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So we left San Pedro de Atacama early ready to drive into Bolivia. We were driving along a main road when we suddenly turned off onto a dirt track, we all got a bit worried as it didn´t seem to be going anywhere but it seems that this was a sign of things to come in Bolivia. We reached the border control which was a portacabin and a couple of dilapidated buildings. One of the girls in our group had lost her passport a couple of days earlier and was worried that she wouldn´t be let in to Bolivia but she had nothing to worry about, she just hid in the minibus while we all got our passports stamped and no one knew! Our 4X4 trucks were waiting for us at the border and they were to be our transport for the next 3 days. Our driver was called Crispo. He looked very Bolivian; not many teeth, quite short and with very weathered skin. We set off across the altiplano and into deepest Bolivia. The landscape was quite different to the Atacama Desert, we noticed the change in temperature immediately, perhaps the Havaianas weren´t such a good idea! The landscape was pretty desolate but we soon came across the Laguna Verde which was a magnifcent green lake. It had its colour because of the copper in the water. Apparently the lake only looks green when it´s windy because the wind blows the sediment around. It looked very green to us and was beautiful. It was made better by the fact that we were pretty much the only ones around as far as the eye could see. Already Bolivia was impressing us.
However, there was one down point that we all immediately noticed after crossing the border and driving for a while. The altitude change! We were climbing fast and our heads felt like they were going to explode. At one point we drove to some very active geysers which smelt very eggy. At this point we were at 5900m above sea level. I (Kat) couldn´t even get out of the truck at this point i felt so ill. It was really strange how quickly and painfully it affected us. We then drove to the Laguna Colorado which was a red lake. It was this colour because of the photoplankton that lived in it. These plankton were the perfect food for flamingoes and we saw loads of them! It was a gorgeous lake and again so quiet and peaceful.
That night everyone was feeling shattered as the altitude had really got to them. We were staying in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere in a hostel where the roofs were corrugated iron sheets held in place with rocks. It was FREEZING! We wore thermals and longsleeves in bed and were even tempted to wear hats too! The electricity stopped at 9.30pm so we were all pretty much asleep by then.
The next day we continued our drive across the altiplano. Some of us were still feeling the effects of being so high above sea level; muscle stiffness, headaches and upset stomachs - joy!!! Our drive on this day took us across some very different landscapes again. This was a lot less volcanic and more lush. This was the day when we saw our first llamas, yay! This was the start of what was soon to become an obsession with the woolly animals! We were taken to see some rock paintings that were about 4000 years old. There were of men hunting and although they weren´t that big or impressive it was cool to think that they had been there for so long. We then saw some Andean rabbits which were hopping around on some rocks, they were really cute but really big with long tails and long back legs. That night we stayed in a hostel made out of salt, even our beds were mattresses on blocks of salt. Again it was pretty cold but we did get to have our first hot shower for a couple of days!
The next day was perhaps one of the best of the trip so far! We were on the salt flats! Matt got up to watch the sunrise which was amazing. Then after breakfast we drove out across them. For the first part they were covered in a inch of water and it really felt like we were on snow not salt. We got some great photos here because of the reflections in the water. We all started prancing around like maniacs, i think the lack of physical exercise for the past 2 days had got to us. After we had taken 1000s of photos here we drove further out across the flats. Again there were no other groups to be seen and all we could see was salt as far as the horizon. We then stopped where there was no water on the salt so we could do some funny perspective photos. Some of the people in our group had some great ideas for photos and our guide Jose was great at telling us where to stand so they would come out well. It was really fun even if a bit painful lying on hard salt. We then continued driving and came to an island which just seemed to have been dumped in the middle of the flats. It didn´t fit in with the landscape at all. It was called Fish Island but was covered in cacti and coral! We walked to the top of it and found one cactus that was 12.3m tall and 1203 years old!
Then we drove across the final part of the flats and came to the edge where the salt is refined and collected. This looked like such a hard job and the workers weren´t using any kind of high tech tools. They would make piles of salt and then shovel it into trucks. It must have been so bad for their eyes looking at the salt all day and it was back breaking work. It was really sad to find out that the salt is sold for so little too. We then drove to Uyuni which is the town on the edge of the flats. That night we ate at a delicious pizza restaurant which was a nice change to the food that we´d been eating for the past few days.
The next day we drove to Potosi which used to be the silver mining capital of the world. It is the highest city in the world at 4200m. This was our first taste of urban Bolivia as we hadn´t seen many people for the past few days. The town was so busy and full of people and cars. Cars in Bolivia are more important than humans so we had to be very careful of our toes even when on the pavement! Unfortunately Potosi was the silver capital in the 16th century and now is not a rich place at all because all of the silver has been mined and taken to Europe. This was quite a poor city with lots of beggars and people who looked very old. The thing that we have discovered about Bolivians is that they are impossible to age. A woman could look 50 but be carrying a young baby on her back and could only be 25. Their lives are very hard and you can really tell. We only had one full day in Potosi and so visited the House of the Coin in the morning where we were shown how the silver was used to make Spain and Bolivia´s currency. That afternoon we visited one of the mines. This was a scary experience and very sad. There is a mountain that overlooks Potosi that was once very rich in silver, now it is about 1000m shorter than it originally was and contains no precious metals. There are around 5000 tunnels in the mountain which are all used to access the tin which is found there now. We went into one of these tunnels. It was dark, small and had no safety precautions at all. There were huge holes in the ground which led to more tunnels which we could hardly see until we were almost stepping into them. Before we got to the mine we had made a stop-off to buy the miners some gifts. Not presents for their children or food as you might think but 96% alcohol (if we drank it would probably make us go blind!), coca leaves and dynamite - not your usual presents. When we were in the mine we met one of the miners, they work for up to 24 hours a day without leaving the mine at all and don´t eat anything, they just chew the leaves which make them numb and suppress their appetites. We also met his 10 year old son. Apparently if a miner dies his son has to take over his job so this boy was watching his father work. It seemed pretty likely that he would work there one day since 365 miners die a year and most only live until about 40. It was really emotional to learn about and so sad that the government did so little to help these men stay safe. We exploded some of the dynamite in the mine which was pretty scary after having been told by our guide how often the tunnels collapse and the noise was like thunder. But we were told that it helps the miners as tunnels can be created much quicker. After the explosion some of the group were lowered down into a deeper tunnel but some of us got a bit freaked out and wanted to see the sun again so waited outside. It turned out to be a good idea as they were just lowered down with a rope and then had to climb back up through tiny holes, never good for people with claustrophobia!
The silver mine was a wake-up call that we were now in a Third World country which we hadn´t properly experienced so far on our trip after being spoiled in Argentina and Chile. It felt good though as this the part of the trip that most of us had been most looking forward to.
The next day we left for Sucre; The White City and Bolivia´s Constitutional capital.....
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