Potosi - Teo, god of the dark

Teo, the god of the dark and mining
Originally uploaded by Lizzie Roe.

The Inca`s always used to believe in good and dark spirits, then came the Conquisitadors, who insisted that they only worship the god of the light as Jesus. So they carried on building shrines to the dark, fertility, earth spirits in the mines out of the light.

Even today, twice a week, they perform a ceremony sprinkling alcohol and coca leaves, leaving a cigarette burning in Teo`s mouth.

Peru

We`re now in Peru. There`s a bit of a backlog so here goes:

Thoughts about Bolivia:

1. Music is everywhere. The moment we entered the country, in a 4x4 towards the Salar, the driver grinned, put in a really bad tape of 80`s pop music remixed bolivian style (worse keyboards, panpipes), and said "Bolivian national anthem". Oh, and that Argentinian tune (if you haven`t heard it, count yourself lucky).
2. Road rules are non-existant. The crosses by the side of the road are known as Bolivian caution signs.
3. So many first hand horror stories. The Mercado Negro (yes, it means Black Market in Spanish as well) is rumoured to have a stall selling all the stolen backpacks - didn`t actually see it ourselves. Pretty much everyone here has either been robbed, pick pocketed, fallen ill, been stoned (in the thrown-at sense) at blockades, sold non-existant tickets, you name it.
4. The rest of the Bolivians (the non-Bovillains?) are really friendly, and the country is very cheap. Of course, exceptional French restaurants serving fillet mignon and souffle for 2.70gbp are much better if you don`t come down with diarrhea for the next 4 days.
5. Bolivia is messed up, seriously. Loads of ethnic groups, all pulling in different directions. Entire sections of society - e.g. 5m Quecha (ex-Inca, trying not to be ex-tincta) speakers that want their traditional subsistance farming lifestyle except there`s nowhere near enough land. Oh, and a few luxuries on top like cars.
6. The government -little bit of politics here- is in trouble. The old president cracked down on rioters, killing 67 of them, and was forced to flee the country to America. The vice-president (now president) is giving in to every single demand. He tried to resign, claiming the country is un-governable, and failed - congress put him straight back in on the principle that anyone else would probably be worse.
7. The chess sets are Incas (think llamas, sol-bishops etc) vs Spanish.
8. Some parts are really nice, the Salar, Coroico, Copacabana (on lake Titicaca, not Brazil). It was an experience.
   

As for Peru, we went pretty much straight to Cusco, stopping at Puno to see the floating souvenir stalls. Ok, they were the Uros people, who fled the Incas by building floating islands of reeds. Walking on them is weird, its really spongy - about a foot of peat with lots of reeds, over Lake Titicaca.

Cusco is really touristy. It might just be the culture shock of going from Bolivia, with really cheap, backpacker only culture, to a reasonably civilised country (they give you a tag for your luggage on the bus! Wow, that`s almost Argentina - Bolivia, its a free for all, get out early and glare.) But personally I blame the gringos over here for a 2 week holiday, with 200gbp to spend on Macchu Picchu, the other ruins etc - the prices have tripled in the last 3 years (good old 3 year old guidebook) and still they have too many tourists.

You can`t actually do the Inca trail now. Its limited to 500 people a day, booked out till 14th August, everyone paying 3-400$ (it used to be 1-200$). Lots of other trails have sprung up, ending up at Macchu Picchu). Oh, and the only way to get to Macchu Picchu is via Peru rail, who are fleecing tourists for all they`re worth, a 10km ride costing 40$ to 200$. The locals get to pay a tenth of that of course. Oh well, you come all the way out here, you`re going to see it.

Anyway, we`ve backpacked our way up the Sacred Valley, I`m now in Ollantaytambo, waiting for the train to Machcu Picchu. This valley is really nice, 2000m high, green (with river), lots of short hikes to Inca ruins. The ruins have largely been disappointing, the books go on about the immaculate stone walls - think English medieval castle walls, built 500 years ago, and sort of still standing.

Bolivia

Just a quick post to say we`re not dead, just marooned without internet cafe on Lake Titicaca. Well, an extremely expensive, crowded and slow internet cafe anyway, the owner just shrugs his shoulders and says "no hotmail working".

We`re on the Bolivian side, Copacabana, and its very nice. Great restaurants, hotels, the only downside is its cold and the sun will burn you in two seconds.

Puno - Peru- later this afternoon, we`ll see the floating islands and go straight to Cusco. Lots of people are stranded here as there are tons of demonstrations all over the country - all roads out of La Paz are blockaded. I won`t go too much into Bolivian politics, its a mess, and about half the population are demostrating they are too poor and someone should give them more money and kick out the greedy foreign multinationals.

Map of south America

map_south_america
Originally uploaded by Lizzie Roe.

The is the route we`re taking through South America. The dark purple bit we`ve already done (2 flights Sau Paulo - Buenos Aires, BA - Calafate), the light purple we`ve got to do and if we`ve got time, the green bit.

La Paz

I knew the journey to La Paz was going to be an interesting one when the family of three sharing the double seat we had reserved had to move to one seat for the duration of the night when we arrived. I felt pretty guilty when the little girl started throwing up from motion sickness caused by sitting at her mothers feet and facing the wrong way along the twisty mountain roads.

To get from Sucre to La Paz we had to go back through Potosi. There had been road blocks at Potosi ( 6 human chains across the road) in the days up to our bus ride but luckily on the day we travelled they had disbanded.

La Paz must be pretty unique in the world. Its in a huge basin in the Altiplano. The airport is on the edge and is at 4000m. In the middle of the basin the altitude is 3600m. I´ve been getting quite breathless walking aroung here. The height makes me very lethargic. In the city centre are some smart sky scrapers which remind me of the small city skylines you see in America like Seattle. The tourist area we're in is to the North of the city in the Witches market. I haven't got used to the smell of the Llama Fetous they sell there. I have to breathe through my mouth every time I walk past.

