Sucre

1st of May:

Now that my watch has run out of battery, I have no idea when I wake up. But I was feeling much better, so I went out for a big breakfast; and what did I see where I went? The part of breakfast I had been missing for nearly 3,5 month? A hash brown! So I had scrambled egg, with a (giant) hash brown and pancakes. However the hash brown was like a giant soggy roesti, and unfortunately disappointed me.

I spent most of the day trying to sort out flight tickets and similar, which proved something of a hassle. But that's right, "Tie a yellow ribbon ‘round that old oak tree, because I’m-a coming home". However, it will be a while, and I have some stops on the way back; but as per usual, I have no intention of revealing my plans.

I went out to the same place as the previous day for dinner, although this time alone, and had a wonderful pasta bolognese. After dinner I went back to the hostel and rented Hercules, a cracking movie with an incredible amount of references to greek mythology, what made the movie even better was that about 3 minutes into it, I was joined by Andrew, Tamsyn and Trevor. After the movie it was late, and I went to bed.

2nd of May:

On this day I went to Cal Orcko, the worlds biggest collection of dinosaur footprints, located just outside La Paz, they were nearly destroyed as the area was used to mine for stuff used in cement, however the area with the footprints had too much of something in them, and thus that area wasn't mined. The footprints were unfortunately far away, as we had to watch them across a valley, as to make matters worse, recent rain had done damage to the footprints. The trip was a bit too long, with a guide who was much too boring, but it was a spectacular sight, with footprints 80 cm wide (the biggest), and lifelike statues created of the dinosaurs who walked around there.

Back in Sucre there wasn't much to do, it may be known as a very beautiful city, but it is only so by Bolivian standards, and even that I found Potosi far more attractive. I took a taxi to the busterminal and bought a ticket to La Paz, and on the way back, come across two good sights. Back at the hostel, I caught an early day movie (first part with Andrew) called Bad Boys, a movie I realised for years I had been thinking about. For so many years I had been wondering about (not constantly, but occasionally) where I had seen a four barreled gun, the answer is the end of Bad Boys.

For dinner I went out to a Chinese place with Andre, Tamsyn and Trevor; we each ordered a dish, and then shared everything. It was a great dinner, followed by a great ice cream. When we came back to the hostel, the TV room was occupied, a bit disappointing as we had hoped to watch Aladdin.

3rd of May:

Another full day of nothing, I have pretty much exhausted whatever there is to do in Sucre, so I wasted the day doing nothing much but watch Aladdin, and buy different things for my bus ride, such as bread and a can of tuna (to be mystically combined), different kinds of sweets and some water.

However I had a very strong experience, that really showed me how far I was from home, not in kilometres but in a different world. At the supermarket, there was an escalator, and whenever people stepped on it, they would scream and be lunged forwards or backwards, some would jump off and take the stairs up, while others would hold on for their lives. It was a completely new addition, and a lot of people had never seen them, and looked at them very curiously. Some people just looked at it and refused to step onto it.

At 18.30 my bus set out and I was on my way to La Paz!

Onwards to Sucre!

29th of April:

You would think that getting to Sucre would be easy, just a nice comfy 10 hour busride... Well after eating at Minuteman last night, I got a bad case of food poisoning, my third. This time was a lot worse than in La Paz, but I managed... Sort of. I began by going out to find breakfast, but returning to my hotel feeling very ill. I knew I had to go on a busride to Sucre, and that even standing still or sitting on my bed, I felt as if I was about to vomit, so a bumpy road, 7 hours long (the 7 hour trip to Potosi is unpaved, the part from Potosi to Sucre is paved) would not be a good idea. However I wanted to go, there is nothing in Uyuni and plenty in Sucre... So I did what I thought I would never do... I shoved two fingers down my throat, forcing myself to vomit, and was done with it.

I went down to the bus stop, just to have a kind lady tell me that my bus was canceled... But luckily I got a free transfer to another bus company, so I loaded my rucksack onto a nice looking bus and went inside, still feeling rather queasy. And of course it wasn't much more than 45 minutes before I thought to myself "oh... fuck" and vomited down on the floor in front of me, much to the surprise of well... Everybody.

So I spent the remaining 6 hours and 15 minutes with my head hanging down, and just trying to force off the thirst, dehydration, headache and boredom; but of course it didn't last long till some South American idiot slammed his seat down on top of my head, and greatly worsened my headache. If I thought my 3 day trip from Asunción to Cuzco was bad... I had no idea what it could be like. After hours of pain, we arrived in Potosi, which meant that there would only be 3 hours left, but I called it quits, right then and there.

I took a taxi back to the hostel I had stayed at before, "La Casona", and went straight to bed. However there was a lot going on in my dorm room, so instead I started talking with a Kiwi (New Zealander) named Andrew, for quite a while, before I finally saw an opportunity to... Go out to the reception, buy a busticket for the next day, do my emails and then go to bed.

