Note: this is taken from emails sent in 2001. Hemi
Hi all!
This morning i went to an interesting place – a mine.
Potosi is a city of 140 thousand people which was founded 500 years ago
next to a mountain known as Cerro Ricoh (rich mountain). ever since, the
digging has not stopped – first silver then other metals and minerals. overall 8
million moners have died digging the mountain !!!!
when i entered the long tunnels i understood why. high altitude (4500m)
dusty air, no safety equipment at all, uncontrolled dynamite explosions
etc etc…
But it was a very interesting tour. the miners chew on coca leaves to relieve the dizziness caused by the bad conditions. it is customary for tourists to bring the miners gifts when arriving, so before we went to the mines we stooped at the dynamite market – little shops where the miner can get all he needs – shovels, dynamite sticks and other explosive
equipments, coca leaves and chewing accessories, pure alcohol 95% – like the kind we clean acne with… so each tourist spent a few bolivianos on gifts. by the way potosi comes from indian potosh – explosion.
Friday is a happy day for the miners because they finish a 24 hour shift that starts thursday morning and when it ends they are allowed to get drunk.
so the first thing we saw when we arrived this morning are some really jolly miners…
at $5 salary a day, i would be drinking too.
how did i get to potosi ?
lets go back a few days to Uyuni (city of lights). I found a really good group and the tour company was ok too. we set out for 4 days of mostly sitting in a 4by4 toyota landcruiser, traveling from one attraction to another. in the group were me, oded Рan israeli student who had already been to south america a few years ago, a swiss couple katherine and rafael whose problems kept chasing them ever since they were robbed in p̩ru due to their own stupidity, and nice married couple paul (irish) and mariannna (dutch) who took 6 monthes off from life to travel the world.
so lthough the rides from one attraction to another were quite long, we had good conversations. marianna also was fluent in spanish so we were able to get much more out of the crew. the crew were juvenal the driver who spent every moment he could under the hood of the car fixing improving and polishing the engine, and his sister inlaw elizabeth the cook for who this was the debut tour.
we also learned of their miserable lives, how they barely get paid (only $10 for 4 days!!), how elis husband died of alcoholism last year leaving her with 3 kids to take care off, and she is only 34 yrs old!
so they were very pleased at the end of the trip when we gave them a tip that doubled their salary !
as for the views – we covered 1000km and saw various geological themes – a salt desert that has “islands” of land in it with ancient cactii – some over a thousand years old. we saw a lagoon called the smelly lagoon which houses hundreds of pink flamingoes! we saw a lagoon that was blood red (magnesium) and another lagoon that is as green as grass due to copper in the water.
we saw weird rock formations that some bolivian decided are similar to salvador dalis figures near barcelona.
we went to a palce full of geysers and boiling hot bubbling mud baths.
we also had a treat. the nights were very cold. minus 10 degrees with no heating in the huts we stayed at. on the third morning we reached a place called agua termales – a lake with a corner that has 40 degrees C water that were great to take a bath in.
food on the sojourn was not a major hit – basic and simple and usually not enough. good thing we brought cookies and stuff with us. yesterday afternoon we returned “home” to Uyuni. After a great shower i said goodbye to my new friends and took a night bus
to Potosi. The way over was interesting because i sat next to a spanosh teacher from barcelona…
We reached Potosi at 3 am. In my broken spanish I had previously reserved a room in a local hostel, but when knocking on the door for 5 minutes without a reply i was beginning to think maybe my spanish is worse than i think. Just then an old man opened the door and let me in.
So far so good. I am enjoying myself, practicing spanish, and every once in a while i try out a new food – today it was saltena – its a dough the size of a lemon filled with cubes of meat and veggies in a very tasty sauce. In a few hours i take another night bus , this time back to la paz (10 hrs) from which i will promptly depart to Sorata in the north (5 hrs) – the hiking capital of bolivia.
hope all is well – though in israel i heard its not. When i see the poverty in bolivia i say that with all our problems – we
are still very fortunate.
bye for now,
Hemi