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)
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)
posted by Matt and Lizzie at
8:09 PM
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