Claustrophobia in Potosi

Next stop... Potosi., which has not much to offer than its mines - but they really are worth a visit... as long as you do not suffer from claustrophobia.

Breakfast break for the miners - coca leaves...

I sometimes could not believe how steep and narrow the channels were...

We got the chance to speak to some miners and I have to say they really dont have an easy job. They dont get any support or money for their work and are only dependent on what they find. It really is an unpleasant, hot, dirty, dusty and unhealthy place to work and I was happy to get out of the mines after about 3 hours. I actually washed myself two times and still had the feeling that I smelt of the dust. Moreover, getting rid off the taste of the dust (god knows how much I had swallowed) took me two days.

Yes, it is real dynamite in my hands... and it is burning...

After the mine tour I really wanted to get out of Potosi and took the night bus to Uyuni. Was not lucky with my choice as after only one hour of travel smoke came out of the engine. 30 minutes later there was a little explotion (no, I had not smuggled any dynamite into the bus...) and that was it. As the bus had stopped in the middle of a curve, all non-Bolivians went out of the bus as we considered it to be too dangerous to stay in there. All Bolivians just went to sleep in the bus though - guess they are used to it?! So we ended up waiting in the freezing cold and tried to keep ourselves warm with a little fire. Lucky enough another bus came after about 2 hours and the rocky journey to Uyuni continued. Looked like a Zombie when we arrived there at 3am.

The Beauty and the Beast

La Paz - The Beast

People either love or hate La Paz. It took me a bit to love it as it is big, hectic and dirty. But at the second glance I discovered "the beauty" in "the beast". 

A real experience is the "witches market". Smiling "witches" in colorfull dresses and bowler hats sell toad talismans, owl feathers, dried frogs, stone amulets, gems and whatever you can think or cannot think of... e.g. dried llama fetuses...

My biggest adventure so far was "going to prison"! Yes, I did go to a real prison... and it was all inofficial. We had to wait outside San Pedro prison, which is in the middle of the city, until we got approached by a woman that looked a bit like a prostitute. Then we had to litterally bribe the police with quite a bit of money to get in. Not sure why, but each of us got a number and a big stamp on their arm?!

Our so called guide was a drug dealer who just had a line before we started the tour and our two so called bodyguards were murders, who will be in prison for the next 30 years or so. But they get a lot of respect from the other prisioners so that we were - lets call it - save. There was no police at all in the prison and the few so called guards were prisioners as well. San Pedro prison is sort of a little village. If you have money you can live there quite well, if not, you are in troubles, have no cell and you end up cleaning the toilets or even worse working in the kitchen together with the rapers. Most of the people in there are murders or drug dealers and their wifes and kids are allowed to live in the prison with them (as long as they can pay for it).  Not sure this is good for the kids though...

The weirdest moment was when we were invited into the cell of the president of the prison (who is a prisoner as well), he locked the cell from the inside and offered us "stuff". We kindly refused, but ended up having a chat with him and two other prisoners for more than half an hour. As I said... weird.

Sucre - The Beauty

After an exciting time in La Paz I took it easy in "La Ciudad Blanco - Sucre" - probably the prettiest city in Bolivia.

Having relaxed a whole day I had gained enough energy to go on another 2-day trekking tour. By chance I found out about a non-profit organization that only use local transport, work with locals and support local children and communities in need. That was probably my best trekking tour so far. You have to like to travel with lots of locals in a dodgy truck though. It was a bit rough, but somehow also enjoyable - as long as you manage to hold on tight.

The moment we arrived at our starting point of the trek we got invited by a local wedding that happened to be on that day. It is a Bolivian custom that you invite everyone to food and dance - liked it.

The trek itself to a pretty crater was amazing. It was also a real experience to walk the last 1,5 hours in the dark (only with flashlights) and to stay in a little village in the middle of the crater - no other tourists than us.

If anyone ever happen to go to Sucre, I can really recommend this agency: http://www.condortrekkers.org/.

Hot, Hotter, Pampa

Only one day after arriving in La Paz I decided to go back to the jungle (really love it!). Took the next plane to Rurrenabaque, which is deep in the Bolivian rainforest and booked a 3-days tour to Pampa. Pampa is literally in the middle of nowhere with very limited vegetation and boiling heat all day long.

Because it is dry-season at the moment all wildlife was at the river and I almost felt like in a zoo as there were hundreds and hundreds of crocodiles, turtles, capybaras (look like big guinea pig... no, before you ask - I did not it any... ;-) and millions of birds.

Amazing wildlife:

Felt like Indiana Moni...

On our way back we had a really crappy jeep. There was more sand in our jeep than anywere else and we looked like "Wiener Schnitzel" when we got out of it after the 3 hours journey back to Rurrenabaque.