The highest I have ever been

So we spent two weeks in Santa Cruz - the largest city in Bolivia, doing mainly almost nothing and resting. We did go to the center  to find some "night life" twice. One of the times we ended up chilling with some homeless guys and chatting until morning, the second time we were just aimlessly walking with two British travelers that we had met until 4am, until we finally gave up. The reason? There are basically no pubs in Bolivia. The few that can be found (expensive and touristic) are open at odd times (close very early) and the alternative is a few discotheques (only found in a few biggest cities) that take a fortune to enter, a fortune to buy a beer and then you only hear reggaeton and cumbia blazing through the speakers in a near-empty club. In smaller towns... I'll get to that.

We were pleasantly surprised to find out that the odd bus-system of the city works very well. There are many microbuses that take 2bob (about 0,3 dollars) for a ride, take strange routes (it is still true here what I wrote about Brazil - the road systems are idiotic and almost all the streets are one-way with restrictions to where you can turn), they stop wherever you like (stopping traffic around them) and don't really have time - table. But we never had to wait for a bus and they were surprisingly fast - we once took a bus to the centre, went shopping there and took a bus to the other side of the city and it took us only 50min from stepping out of our house to reaching our destination.

We also found out why they give out warnings about the corrupt police around Santa Cruz - luckily this time we were not the victims. We warned a British couple who had just arrived in Bolivia that you probably have to carry your passport with you at all times. Since we were not 100% sure about it that time (that you are actually obligated to do that by law, as we carry ours all the time anyway to avoid trouble) , they decided not to take theirs when they went exploring the town the next day. Sure enough, the police stopped them, took them to the station, searched through all their pockets and bags and announced that the fine for not having an ID is the exact sum of money that they had on them (quite convenient after searching them). The money then found its way into the pocket of one of the police officers right in front of their eyes. But it's not just the foreigners, they do that to locals as well. So in Bolivia, you are more likely to be robbed by the police than by the criminals.

We also visited some sand-dunes just outside the city (cool and cheap place to camp for anyone in the area) and got a really good practice in driving on loose dry sand and ended up breaking one of the inner tyres by letting out too much air.

After Santa Cruz, our conquering of the Andes started. According to the plan, we will be up in the mountains for at least a month, reaching over 4000 metres in Potosi (we will also go higher but probably with a tour, not on our bike) and then moving north to the capital of Bolivia before entering Peru to go to Cusco (all up high in the Andes). 

But before we start moving along the alps, it is necessary to climb up and make some few-day stops on the way to avoid altitude sickness. You could also spend 24/7 with coca leaves in your cheek, but it will leave your cheeks numb and corners of your mouth brown eventually.

Our first climb was to a little village called Samaipata, which lies at 1800m above sea level. It did not come easy for the bike as we are still learning how to change the fuel/air mix in the engine (the air gets thinner at higher altitudes so the bike needs constant adjusting). The town itself is beautiful and has a nice climate, therefore many europeans have decided to move there and open their small restaurants or hostels there. So for a small town it has quite a good selection of food and even one pub.

We also found a very chilled out hostel/camping (locally owned and run) called Jaguar Azul and we really really did not want to leave (a room with a view of the hills for 12AUD) but we made ourselves do it anyways because we had just been resting in one place for two weeks (and regretted leaving a lot).

Samaipata market

Near Samaipata there are also ruins of a pre-Incan fort and the surrounding buildings, part of which is a huge stone with carvings on it (mostly shapes of animals). There are also tiny steps and tens of 'doors' that lead 'into' the rock. The doors made me feel like at some points there were actually some spirits living inside the rock or behind it, in another world. It is hard to explain but they were not just carvings on a stone. Most people are quite unamazed by the fort, but since we haven't seen the more magnificent ones (the most famous being Macchu Piccu), the visit was pretty impressive to us.

Our next stop was Vallegrande (altitude 2030m) - a place known as the last place where Che Guevara tried to lead another revolution, without success. During the year that he spent in the area, he was unable to break through the brainwash-power that the government had over the people. Right now Che is very respected and even worshiped in the area because now they actually understand that he had good intentions, plus he brings in all the tourists.

