Mar 25 - Sucre Capital of Bolivia - Who Knew ?

Sucre, Bolivia 25 March 2017

Today we left Potosi to head to Sucre, the constitutional capital city of Bolivia (who knew – we all thought it was La Paz !). Aparently, Bolivia is the only country with two capitals. Sucre is the constitutional capital and La Paz the administrative capital where the government sits. Sucre is our guide David’s home city so he has promised great things about it.

It is a pretty colonial stucco city with a central square of great importance as this was where Bolivian independence was declared, 

It is a Unesco World Heritage site and as such is well maintained in the traditional styles.  Our hotel was a pretty little colonial mansion casona with a leafy courtyard with a fountain with the rooms set round it just 5 mins walk from the main square.

Although we had originally planned to find our own way round in our 3 days here, David our guide was now like part of the family and we asked him to show us round the first afternoon. Another church climbing exercise (but we were ready for him this time !) We went round the

San Franciscan church which is now a girls school, very beautiful building with lovely courtyards and then climbed skywards – considerably less hairy then yesterday’s escapade !

Great views over the city and an easy place to point out all the key sites done, we headed back down to street level to the main square. David then pointed out the bell tower where independence was announced from and the bell is split in two. The legend says that the two brothers spreading the news hit the bell so hard the bell split. Love his stories !!

From there, on to the local market which was a riot of noise, colour, smells and sights ! 

The best smoothies and milk shakes on the planet
...possibly!

David explained that the indigenous locals all have their favourite stalls and call the person who runs it their “Casera“ and they are loyal to them as they get the pick of the best produce. We met his fruit casera and tried some of the local fruits before moving on to his juice casera where we all tried some of the local juices. Very yum and great fun !

"The Flower Girl"

The market had a beautiful flower section as well as many spices, fruit and vegetables.




From there onto the Chocolate shop – even better. They make the most beautiful artisan chocolate here. The aroma walking into the shop was enough on its own !! We bought a small amount just to keep us going….

Then through the park which is called the French park to commemorate the links of the rich couple who were the original Sucre philanthropists to France which was their favourite country.

There is a monument in the middle which looks a bit like a mini Eiffel Tower and the reason is it was designed by Gustav Eiffel at the request of this couple. A very odd thing to find in the middle of Sucre !

By the end of this we were ready for dinner ! In the evening we headed down to the main square area and found a cute little patio restaurant and had beers and pico a lo mache which is a sharing plate of meats, spicy sauce with a heap of French fried buried underneath!  Very healthy – not ….

Steve didn’t make it – altitude was shaping up to be his worat enemy and the 4100m mine expedition had not helped.

Great first day in Sucre

"The friendly spice lady"

Bright coloured wools and textiles are
characteristic of the country

We enjoy a fresh fruit smoothie from our Casara

Mar 24 - The Dynamite Day !!

Bolivia 24 March

Today we leave Uyuni and head to Potosi.

This is the end of our 4WD off road experience and as we swung on to tarmac roads again we all felt more than a bit sorry to be leaving the wonderful wilds of Bolivia behind despite the bumpy roads and the lurching over river beds and rock canyons despite the varying degrees of altitude sickness.

David our guide told us we had been very lucky as the tracks had been redone recently and in another month with some more rain the roads would be back to pretty hellish again instead of a bit hellish !!  

Our trip to Potosi took about 3 hours on good roads which was a real treat. The scenery was just beautiful as we climbed back up to the dizzy heights of Potosi at 4000m. 

Every turn of the road there was a new view of mountains and then valleys, rainbow colours, local people in traditional clothes and llamas by the hundred.

We arrived in Potosi at lunchtime and David took us for one of the local specialities Rock soup.

The story of this was similar to the parable of the loaves and the fishes. A stranger arrived and knocked on doors asking for food and was turned away. He went into the mountains and built himself a fire and a soup pot and when the locals came by they asked what he was making. He said the best Rock soup in the world but it would be better with a little corn. The local agreed that they could share it if he gave some corn, so he did so. Another local came and was told the same about potatoes etc etc until the Rock Soup contained all the best local ingredients and he then shared the soup out.

Rock Soup is now a local speciality and they turn it into a little volcano by using volcanic river pebbles, heating them to a very high temperature and then adding the soup which then bubbles just like a volcano. Great theatre !

After this big lunch, Paul, Mandy and Janette were ready for a nap, never mind their walking tour with David than our guide and Steve was about to head off for one of the major highlights of his trip (and the reason for the Dynamite in the blog title) – A trip down the Potosi Mine !

He had seen on a Michael Palin travel programme about 25 years ago that you could go to this Silver mine in Potosi which was once the richest mine in the world and made all the Spanish coins but now the miners are very poor because the seam is all but finished.

