, Bolivia

This hostel is great but still very cold. The city is at 4,090m elevation, so it’s not a surprise. There is plenty of hot water however and for 20p we can enjoy a bounty for breakfast including scrambled eggs so I am happy sat by a gas heater. Potosí lies at the foot of the Cerro Rico (rich mountain) which produced 60% of all silver mined in the second half of the 16th century. It was at this time one of the worlds largest cities and bigger than London. The Spanish crown became very rich from the spoils of this mountain and forced indigenous people to work in Potosí’s silver mines through the traditional Incan mita system of contributed labor. Many of them died due to the harsh conditions of the mine life and natural gases. At such a high altitude, pneumonia was always a concern and mercury poisoning took the lives of many involved in the refining process. Once this became an issue, Spain sent thousands of African slaves to work in the mine who also met a similar fate. In today’s mine the men work as cooperatives but it is still very manual and a dangerous occupation. The final silver is due to run out in 7 years and with 60% of the men still working in the mine, I wonder about what the future holds for this once majestic city. You can do tours of the mine and Shivani has signed up for one with an ex miner this morning. I don’t doubt it will be interesting but it’s not something I want to do, so Vanessa and I are going to stroll the key highlights of the city. We wander through the central plaza, noting that alot of the houses have external wooden balconies on the upper floor which is a new style. It is always interesting to view the central market but we were less keen on seeing the meat sellers who were busy sawing a carcass. It didn’t look like a very hygienic area, so I will perhaps stick to vegetables here. There is a pretty church sat behind the market, San Lorenzo. The guide is happy to let us in for 10p and also lets us go up and view the city from the roof. We have a great view of Cerro Rico as a backdrop as well. Shivani is back for lunch, proclaiming that the tour was an eye opener but she’s not in a hurry to do it again. Our plan for the afternoon is to visit the Casa de moneda, what was once the national mint of Bolivia. I can’t remember the numbers but this was one of 8 mints that produced coins for the Spanish crown. In the 16th century this mint created millions of silver coins and they were shipped over to Spain, as the men toiled in very manual processes and poor conditions. The museum is interesting, lots of examples of early coins that were hand stamped and erratic shapes through to the later rounded coins. The Potosí mint stamp was made up of overlaying the letters PTS & I from the city name. The story we were told was that the US dollar symbol evolved from the S & I being overlaid. The museum still has the old machinery that was powered by mules walking a drive on the floor below, all made of wood. We also view later machinery powered by steam until the final electric machines which were from the US but only used for around 20years before production was closed down. Bolivia’s currency now comes from Chile and is made from nickel. We found a great restaurant for us tonight, enjoyed a mustard pork dish in a lovely warm room.