Tomorrow we´re going to ride bikes to Coroico. The road we´re taking is dubbed the moast dangerous road in the world as it descends 3000m in a distance of 80k. We´re doing it with a tour agency who will take all our stuff and drive behind all the way. After that we're going to stay in Coroico.

Potosi and Sucre

There`s still photo`s to come, we`re having trouble finding internet cafes that will upload them in a reasonable time. Oh well.

We`ve been through Potosi, a small city 4100m high and very cold (for the tropics anyway). Its got an absolutely huge mine next to it, an old volcano that used to have miles and miles of 2x2m wide silver veins. Aparantely it was the biggest city in the world in the 1600´s with 165,000 people - I don`t quite beleive that, surely Beijing/Cairo? It was certainly one of the richest.

They shut down the official state mines decades ago, the miners formed collectives to work them on a smaller scale - the silver has long run out, they`re mining zinc and tin. There are 10,000 workers now, earning a pittance for hugely dangerous conditions but still 3x above the national wage.

You can buy dynamite in the market, about 20p a stick (I`m not joking). You`re not officially allowed to take it anywhere but the mines, but I am sure glad there aren`t any domestic terrorists here. Oh, and ammonium nitrate as well (I won`t elaborate or ths blog will be put on the watch list). The mines themselves were really spooky - completely dark, with the guide muttering about how that entire section just there collapsed last month and now he has to find a way round it. Oh, and he was juggling the dynamite as well. I didn`t actually get to let of a stick, which I was quite dissapointed about.

Getting out of Potosi was a real Bolivian experience. We made the mistake of buying the bus ticket from the friendly, chatty, fluent-English tour guide. It turned out to be for the wrong bus at the wrong time at the wrong place, and no, they wouldn`t give a refund. We nearly got on the wrong bus - the dangers of saying "is this for Sucre?" - you`ll always get a "si - get out of my hair" response.

Sucre is very nice, warm, sunny and full of chocolates. Its half a capital city, La Paz (tomorrow) is the official capital but Sucre still has the courts and half the government buildings. Great bars and cafes - one called the Joy ride cafe that we`ve spent most evenings at, with great 80p cocktails, movies, patios, lounges, Bossche Bols (dutch giant profiterole) and 15 beers.

We`ve just been on the dino truck to the dino footprints - the local cement factory found an entire wall of complete dinosaur tracks halfway through hill they were mining. Brontosauruses, T-Rex`s, and many other tracks, now risen 90` from the ground.

Anyway, overnight to La Paz. This is assuming the road block at Potosi has cleared up, it was a bit hairy according to some people we`ve met.

(Hotmail appears to have been down for the last few weeks, so I`m currently emailess)

Photos from the Salar d´Uyuni trip

Salt of the Salar






A canyon





Geysers at 4950m - the highest I´ve ever been (until Nepal!).





Matt lounging in hot spring (Matt being on the right with the hat) - the much touted, 30cm deep hot spring we drove to (about 4800m high)




Laguna Colorado


Laguna Colorado (the red lake). The red is casued by ochre pigments, the white is actually borax not salt.





Llamas. Llamas are about the only thing that can survive up here.




Lizzie and I in front of Laguna Verde




Us on the rocks

Sunrise over the Salar dUyuni

Sunrise over the Salar dUyuni
Originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

Uploading photos is slow! After 2hours of internet cafe time, they have finally finished.

Bolivia (Potosi)

We are now in Bolivia, and its OK. First impressions are its very cheap (Argentina was a pleasant surprise, this is a "you want how much?" country). We arrived in Uyuni, a small desert town of 10,000 people and 5,000 tour operators, and promptly got out of there to Potosi.

Potosi is apparantely the highest city of its size - 100k people at 4100m (about 14,000 feet), which is high. Planes fly at about 9,000m (30,000 feet). Despite being about 23´ south - practicaly in the tropics, its freezing cold (we seem to be in perpetual English autumn weather - started at 51´S at the end of summer, the further north we go the warmer it gets but the closer to winter, and now the altitude of the altiplano kicks in). The altitude isn´t too bad, as we´ve spent the last week at 2,250m, 3,800m and now 4,100m - reasonable acclimatisation. Haven´t tried coca leaf tea yet, the local remedy for Soroche (altitude sickness). Potosi is your typical 400 year old colonial city made ludricously rich on obscene silver deposits, that´s then fallen onto hard times.

The rough plan is Sucre - Cochabamba - La Paz - lake Titicaca (about 4 weeks worth of travel) and then Peru.

Anyone want a postcard? Send me your address to matthewharrup at hotmail.com

Salar d´Uyuni

What a week. We´ve been on the 4x4m trek over the andes and through the Salar d´Uyuni. Photos are iminent. Its a bit hard to describe, a 170km by 120km by 6m lump of salt, blindingly white (unless you have yellow tinted sunglasses where it looks like a desert) and flat as a pancake. We nibbled a bit of it, and yes, it was salt. We stayed in a hotel made entirely of salt (except the outside bathroom of course) - salt walls, beds, tables... actually, the roof was thatched for the rainy season so I suppose it wasn´t 100% salt.


Isla de Pesca - Fish Island- was in the middle, with cartoon style 3 pronged cacti.

From what I understand, the entire Altiplano used to be a gigantic lake stretching from Titicaca to somewhere in Chile, 10,000 years ago. This dryed up for some reason, leaving all its salt in this salt flat. There´s a big salt mining operation going on, you can literally just plonk a shovel in the ground and you have a few kilograms of salt.