Oh, the Places We'll Go

Nearly all international travelers to Bolivia have a visit to the Uyuni Salar (salt flats) in their plans. Though there are day trips to the area, we chose to pile into an 8-person 4×4 Land Cruiser and bounce around the “Southwest Circuit” for a 4 day/3 night outing. Beyond Ted and me, our car included our South African friends (Jeff and Romy) as well as our driver, Hugo, and our English-speaking guide, Archie. We were a great group and we were all thankful that there weren’t actually 2 more passengers in our car, as we saw many other groups cramped and it didn’t look comfortable.

We didn’t quite know what we were getting ourselves into at the outset, but the southwest circuit of Bolivia is some of the highest, driest, windiest, most barren and unique landscape that we have ever visited. Beyond the salt flats, the area is a hotbed of geothermal activity and rich in a variety of minerals that have a crazy effect on the colors of the lakes. Highlights include:

• The highest we’ve ever been! We were so proud of ourselves when we hiked the 15,000 foot pass on our trek to Machu Picchu and sure enough, we were just sitting in the jeep as we drove over a road with an even greater elevation.
• Lakes with the craziest colors. Emerald green, tropical blue – even red!
• Flamingos! There are three different species in the area and for some reason they love the harsh climate.
• Huge volcanoes all around – topping 6000m in altitude (near 20,000ft)!
• Having South Africans help us plan our trip to South Africa. We already had our guidebook for our upcoming visit and they went through it and told us what to do while we’re there.
• Having a drama-free trip. We passed other groups of travelers that were in cars that broke down multiple times, had crap food, or were with an unfriendly, unhelpful guide which is no fun at all.
• Hot springs in the middle of nowhere.
• Staying in a hotel made entirely of salt!
• Photo shoot at the Uyuni Salar (pictures coming up soon).

The trip was a complete blast and we wouldn’t change a thing. A huge thanks to Tupiza Tours for taking care of us and to Jeff and Romy for making it an unforgettable experience.

Have you noticed that there have been a lot of WTFs in Bolivia? Here is the latest.  This sign translates as “Tourist Zone, don’t pee or litter”.  You wouldn’t think that in the middle of a central public tourist zone, you’d need a sign that says don’t pee here, but in Bolivia, you do.  Locals are known to relieve themselves on any corner or wall they choose, at any time of day.  Not sure how effective this sign is, but hey, at least they’re trying to keep the city clean…er.

We had one day in Tupiza, Bolivia before we headed out on the much talked-about salt flat tour, so we decided to do a little horseback riding with our new South African friends, Jeff and Romy.

We had a picture perfect day and as we rode off into the mid-afternoon heat, Ted and I could not get over how much Tupiza reminded us of Sedona, Arizona (where we got married). We were surrounded by beautiful red rock formations and we rode past gigantic cacti. Oh, and it was dry and hot.

None of us were expert riders, but Ted was certainly the most comfortable as he showed off what he’d learned from our friend Alexia who he has had the opportunity to ride with a few times back in Colorado.

Tupiza is a sleepy little town but is surrounded by some of the most fantastic scenery we had seen in the country. The majority of travelers start their salt flat tours from the town of Uyuni which, now having seen, is a complete dump. Tupiza is not on the radar of many, but we certainly think it should be.

This is our buddy, Jeff. He’s much more intelligent than he looks in this photo, where he has lit a piece of dynamite on fire and is pretending to smoke it. In reality, there is no danger of this dynamite blowing up, as it requires a few other ignition components to explode. So, our guide told anybody who wanted to smoke some dynamite to go ahead and do so. Jeff was our guinea pig.

Jeff, his girlfriend Romy, and I are on Potosi’s most popular activity – a tour of the mines that have made the city famous. For over 500 years, the big mountain looming over the city has housed some of South America’s most valuable minerals, including the largest deposit of silver on the continent. The silver is now long gone, but mining continues to be a mainstay of the local economy, and former miners are now running tours into the working mines.

I have to admit, I was a little reluctant to check it out (so was Sarah – she chose not to go). The mine tours are a bit controversial – portrayed by some as a voyeuristic opportunity to see how bad people have it. And, it’s not the safest tour ever – it’s a working mine and accidents do happen (in fact, millions of people have died in these mines over the past 500 years, but largely due to the slave labor and inhumane conditions of years past). But in the end, I heard enough positive endorsements to give it a try.

After getting outfitted in all the appropriate gear (boots, jackets, pants, hard hats, lamps), we first stopped at the miners market. The only place on the continent where you can buy dynamite and coca leaves with no questions asked, the miners market is where miners go to get supplies, and tourists go to smoke dynamite.