Inappropriately cheerful at the place where Che's body was exhibited after catching him

The place where his body was exhibited to the public, the place where they cut off his hands from his body and the place where his body was buried in a common grave (it took years of searching until the skeleton was found again and taken to Cuba) are just about the only things for tourists in Vallegrande. There are literally no pubs or bars (after cirlcling the center for 45min we literally found zero places to have a beer) and the only food options you get are (very greasy) rice with (equally greasy) chicken or very greasy burgers, even in the places that call themselves 'restaurants'. In other towns at least you can pay 5 times the price of local food and get some tasteless rip-off of some European dish.

By now the situation has gotten that far that eating has become the biggest burden we have (the second being that we can't just normally buy fuel) . Finding a place to eat always takes hours and even then we just don't want to eat whatever we find. Going to shops and cooking isn't much better because in most towns you just have the small corner shops that don't really sell much plus you are supposed to know what they sell there, as you can't get in (and people get angry if you ask them) . Market is another option, except most hostels don't have a place to cook or forbid cooking in them. By now I weigh less than I did in highschool.

Next we headed towards Sucre (altitude 2810m), which is called 'the white city' as all the houses in the centre are regularly whitewashed and it really does look lovely. But to get to Sucre we had about 80km of roadworks to go through (in addition to the paved road) . For a gravel road, it was pretty ok and the views were extremely scenic as most of the road is a preservation area for cactuses, some of which are probably up to 10m tall.

We were having some breakfast (biscuits and water) on the road, overlooking a river valley when we noticed that there was an excavator above the road that we were about to drive through and everything that he was excavating was falling on the same road that we were supposed to take. We observed some more, wondering how we were supposed to go through when we saw a car coming from the opposite direction and very slowly crawling along the mostly dry riverbed that was running parallel to the road . We also observed that the excavator driver did not stop when the car came through, or the second car or the third car.

So as we made our way towards the spot with the excavator, we noticed that many of the rocks rolled all the way into the riverbed, to the place, where the temporary 'road' for the cars was. We stopped in front of the place with the flying rocks and at the same time with us three other cars got there and stopped to wait for the machine to stop. The other drivers had not seen that the excavator driver actually doesn't give a fuck and has no intention of stopping - probably because an hour of work for the excavator costs more than human life around here. So after some waiting and seeing that he actually isn't going to care, I got off the bike, Erik waited for a moment when there were not that many rocks coming (not all of them made it all the way down to the riverbed, only some occasional ones) and drove through as he is slightly faster and maneuvers better with less weight. When he had gotten through, I sneaked through on foot from the far end of the riverbed, where the rocks didn't reach.

Sucre

In Sucre we thought that we might go and see some other travelers so we decided to go to a big and well-known backbacker hostel. We actually paid more for our dorm beds than we usually pay for a private room in local hostels (this was our very first dorm-stay during the whole 17 months of traveling). It also turned out that the food and drinks (which you were not allowed to bring in from outside) cost more than twice as much as outside the hostel. And for that price you didn't even get anything especially good. In addition, Sucre was having troubles with water, which meant that the whole town was without it for half a day every day. They just ran out. Every day.

I am not sure that I should focus that much on the negative sides of our travels, but you can see the good sides from the pictures (the incredible nature and other interesting things) and it would be quite boring to just read about good things. Sucre really was a picturesque city, as it was situated on a hill, surrounded by valleys and them some more hills. Driving into it was like being in a movie. I even made a video about it although I later discovered that my camera hadn't been recording after all.

Another interesting thing that I had read about Bolivia, but hadn't seen yet, were people dressed in zebra costumes organising traffic on pedestrian crossing - Bolivia's attempt in making traffic safer with dancing animals. The idea is good but how about educating people instead? The people around here really do not understand how traffic works. Stopping in the middle of the road, blocking two lanes and thirty cars? No problem. Changing lanes, blocking your way (without blinkers of course. you are weird if you use blinkers here) and then stopping in front of you? What's wrong with that? Passing other cars at a curb with absolutely no visibility, just hoping that there is no ongoing traffic? Of course.

