la paz

Another dusty, bumpy ride to La Paz, the defacto capital and the official administrative centre of Bolivia. The city is perched in a valley and it is quite a sight to see the urban sprawl edging up along the valley in all directions. How anyone can live on such gradients is beyond me. Apparently the rich folk took the best position, the one with the greatest shelter from the wind. The city has a population of one million and it stands at 3650 metres above sea level. By way of an aside, the city has a one fire department with a total of 4 fire engines. Why? Because the air is so thin that fires rarely get going. Now I know the reason for my smokers cough - my smokes just last longer and I have to work harder to keep the damn thing going!!

Thankfully I was now afforded my own hotel room as a result of poo-gate! This was an excellent result as my room had a fantastic view of the snow capped peak of Mount Illimanni. Easily the best view I have ever had from a hotel room. Naturally to celebrate I got smaahed on my first night with the driver (as usual). The following day I was due to ride the Death Road but I woke up late and missed it. So i went exploring the city anyway in my unfit condition. The witches market being quite weird. They sell concoctions and other bizarre things connected with black magic/voodoo stuff. The array of animal foetuses wasn´t too kind on the stomach. The other sights are quite impressive too. If you recall Potosi and its silver output, a lot of it came through La Paz on its way to Lima. Naturally I availed of the shoe shine services. This is becoming a little ritual of my travels now. The weird thing about the shoe shine fraternity in La Paz is they all wear balcalva´s. Most believe this to be a product of social stigma. But they´re my amigo´s now.

I managed to get booked for the Death Road for the following day. I was bunched in with a load of other unknown gringo´s. Okay, the Death Road....68km of dusty, narrow, extremely steep roads carved along a series of mountains. Rock falls are common as is sections of the road just giving way and averaging 140 fatalities a month. I witnessed the aftermath of a truck that fell 10 stories in to a valley. It looked like a smashed box of matches - 4 dead. Anyway, this attraction(!) involves speeding down the Death Road on a mountain bike. One of my group fell off with the result of breaking his arm and wrist. My guide was kind enough to tell me that he ´hurt´his arm (I found out after completing the Road). Okay, I didn´t fall off but I had a few moments where I nearly did. You see, despite my inner voice saying take it easy and cool it on the speed, I just went hell for leather. Bombed down. I was in the fastest group so I figured the best place to be would be behind the pointman. After all he´s the expert and if I follow his line ( as if I´m some kind of F1 driver!!) then I can´t go wrong. Trouble was that some of these lines are dangerously close to the edge. I was pretty relieved to reach the bottom, caked in dust as I was. But it was certainly an experience that I enjoyed but would never repeat.

Another highlight of La Paz was that the group said goodbye to two people who leave the tour. As luck would have it, it was the two I really didn´t like. PokerFace herself, Gee it will be so nice not to be confronted with such ugliness each morning. And Public School Boy. Thank goodness. Probably gone home to sign up for the conversative party. Now....who to hate next?

Bolivia came to end as we left La Paz for the short hop over the border to Peru. I must confess that of the South American countries I had visited so far, Bolivia certainly takes first place. It felt more real, more authentic, more engaging, more interesting. Or was the reason the little portly Bolivian women and their bowler hats.

uyuni

We headed south to a place called Uyuni. This place is about 3500 metres above sea level but the altitude issues were no longer a problem although it was damn cold. Uyuni itself is a small South American town with typical features; many churches, a plaza and an army garrison next to our hotel. No photos, por favor!

The reason for going to this non-descript place is the local Salt Flats. Salar de Uyuni (to give it its correct name) is with its 10,582 sq km of salt flats the world's largest. It is estimated to contain 10 billion tonnes of salt. The town of Uyuni grew up when mining these salts was a very profitable industry. A local railway cementry with a dozens of old steam engines standing idle underlines the amount of money that washed around these parts. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid regularly robbed banks in the area before they met their end in a nearby town. Today some 25,000 tonnes are extracted annually but judging by the techniques used, it is inefficient and outdated. For example, just carting of 20 unrefined tonnes of the stuff is worth $150 to the miners!

So we toured over this endless expanse of whiteness. Played football, explored an island inhabited by a billion cacti, saw a hotel constructed from salt! Anyone daring enough to see it without sunglasses would quickly go blind! It was an interesting place to see but beyond looking at salt, it wasn´t much else. The town was far more interesting as the local army garrison was busy each morning and evening marching about the town with their military band. No photos! Plus a bottle of rum is fantastically cheap!

potosi

The border crossing was a hive of human beings ferrying impossible loads on their backs back and forth across the border. And I mean, heavy loads. Judging by some of them, 20kg or 30kg. Little women, little boys. What a sight. It struck me that it was probably cheaper to use humans than a donkey or a truck. The ladies have different headwear too. Bowler hats, fancy that!

One thing I liked about Bolivia before I knew much about the place is Evo Morales. The first indigeous head of state of a South American country. He´s his own man and he sticks it to the yanks as well. Always scores highly in my books that one. But he´s got a hard job. Bolivia is South America´s poorest country.

Potosi stands at almost 4000 metres above sea level. It is the highest city of its size in the world. Cue : altitude sickness. For me, that meant walking around at snail pace, occasional headaches, recurrent pins and needles in my limbs and dizzyness. Walking up stairs is a real chore too. It isn´t very pleasant but it shouldn´t last that long unless you´re unlucky. For me I adjusted after 24 hours. Besides I didn´t really follow medical advice as I went on the lash on my first night there.

So why would anyone want to live there? The answer is simple, silver. And there was lots of it. It was the biggest silver mine of its day. Beside the town is a towering mountain called Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain). There, the Spanards filled their coffers for centuries. Oh and some eight million indigeous people died for it too over the those years. No one ever talks about them. But then some have a monopoly of suffering and others don´t matter.

They´re still mining today but as a ´collective´. Whatever that means. To me, it means poor Bolivians with no other options digging away for scraps of ore. Maybe mindful that life expectancy in the mines is 15 years. With all the sulphur and other nasty chemicals knocking about they will eventaully succumb to a horrible terminal disease. But there are tours for rich tourists like me! Pay the $10 to the operator and bring along some ´gifts´. Fags, coco leaves, candles, etc. I wasn´t comfortable with that. I suppose it´s another example of dark tourism. Meet Juan, have a photo taken with him covered in poisonous dust and show the folks back home.

The town is full of dogs. Not really random ones but on our journey to Potosi we stopped at an isolated spot for lunch, one turned up to wander about our preparation area. Oh and Potosi was where I had my first run in with a fellow tour member. Apparently, on the first night I was there, the night I had gone on the lash I had returned to the hotel room and used the toilet. It took, we´ll call him Tristen, 24 hours to muster the guts to tell me this - I didn´t flush the toilet! Holy Moly! I´m sure he´s seen a lot worse in public school or maybe he was too busying buggering his school mates to notice.