The miners were so rich back in the day that one of them ordered the first production Hummer from the USA !!

All you need, Dynamite, Nitrate and a
detonator -total cost around £4

Sat beside Steve in the car, the explosives,
1Kg Coca and some "special" cigarettes...
and a bottle of Fanta orange....
not like your usual weekly shop !

To go down the mine with the miners, you first have to go to the Miners Market and buy them gifts. One of these gifts is Dynamite !!  Hence the blog being the Wine, Dynamite and Penguin tour………….







Now, we know a lot of you are saying why didn't you light it.......!

Steve had asked David our fun laid back guide to arrange this for him, so at 2.30pm Steve was collected at the hotel by Oscar another ex miner who took him to the market to buy gifts. This haul included Coca leaves, nearly pure alcohol (96%),  a stick of dynamite, detonators and of course a bottle of fanta, obviously required to drink after the coca 

Miners in Potosi are unable to bring food into the mine due to the high level of Arsenic present so all of these stimulants are used instead of food.

The ultimate selfie - "Dynamite Cigar"

Its been nice knowing you all !

The mine entrance - the only one!

Gifts ready, they headed to the mine where Steve was kitted up with boiler suit, lamp and hat and off they set into the mine. Now, as you might expect, things are a little harder and different here.  First, the oxygen level at 4100m is pretty low at the best of times and in the mine there are no air pumps so after about 150m in, breathing is like being asphyxiated with a carrier bag.

Health and safety does not exist and these mines are run by co-operatives of local people who now mine about 120 tonnes of ore each week.  

The mine god "Dao"...on the left !

Safety is controlled by the mine all knowing God “Dao” who proudly sits at the shaft entrance about 20m in.  Everybody has to pray to him and leave offerings including some of my coca leaves, a lit cigarette and the some of the pure alcohol poured over Dao’s very large penis which apparently protects the fertility of the miners...undoubtedly necessary after all the coca leaves, alcohol, hashish type substances and frequent 20 hour shifts.

Walking through the flooded mine was compelling and its not possible to convey the severity of these conditions of human misery but the donation helps them keep their job and a little tourism is vital.

A small roof fall about 150m in was enough to persuade Steve that he should return to the mine entrance where he noticed a half lorry of beer.  

Just a few bevvies on the way home from the office....
the brewery delivers direct on Friday.
only counted about 20 miners !!

Apparently, it was Friday and the miners get paid and have a good session and who wouldn’t.

Steve’s challenge met, he hopped on the bus to meet up with Janette, Paul and Mandy on their cultural tour.  He was glad he was breathing again…just and his big challenge met.

The walking tour was a gentle stroll round the colonial centre of Potosi which has a central square with some lovely colonial buildings. David then took us to one of the 3 main churches in Potosi but not for a religious tour, he took us up onto the roof which had some of the most spectacular views over Potosi.

We climbed up the narrow stairs to the entrance to the roof and thought we were done, but in true Bolivian style we should have known better. We then walked across the centre of the roof with a single low rod to hold onto and then up 2 more flights of narrow stairs to rach the top of the cupola. (Well we did tell you health and safety hadn’t reached Bolivia !) the view as promised was great and we could see where Steve’s mine was – another 300m above where we were on the roof.

Crossing the roads in Bolivia is a minor challenge (but no problem to these veterans of Ho Chi Minh City). We have now asked 4 guides to explain who has right of way at a junction and none have been able to answer !!  

















There are so many accidents involving pedestrians that in Sucre & La Paz they have implemented a novel way of dealing with it.

It started off as them having people in Zebra costumes working on the zebra crossings to educate the people & cars, along with a donkey who follows people or cars who don't obey the rules and make fun of them. 

All fun & friendly and a great idea. Somewhere along the line a copyright problem was encountered, so in true Bolivian style they changed them from Zebra's to White Tigers !!  So, they now have White Tigers patrolling the main crossings.

By this time at this altitude we were completely done, but our last venue on the walk was the Royal Mint and it was another fascinating hour. Steve fresh from surviving the trip down the mine, joined us for this.

Because Potosi had the richest silver mine in the world during the Spanish occupation, Potosi was the first location that was made to produce silver coins for the Spanish and so the Mint here is one of the earliest in the world. The original mint which used totally manual processes became too small and couldn’t produce enough coins, so the Spanish upgraded the mint and moved its location. The new equipment used included huge wooden wheels used to turn the presses below. These were sent from Spain and because of the dryness and altitude in Potosi, these are still intact today while in all other locations they have rotted away or been destroyed.