Climbing higher and higher, all three of us were getting affected by the altitude. It was the worst for Starcraft who was really struggling because he didn't get enough oxygen to pull us up the hills. Huffing and puffing, so far he has still managed to get us to our destination, although lately we have learned to make our stops on top of hills, just in case Starcraft doesn't want to start. We are also both panting and gasping for air. I start my mornings with coca-leaf tea and chew them occasionally the rest of the day to deal with my altitude-caused headaches (and the leaves really do help). But we are pretty lucky because some people get so sick that they spend several days sick in hotel beds until they give up and head to lower altitudes.

Our next stop was Potosi. Lying 4090m above sea level, it is the highest city in the world. During the colonial times they found silver in the mountain Cerro Rico (The Rich Mountain), and the Spanish immediately made the indigenous people and slaves dig out the silver. When the people didn't want to work anymore (because of the working conditions) the Spanish made up a mountain god named Tio (comes from the word Dios, meaning god), which is a mix of the indigenous Quechuan Pacha Mama (Mother earth) and a devil-like creature, who will take revenge on anyone who does not want to work.

Tio with the gifts that the miners have brought him in order to get protection

So for years they pulled out the silver, making the ruling Spaniards richer and richer and killing 8 million (!!!) people who were working for the riches. The mountain is nicknamed 'the mountain that eats men' because the usual life expectancy of the workers is 35 years. At the hight of its riches at 1600, (150,000 inhabitants) the city claims to have been the biggest in the world. That may not be exactly true, but it was very big and rich considering the time and its location.  

Now why would I use the word 'is' when I am talking about the past? Well that's because I am not only talking about past. When the mountain ran out of silver (not completely but enough to not be very profitable to mine it any more), the Spanish left, leaving behind a very nice center of a town and a mountain like a swiss cheese, but taking all the other riches with them - the wealth of the silver didn't make its way to the local people.

We went on a tour to the mines where hundreds of men still work now in the same conditions, using the same methods of work (drilling holes for the dynamite, blasting them and then taking the rocks out using muscle power) . When we walked through the low and dark tunnels, we encountered men pushing out trolleys on small rails (in many of the tunnels they use cartwheels instead), their faces covered in dust and cheeks full of coca. You could see that many of them hadn't slept (and probably eaten) in days. We could hear explosions coming from below us, in the deeper tunnels. We actually didn't go deeper than the ground level ( we saw one shaft that was going eight 'floors' down) but we felt the heat in the tunnel because the mountain is a former vulcano. The tunnels are full of dust and harmful substances like arsenic and asbestos. The salary for all that? Two to five dollars a day,  depending on the day, as you only get money for the useful minerals, not by hour, so they occasionally have 24-, 36- or 72-hour days.

With our guide, before entering the mines. On the background, the miners' houses

The most horrible thing though is that the youngest workers can be as young as ten years old. In fact, most of the men we encountered were barely grown up as well. The children that work there, do that usually because they don't want to work there in the future. What logic is in that, you may ask. But over here, when children want to go to school, they are literally not let into the school unless they have bought themselves the correct clothes for school and gotten a proper haircut (only certain styles are allowed), costing several months' weight for their parents. Now if the children have lost one of their parents (one reason for example that the father worked in the mines), they need to find ways to earn money so that they could get an education. For me the system is completely backwards because the poorest members of the society are actually cut off from having an education.

The fancy city centre of Sucre, built with the money from Cerro Rico

The tourists that go to the mines bring them gifts like dynamite (you can buy it on the streets), soft drinks or coca leaves. Of course some of the tour organizers do it for profit but luckily we accidentally found a lovely lady operating a company called Amigos de Bolivia, who is genuinely worried about the children and for example on school holidays, when the number of children is the highest in the mines, suggests bringing notebooks and school supplies for the students instead of coca. I could write more and more about the mines, as it really left a big impression on me, and I still get goosebumps (not the good kind) when I think about it (2-3 miners die in the mines every month still) but I really recommend a movie they have made, following one of the 14-year-old workers of the mine: https://youtu.be/mZlpBQh_0jc

After leaving behind the sad (but beautiful) town in Potosi, we headed to Uyuni (atitude 3600m) which is the entrance to the biggest salt flats in the world. Having read innumerable lists of articles called 'The top 3/5/10/25/100 places to see in South America' and finding Uyuni at the top of every last one of them (ok, maybe it was in the top 3 in some of them) we just had to go and see what 10 580 square kilometers of salt looks like.

