Bolivia: The Good, the Bad, and the Funny

As you may have noticed earlier, Kevin had 2 sticks of dynamite quite close to his mouth. This was because we were visiting the Potosi miners and sticks of dynamite, along with some local cola and coca leaves, are the gift of choice to give these men who live dangerously. Kevin has good internal pictures of the mines, but I think it's difficult to see just how narrow, hot and clausterphobic these tunnels were. Worst of all, we seemed to inhale whole tablespoonfulls of dust! But it was seriously worth it both to see the conditions that the miners faced and to actually witness a live, working mine (explosions included). A miner here has the opportunity to beome a millionaire, but could even more easily lose his life. We were told there were funerals every week for fallen miners.

Cerro Rico, literally "Rich Hill", is where the mining occurs. This seemingly innocuous hill has caused over 8 million deaths since the Spanish began searching for silver there in the 16th century. 8 million deaths is not an exaggeration!





We were extremely relieved when we left the mines at last.



Sucre is a lovely colonial city located just 3 hrs from Potosi. It's also at a much lower altitude at (2500 meters compared to Potosi's 4,000 meters) so it was nice not to be winded for a few days. The terrain of Bolivia has reminded us both of Tibet and Nepal. The town of Sucre, set in a valley, looks a little like Kathmandu from afar.



Near Sucre there are really amazing dinosaur tracks. It's about 20 minutes away from town on an incredibly bumpy dinotruck.



But despite the kitschyness of the museum, the tracks were really good! Unfortunately, because the tracks are on very soft sediment, we couldn't get super close to them. However, if you go to Toro Toro in Bolivia, you can actually touch the tracks.





And finally, we come to the funny part of Bolivia. At our first bathroom stop in Uyuni, we came across these toilets with very specific rules for use.



Llamas, though quite cute, are not the friendliest of animals. So while we were shopping in a market, one came to the stall to make a purchase and we quickly backed off to give it space.



The driver of our 4x4 brought his entire family with him. So there were 6 of us on board plus the driver, his wife and baby! 9 people in a Toyota Landcruiser through rugged terrain is not the most comfortable conditions. Talk about a tight squeeze! But the baby was so well-behaved and also added a dose of levity to our situation.