Stiking a souvenir Silver coin 

There are examples here of silver coins right from the beginning as well as catholic church alterpieces, fine silverware for house and table for the very rich Potosi silver dealers in its heyday.

The city now is in a very different situation, the miners are extremely poor as the seams only give mixed ore of silver, zinc etc and the silver quality is very low. The city itself while poor has a very nice vibe.

We were completely exhausted by 6pm between the climbing and the mine, so Paul and Mandy flaked and Steve and Janette went for one beer and some chips at a local bar call 4060 because that was the exact altitude where the bar was. Its was not long before we too were in bed.

8.00pm and desperate for beer and bed

Mar 23 - Across the Salar de Uyuni Salt Flats

Mar 23 - Across the Salar de Uyuni Salt Flats

Morning dawned bright cool and clear and today we are off to cross the Salar de Uyuni, 12000km2 of salt desert up to 120km deep. Very exciting !!

There had been much discussion about what we were going to be able to do as it had rained a lot a few days before so there was a lot of water and sink holes in the salt. We wanted to go to Inkahuasi Island in the middle of the flats but it hadn’t been possible for the previous few days.

only 4" of water but enough to cover everything in salt

After much back and forward with the office and discussion with other drivers coming back the other way.

one of the entry points to the salt flats

Serapio our driver gave us the thumbs up that we could go to the island but that we needed to access the flats from another point as the edges were too wet with too much water.

The edges of the salt flats are too soft and dangerous
to drive so only a few routes are available

nice clean jeep - not for long !!

Off we set to Juloca where we found a small narrow road onto the infinite expanse of the salt flat. This got us over the worst of the wet area but when we came off the road and drove across the flats the water spray was coming up all around. 

Steve freezing his toes off

Once the water was down to ankle deep, we stopped, slipped on our water shoes (bare feet in Steve’s case) and went for a paddle in the freezing cold surface water with pure salt fields below and nothing in sight for miles on a landscape where the land seamlessly joined the sky.

Thousands of Kms of salt crystals

The team stop for a souvenir picture

Amazing rock salt crystals - just find a hole,
 put your hand in and pull them out

The mirror surface of the salt flats

We carried on over the salt flats this vast expanse of blinding white where it looks like anything on the horizon is floating.  Just unbelievable stuff and the reflective UV was incredibly powerful.

We arrived at Inkahuasi island having not seen another 4WD all day to find we were the only people there as everyone else had thought it was still too wet, so we had the island to ourselves. 

We climbed to the top of the island which is populated by giant cactus, a strange little green oasis in the middle of this vast salt desert, for wonderful views of the surrounding areas. 

The climb which would at normal altitude would have been a breeze, had us all  puffing and panting due to the high altitude of this vast salt lake but it was worth the climb.

all furniture built from salt...not to most comfortable

After this we had picnic lunch on the edge of the salt flats sitting on salt chairs at a salt table.

From there we crossed the vast salt desert heading for Colchani our next stop just on the edge of the salt flats near Uyuni. Steve was keen to have a drive and Serapio our driver let him have a go across the wet flats. Not to be outdone the rest of us had to have a go too. Serapio had a quiet afternoon !!  All we had to do was avoid the sink holes……………….

We found a couple of big ones and Serapio pulled out from these some of the most beautiful salt crystal formations including a rose salt one.

These beautiful rock salt crystals are found everywhere but are very fragile

scenery just like a photo set

The sun was incredibly powerful both from the altitude and from the reflection of the salt and we had been fortunate that it had been cloudy so far. At this point the sun started to break through and we got some great reflection pictures and we horsed around taking silly snaps for a bit. (This was to end us up with Steve burning his ears and Janette burning her head and inside lip – all in 30 minutes !)

We headed in to Colchani via the old salt processing plants and as we neared the town, there were large trucks out collecting salt (manually shovelled in by guys with long shovels). The salt regenerates every time it rains so it is a permanently renewal salt field. 

lack of technology meas that bags are sealed
with a gas lance

We stopped in at one of the original salt processing plants to see how the process used to work before the big companies industrialised it.

They even gave us a bag of salt to keep each but our unwillingness tp transport white powders across South America meant we had to ditch them !

....and from there on to our Salt Hotel where the building and rooms are all made from salt. Most bizarre….

Serapio and David headed off to Uyuini to get the 4WD cleaned as it was completely encrusted in salt after the crossing in the wet (as were we !)

Salt everywhere

Just one of the most magical days ever. It really isn’t possible to describe the scale, the remoteness, the whiteness of this most wonderful place. 



The pictures only give a small glimpse but we hope it conveys some of what we experienced.

A deserved sense of achievement

Bye Bye

just one last picture - probably impossible top do it justice