Entering the mine feels like a passageway into middle earth. Twenty yards in, it’s already dark, damp, dirty, and hot. The deeper you go, the hotter it gets. There is no ventilation within (hence the very early death of nearly everyone who puts in more than a few years working here), but air pipes do hang from the ceiling to power the drills far below. We did our best to avoid touching the walls, as asbestos dripped from the ceiling in colorful but toxic stalactites. After basically rock climbing up to the 2^nd level, we met some miners who showed us the process of preparing dynamite for a blast, and the minerals that they recovered to pay their wages. We also got to meet the Tio, the devil statue that exists within each mine who receives prayers and offerings from miners in search of safety from day to day.

In the end, I was happy to see it, but I didn’t feel good about it. While miners do reap well-deserved benefits from tourist visits, the voyeuristic nature of the tour was unsettling. But the miners are very proud of their work and their profession, and there is no shame in the work or the conditions they endure. In fact, they are proud to show it off, and happy to make an extra buck as well.

Tupiza – the hidden gem of Bolivia.  Feels like Sedona, AZ.

Potosi is all about superlatives. It was once the largest and wealthiest town in Latin America and to this day is the world’s highest city at 13,041 feet. Its largest and wealthiest status is due to the fact that it is surrounded by mountains that once contained so much silver, Potosi alone funded the Spanish colonization of the continent for over 200 years. Though nearly all of the silver is now gone, mining for minerals still occurs in conditions that have shockingly changed very little throughout the centuries. Miners regularly die within 10-15 years of their first day in the mine due to poor air quality that eventually pollutes their lungs and kills them. Throughout the history of the mines, literally millions of miners have died (a disproportionate amount of indigenous people and slaves brought over from Africa to work the mines) because of the danger and demands of the job.

This being said, one of the most popular things for tourists to do is visit the mines. This isn’t a formal organized tour about the history with some museum displays of old mining relics, this is a down-and-dirty tour of an active, working mine. I chose not to go because I wasn’t interested in being hot, dirty and uncomfortable, but Ted went and had quite an experience that he’ll write about in a future post.

One of the best outcomes of the mine tour, in my opinion, is that Ted met a great couple from South Africa that was heading in the same direction as us. As we both wanted to do the same tour of Bolivia’s popular salt flats, we traveled together onto our next stop.

This is an alpaca fetus. They are sold along the streets of La Paz in the Mercado de Brujas, or the witches market. Supposedly, you bury one of these under the porch when you buy a house and it brings you good luck.  Personally, I prefer a 4-leaf clover…

High-altitude flamingos (~13,000 ft) in Bolivia’s southwest circuit

A lot of people, as well as the guidebooks, call Sucre Bolivia’s most beautiful city. As it was on our way south through the country, we thought it certainly deserved a stop. The city itself is quite lovely with beautiful architecture, including the supreme court of Bolivia (Sucre is the judicial capital). There are some narrow, cobblestone, hilly streets reminiscent of small European towns and there is a mirador (a view point) at the top of a hill where you can look out over the red-roofed buildings and the surrounding rolling hills. It is also noticeably cleaner than some of the other places we had visited in Bolivia, as in the trash was actually put in the trash cans as opposed to anywhere along the side of the road. Everyone from taxi drivers to bar tenders remarked with pride about the cleanliness of their city.

Sucre has a very similar vibe to Cuenca, Ecuador and Arequipa, Peru being that they are all good-sized, attractive, well-kept cities with beautiful buildings, walkable streets and lots of great places to eat and drink (not to mention each is our favorite city in their respective countries).

Though there are a lot of day and multi-day trips that you can do around the area from hiking to horseback riding, we stuck to the city center because we have lots of trekking and outdoorsy time in our future as we heads toward Argentina and Chile.

What a fun word to say. Cochabamba was our next stop after La Paz, reached by a 13+ hour overnight bus. This was one of those trips that you are glad your parents don’t know you are doing because they would certainly worry. The roads in Bolivia, for the most part, are unpaved and as the area is mountainous and the buses are old, it makes for a long, bumpy, loud, cliff-hugging ride. We made it in one piece.

Cochabamba is a university town with a great buzz and lots of young people around. The town is also known for the HUGE Jesus statue that watches over residents from a nearby hill.  We enjoyed wandering around the campus and also the main prado with lots of different restaurants and shops.  And of course, we visited the statue.

As I’ve been browsing and acquiring small gifts for myself and others throughout our travels, Ted had remained purchase-less, until Cochabamba. Before we even left the US he had considered the possibility of acquiring a charango while traveling in the northern Andean countries. A charango is small, stringed instrument similar to a ukelele that is featured in a lot of traditional music in this region. A good friend of ours, Dave Griffith, actually studied abroad in Cochabamba, Bolivia in his undergrad days and came home with a charango that Ted has admired for a long time. With Dave’s help via email, Ted was able to return to the same shop where Dave had bought his charango over 10 years earlier and get one from the same guy. Craziness!

So now Ted is quite entertained as he teaches himself how to play with his new toy. And as it turns out, it has become quite a conversation starter among local folks who are intrigued by the gringo who is interested in learning to play, and they have happily taught him a few things. Perfecto!