30th of April:

Early morning and I was feeling fine, so I went out and had a big hearty breakfast (not eating for more then a day, does make you hungry, and the food poisoning has passed). I then kicked about the entire day, mostly uploading pictures to flickr, before my bus finally left at 13 o'clock, where I was seated just behind Andrew and his two friends he was traveling with, Trevor and Trevor's girlfriend Tamsyn (don't ask me). The busride was quite enjoyable, and I got to finish Memoirs of a Geisha (I hadn't been able to finish it the previous day due to my illness), and immediately began reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

In time I arrived in Sucre, and hailed a taxi to take me to the Amigo Hostel, where I checked in, and set out looking for a net cafe with a working headset, something I never managed. So I found a call centre (they have more of those, than you would ever want to know), and called home, both to my mother and father.
I then walked back to my hostel and uploaded the last of my pictures from Salar De Uyuni, and then felt rather hungry. So I asked for a good place to eat dinner... And I believe it or not I was directed to a pizzeria, where of course I went. At the pizzeria, I was fortunate enough to meet Andrew, Trevor and Tamsyn. So we each had pizza, and then went back to the hostel and watch Chronicles of Narnia together, and I must say that I was quite pleasantly surprised. Afterwards it was late enough to be bedtime, so I went to bed.

Salar De Uyuni

Pictures: Salar De Uyuni

26th of April:

There were 10 of us, 4 Israeli's (Amit, Eyal, Or and Asaf), 1 Colombian (Cesar), 1 Pole (Olga) and me. There was also a driver, a cook and the cooks daughter (Magte).

We set out at 11 o'clock, and drove for several hours, until we came upon a sight, so spectacular, it could easily have been from another world. It was the saltflats of Uyuni, the "Salar de Uyuni", the largest in the world. When we first saw it, it was but a white line below the horizon, but as you get closer, it just grows. But the most stunning part, is the lack of contours or any kind of variation. It is perfectly level and extremely white; the only variation is the mountains in the distance.

The pictures you can get out there are spectacular, and for once I would include people in my pictures, it really was the only way to get variation. After some more driving, we arrived at the salt hotel, which as the name (and place) implies, is a hotel built exclusively from salt. Further on from that we arrived at the Isla de Pescado (Fish Island), which is named such as the island is fish-shaped (from the air). It is an extraordinarily beautiful island, filled with cacti that grow up to 1 cm every year (although some grow severely less, making one cactus 1200 years old). We also had lunch here (it was around 15 or 16 o'clock).
Around us a bicycle race started, with a person holding the "Olympic" flame. It was of course not the real Olympic flame, but rather a small community event.

Afterwards we drove to our hotel for the night, which was made of salt as well, everything except my mattress and the chair cushions were either made from salt or salt-rock. There we had dinner, and I hit my bed for an early night. But just before eating dinner, I heard some noise from a room, and went to check it out. There in the middle of nowhere in Bolivia, were 3 children playing Duck Hunt,

Magte (pronounced "Maijte"), the daughter of the cook, is a 5 year old girl, who just can't get enough of Gilbert, constantly playing with him, she is such a sweet girl, and the first place we arrived, she also let another girl play with Gilbert, who tied him to her back, as Bolivian women do with small children.

27th of April:

I overslept a lot, by the time I got up, most everybody else was ready to leave. So I chewed my breakfast very quickly, and we set off. As we were driving I picked out my latest book, The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara; a book which must be read while backpacking around South America, there really is no choice. However it is a rather short book, and it was done in 5 hours. Around 13 o'clock, we arrived at the first lagoon, and near the shore we were parked at, two foxes were circling about, posing for pictures. But the real attraction of the lagoon, were the flamingo's walking about, finding food.

At 13.40, we stopped at another lagoon, where we had lunch. Unfortunately there were no flamingo's, but a fox was eating something, and a bird kept circling about us, which for me was the best picture of the Salar De Uyuni trip. At 16 o'clock, we made it to a famous rock (no idea what it is called), although the shape of it, explains the fame. At 16.40, we arrived at the last lagoon of the day, where I got a great shot of our vehicle. At 17.30 we arrived at our accommodation for the night, everything went as expected for the rest of the evening, and knowing I had to get up early, I went early to bed.

28th of April:

Up horribly early, and there was no light. I have no torch, and I haven't had one for any part of my travels in South America. It was also at this time, I discovered that my watch had run out of battery. So i fumbled in the dark, but was ready quite quickly in any case. When Cesar, Olga and I were ready, we still had 45 minutes of waiting to do, before Amit, Asaf, Eyal and Or were ready. We eventually set out driving, and had to drive for a couple of hours, until we finally reached the geyser. We had to get up so early in the morning, as this particular geyser, is active exclusively around sunrise. It quickly got lighter, and we continued to a nearby area with volcanic activity. We then drove on for some hours, and when it got light enough, I started reading a new book: Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, it is 498 pages long, but so good that by the time I went to bed, I lacked 3 chapters. Around 9.30 we arrived at the hot springs, where we had breakfast, and the rest went for a dip in the water.