In front of one of the salt hotels, where we had lunch. Could not keep my eyes open as everything was white and my sunnies had been stolen in Brazil

Well, one thing is for sure - it is definitely very big and very white. People have gotten lost on it for days, which I have trouble understanding with the sun and the stars and the fact that you CAN actually always see some of the islands (it used to be a lake) or the edge. Not to mention the very new invention of GPS that almost every phone has...

We took a three-day tour as we also wanted to see some other sights, that were a bit too South of Bolivia for us to go there by the bike, considering that we are planning to go North after Bolivia. It is actually the first country on our trip where we have taken some tours, as it is quite cheap here.

We were sharing a 4x4 tour car with a local driver (of course only speaking Spanish), a lovely French-Austrian retired couple (English, German and French language for the wife, the same with much less English for the husband) and a couple made up of a 25-year old Brazilian girl who had altitude sickness half of the time (refused to use coca leaves; was always unhappy and whiny; spoke Portuguese and bad Spanish) and a 70-year old Bolivian man who insisted in taking 70 pictures at every stop with both his camera AND his girlfriend's phone in addition to making a video at each stop (spoke only Spanish). So we ended up being the translators of the trip. Never thought it would come to that.

All the natural wonders that we saw during these three days were breathtaking: The amazingly big and flat saltfield; the island in the middle of the salt, covered in huge cactuses; the mountains and the valleys; the colorful lagoons; the geisers at sunrise (4900m altitude, - 5c temperature)  and the pools of naturally hot water and even the hotel made out of salt (actually a fake one, as the walls were stone, covered in salt), and the border between Bolivia and Chile, when we were less than 100km away from San Pedro de Atacama (we had been in San Pedro five months before). So the trip really was worth it, the only downsides being the fact that you had to pay a dollar for every time you used toilet (big signs everywhere threatening with a big fine if you should use the nature); you had to pay two dollars for using the shower in the hotel; our bit annoying strange couple (had to wait all the time for the girl to let us out of the car and for the man to finish taking all of his pictures) and the fact that in addition to us, there were also 25 other 4x4 tour cars doing the same route at exactly the same time.

We were finishing our trip on a Sunday that was unfortunately also the election day in Bolivia (this time they were not reelecting their drug-lord president but local government) which meant that the country was on a lock down. The people were not allowed to travel around, the purpose of that being that they would stay home and vote (we saw several faults in this logic such as what if you needed to travel to your nearest election office to vote) and that included us and our drivers. So when the first of our army of cars got stopped at a police checkpoint, all the others decided to detour through some small 'roads' to go around the checkpoint. The trouble was that we still had 100km of 'highway' before the end of our tour, and that part you apparently couldn't detour. So we spent half of Sunday getting into the cars, driving a few hundred metres, then someone stopping again (the drivers were scared because if caught, they would have lost their licence and car in addition to paying a huge fine), everyone else stopping, everyone waiting for 20min before getting back into the cars, driving for 200 metres until someone panicked and stopped... and so on. In the end we waited for the elections to end and we were the first test car to check that there were no more checkpoints (there weren't).

Before I came to South America the most impressing natural wonders I have seen were probably the fjords in Norway, the Great Rift Valley in Kenya and Uluru/Ayers Rock in Australia. Now I must admit that South America has totally taken over the top three. The Salt flats are definitely something very surreal just because of the size and flatness of it, in addition to the shapes on the salt and the islands. The Iguazú falls with the staggering  amount of water falling down in one place is something that is impossible to imagine. And the Andes are breathtaking. I have seen only a tiny fraction of them (both now and five months ago when going from Chile to Argentina) but I have already seen an amazingly big number of different colours and shapes. It is as if every 50km you are in a completely new continent. The main colours of the Andes for me (so far) are bright yellows, oranges and purples and occasionally also greens, blues, reds and everything in between. And that is just the rocks themselves. At times it feels like a giant has lifted up whole mountains and turned them on their sides or broken them into pieces and tossed around or moulded statues out of them. And in the middle of these amazing hills there are also colorful lagoons, oasis' and plants, salt flats and different animals and birds. Words just cannot describe it so I added some pictures, which really don't do any justice to these amazing giants.