Uyuni, Bolivia

Today the whole hotel is up by 6am, full of excited tour groups ready to set off for the salt flats. This is except Yuval who is properly ill, to the point he wants to stay in bed but can’t due to the schedule. We pile him into the front of the jeep after plying him with a mix of medicines and head out in the dark ready for sunrise on the salt flats. The Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest salt flat at over 10,000 sq km. It was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. It is covered by a few metres of salt crust, of which the flatness has little variance in elevation making it perfect for perspective cheating photos. The sunrise is amazing and seeing the salt flats revealed, the hexagonal tessellations is once in a lifetime moment. We drive on to visit Isla incahuasi (fish island), one of 33 random out of nowhere islands that exist within the salt flat. The island is apparently the top of the remains of an ancient volcano, which was submerged when the area was part of a giant prehistoric lake, roughly 40,000 years ago. The cool part is that it is covered with gigantic cacti. These apparently grow at a rate of 1cm a year, so are pretty old. The still rising sun creates some magical views across the flats. We have a traditional cake for breakfast, of which I manage 3 slices. We then go back onto the salt flats for crazy pictures and videos that are heaps of fun. Yuval is still unwell, and I cannot imagine how devastated he is in missing this highlight. We stop briefly at the Salt museum and more interestingly the Dakar rally monument & flags that look great flying above the flats. I imagine rally racing across the flats would be a lot of fun. Our final stop is the Train cemetery just outside Uyuni. Trains were once a big deal in transporting minerals and in early 19th century they were set to expand this until fractions with Chile stopped the project. Most of the abandoned trains that can be found in the Graveyard date back to the early 20th century and were imported from Britain. The salt winds that blow over Uyuni, have corroded all of the metal and there is a lot of vandalisation. We clamber over and through the engines regardless, getting a few arty photos. Lunch signals the end of the tour, and the stewed steak reminds me that I won’t be having Argentinian steak again. The whole group has been discussing next moves for a couple of days and it makes sense to get out of Uyuni on arrival as there is nothing there, Potosí being a good logical stop that isn’t too far. We all get on a local bus to Potosí with Yuval propped near an open window for fresh air. Potosí is four hours away and I am grateful I went to the loo before I got on as it is a bumpy ride with no facilities. We pull into Potosí the highest city in the world and it feels more vibrant than Uyuni. There are two British guys that we have been chatting to, Gerry & Paddy and we all set off by taxi up the hill to the hostel. The group ends up in separate hostels but all meet for dinner in town. The area is very interesting and the main plaza (10th of November plaza) is lit up in different colours. I select trout for dinner as it’s the house special, not sure where it would have been fished but it is very tasty.

Uyuni, Bolivia

Last night was difficult, I wasn’t cold but I think the altitude hit me as I have had a throbbing headache for most of the night. It could be dehydration as I haven’t drunk alot of water and I can’t breathe through my nose, so I am a joy this morning. I drink the rest of my water with a couple of paracetamols that I could find once everyone is awake. On a positive, I am already dressed! A bit of fresh deodorant and I am ready for the day ahead. We have proper American pancakes for breakfast albeit with dulce de leche rather than maple syrup but they are tasty. My headache goes pretty soon after we set off which is a relief. Our morning is spent at different points in Rocks Valley. It is pretty incredible walking through these high rocks that don’t seem to belong on the landscape. The group all enjoy scrambling and climbing the rocks before we move on. We reach a viewpoint where we can see down the vast Inca Canyon. It feels very strange to see such diverse landscapes on this trip and certainly not what I imagined Bolivia to look like. We move on and have lunch at the Black Lagoon, we are able to walk for a bit around the area and I wander alone to the other side to see Llamas. It is a beautiful and tranquil spot that has a lot of bird life as well, more a wetlands environment. Our last stop is a old train station that would have been active in transporting minerals across Bolivia, we stop to sample local beer including quinoa, cactus, cocoa and honey. Honey and quinoa were the better two, and we have kept the bottles ready for our salt flat pictures tomorrow. Tonight we stay on the edge of the salt flats, at a salt hotel. Two words ‘hot showers’ a bargain for 15p and it is bliss getting warm and clean tonight. A fun evening of cards, campfire and a cheeky bottle of wine with our chicken dinner makes for a great last night.