Afterwards we just drove all day long, stopping only for lunch, then again at some unique rocks and then finally at the train graveyard. After that we all arrived back in Uyuni, where Magte had a heartbreaking goodbye with Gilbert (I really couldn't give him up). I went to a hotel where I had booked a room (cheaper and better than the hostel I had stayed at previously in Uyuni), and after a while, went back to Minuteman for dinner, and ordered the same pizza (although this time a small one, which still is rather big) and bought their tshirt, and like my tshirt from Erratic Rock (Puerto Natales, ages ago), it is a size small (American tshirts) and it is orange, so when I wear it, some people come up to me and say "alles goes?" ("how are you?" in Dutch). After the pizza, I felt stuffed and walked back to my hotel, and straight to bed.

The Road To Uyuni

I keep waking up early, but then I don't go late to bed. But as I knew I would be spending the entire day in a bus, I went to have a decent breakfast (hostel breakfast is 2 pieces of bread) and brought Angela and James along. I ate...  A big ham and cheese omelet, a big sandwich and 2 huge pancakes. Angela and I then went to grab the bus to Uyuni. It was a 7 hour busride, and there wasn't much to do, so I finished Post-Captain (what a magnificentbook) and just waited around to arrive. During a 20 minute stop, I fell in conversation with the only other westerners, Declan and Judy from Ireland. When we got to Uyuni, I already had a reservation at a hostel, while Angela, Declan and Judy went to a different place.

I booked a 3D/2N tour to the Salar de Uyuni, and walked around town for a while. It is uglier than La Paz (no, really), but in a different way. It is just superbly bland, whereas La Paz is just something that looks like it is about to be torn down.

For dinner, I went to the famous Minuteman pizzeria (highlight of Uyuni), and had a wonderful spicy llama pizza (I am really beginning to like llama), with a diameter of 45 cm, and I of course finished it, but not before adding cinnamon on top of it. But once there, I found that Angela, Declan and Judy were also there, but even though they had already eaten, they stayed and talked while I ate, and even after I was done, we stayed at Minuteman and had a good time until it got late, and we all went back to our respective beds, for a good nights sleep before the trip to the salt desert.

Deadly Mines:

I had gone early to bed the previous day, so I woke with good time to spare before my tour would start at 9. But 9 o'clock came around, and we got picked up, in total there was 12, and our first stop was the deposit, where we could outfitted with mining clothes (to protect us), wellies and a helmet. We then went to the miners market where we all bought some presents for the miners (I bought a stick of dynamite, some fuse, a detonator and some pink powder which makes the explosion bigger), and all bought some dynamite together for a demonstration. We then drove to the top of the mountain, had a dynamite demonstration, what a blast, I couldn't even keep my camera centered.

We then had headlights fitted onto our helmets, and went into the darkness of the mine, where we met plenty of miners at work, got shown around an underground museum, saw them come by with wheelbarrows, mining trains, and just generally being at work. The first we came by (who got my dynamite) were about to crawl through the tiniest hole into a mine underneath. But the different presens were coca leaves, cigerattes, dynamite, different coca based drinks and 96% potable alcohol. The mines were completely dark, with no form of ventilation, and at the least, ankle deep in mud. When they went around to the different floors (we didn't), there were no elevators, so they dug their own shafts, and climbed down there with all their tools.

In the museum we also saw the two gods miners worship, Tio and Pacha Mama. Pacha Mama is worshipped by American Indians everywhere, it means mother earth; but Tio is a go only for the miners, introduced by the Spaniards as El Mal Dio (the evil god), meant to keep the forced labour in order, it changed with the Bolivian independence war, from being an evil Spanish good, to becoming the god of the miners. And on every friday when the miners sell their mineral, they get money, go party and sacrifice alcohol and coca leaves to Tio and Pacha Mama.

I forgot to mention that Potosi is at an altitude of 4090 meters, and the mountains being mined, peaks at 4824 meters.

Back at the hostel I met  Swizz girl named Angela and an American called Aaron. The three of us went to dinner, the same place I had been the previous day. Angela has been traveling for 8 months and is near the end of her trip, whilst Aaron has been traveling for 1,5 years, and has no plans of going home.
Last night I had the fried llama, but this time I had a chicken milanesa, and once again, the restaurant didn't fail to impress, it was wonderful.

After the dinner, we went back and watched The Devil's Miner, a very strong and moving documentary, about a 14 year old boy who works in the mines we visited that day.
Afterwards I was very tired and went to bed, feeling sad about the fate of Basilio.

P.s. I am writing this from Uyuni, and tomorrow morning I am going out on the saltflats for 3 days, during this time I will unsurprisingly, not be able to write here, so please be patient and don't panic, just because there is no sign of life for 3 days.