Sur Lípez, Bolivia

Shivani and I are up early again, this time the bags are packed and we are heading to Bolivia. The driver actually picks us up early which is a first in South America and has Shivani lamenting over having to ditch her morning cup of tea. I have been up for a few hours, slightly apprehensive about Bolivia and hoping the tour will be ok. We climb into the bus and there are 3 people already in, unbelievably it is a German girl, Larissa who I met in Salta and Vanessa who I sat next to on the bus to San Pedro. The fifth is a Israeli guy, Yuval but we don’t realise this is our group as when we booked there were 2 English on the tour. Chatting to them as we wait for the immigration office in San Pedro to open we realise this is our group and we have been bumped onto another company White & Green. There is nothing we can do about this, I think there were good reviews on them but time will tell. Stamping out of Chile is easy and we hop back in the bus to head for Bolivia. We stop stationary on the road outside San Pedro for 30mins, seems to be a blockade but the police turn up and just open the gate so it must have been a checkpoint of sorts. Once open the traffic is released at pace heading onwards for the border that is only about 20minutes away. The Bolivian border is high up, windy and dusty in the middle of mountains. For us the check in was straightforward, Yuval has a more complex process of 2 forms, passport photos and $100 US dollars. The Bolivian president made it harder as a protest against Israeli invasion of Palestine, makes me realise again what a privilege travelling on a British passport is. We transfer to our jeep and meet our driver Paulo, who seems nice and willing to speak in slow Spanish. Paulo explains that our tour companies are the same and we will follow the same route which is comforting. We get a good breakfast including good coffee served at the border. A bit of a laugh when Larissa can’t find a banana because a driver took one, and she questions each of us as to how many we have had. This earns her a nickname of ‘Banana girl’ and is the first sign we will all get on well. We shove our big rucksacks onto the top of the jeep where they are wrapped in tarpaulin and strapped down. Climbing into the jeep ( I get the front!) we set off into Bolivia, following tracks rather than road… The scenery is majestic and it’s not long before we have arrived at the White Lagoon, coloured by minerals it is vast. We stroll along the edge taking photos before climbing back into the jeep to head over the hill to the Green Lagoon (different minerals create a greener blue). We continue along the gravel tracks, enjoying a flat landscape framed by volcanos. In one section we stop to view the Dali rock desert. It looks like huge rocks dropped from the sky or perhaps out of a volcano and is named after Dali as it resembles his desert paintings. Onward to Salt Lagoon Chalviry which has lots of salt deposits, there are thermal pools you can sit in, but to be honest I cannot face the cold when you come out so I just take a walk around the shore. Lunch is surprisingly good with chicken stir fry and excellent mash potato eaten in a hut above the lagoon. The Morning sun geyser basin is our next stop, nice location but not as impressive as the Geyser Tatio area I saw in Chile. A couple in the group are starting to feel the effects of altitude, headaches and nausea but I am feeling okay. Our final stop of the day is the Lagunas Colorada or Red lagoon, and it lives up to its name almost looking like blood in patches from sediment and algae. This is the best spot of the day for me as it is filled with flamingos. There are 3 different types here, including James’s flamingos which are rare. I have no idea which are which but love watching them strut and fly across the shallow Lagoon. We then have 2 hours drive to our accommodation for the night in Villa Mar. It is fairly basic, all of us in one room but we get a couple of blankets and a sleeping bag to keep out the cold. It is freezing, but we have hot tea and break out the cards for a couple of hours entertainment. Dinner is a basic tomato and onion sauce with spaghetti, with water. There is another group with us of Brazilians who have brought vodka, but I decline their kind offer as I am not sure about mixing it with altitude tomorrow. If I am honest it is so cold I just want to go to bed, I make it to 8.30pm before climbing into the sleeping bag fully clothed and wrapping all the blankets around me.

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Early start as I crept out of the hostel this morning in the dark and made my way to the bus station. The bus is mainly tourists that I can tell and I recognise a couple to say ‘hola’ to. I am sat next to a nice Italian girl, Vanessa and the seats are pretty comfortable so I am hopeful for a good trip. I managed to make myself some banana sandwiches for breakfast this morning, despite the ticket promising food, I am never sure and this time I get a alfajore for breakfast…one! So happily tuck into my food stash. I sleep for the first 2 or 3 hours as we head north up to Purmamarca before turning west. I see the hill with seven colours for the third time and we pass across the Salinas Grandes which is as dazzling as the first time. This trip is 10 hours and it goes quite quickly with some amazing scenery to look at. The border crossing is okay, it still takes an hour and is a little confusing but it is nice to be off the bus in the cooler air. We eventually pull into San Pedro de Atacama around 5pm, initial impressions are of a small Wild West town but it is very tranquil and quiet. The hostel is very welcoming and I chat to a couple of guests over dinner (including a Dutch guy who is riding a motorbike from Columbia to Ushuaia!). I have a banging headache that I am putting down to the higher altitude, so I am tucked up in bed by 9pm.