Alright, well I'm back to playing catch up again, but I hope that this post will bring me up to where I am today, in Potosí. In my last post I mentioned we had to change around our plans and go to the jungle first, before continuing on with the rest of Bolivia, rather then doing the opposite. The day after we bought our tickets to jungle we boarded an 18 hour bus to Rurrenabaque (the town nearest to the jungle). Now, I had heard beforehand that the road to Rurrenabaque wasn't pleasant, and well, let's just say it lived up to its reputation. The only nice thing about that trip is that I was able to sleep through the night. The road itself was only paved for the first 2 hours or so and after that it was dusty, bumpy, and only really made for one and a half cars. Anytime we had oncoming traffic, we would have to stop, back up to a wider part of the road, and wait for the car/bus/truck to pass. Meanwhile one of our tires would be within a couple inches of a 100+ foot drop (usually more). It's definitely one of those roads that could be done in about half the time if it was widened and paved, but oh well. Oh and on top of all that, there was no air conditioning in the bus. Now that is normal and usually isn't a problem, except that given the heat, we had to open a window and opening a window meant that dust would fly in. By the end we were all completely covered in dust and weren't about to have a shower for another 2 days. Oh yeah, and they didn't even have a TV (you can tell our lives are difficult). Actually, a fair number of Bolivian buses don't have TVs, which is unfortunate; despite the awful choice in movies, they do make the time go by.

So after a good 18 hours of dusty, bumpy, narrow roads we arrived in Rurrenabaque and met up with our tour operator. Our plan was to first spend two days in the Jungle and then three days on in the Pampas (flat wetlands). This seemed to be a pretty average style trip and a way for us to see a bit of everything (whereas in the Jungle we'd see more insects and plants, in the Pampas we were going to see more animals). Since the agency who we booked the tour through in La Paz was a bit behind the ball in terms of notifying the tour operator of our coming, the operator hadn't had enough time to get a group together, so for the first part of the trip we were on our own.

The Jungle tour started off with a 3 hour boat ride along the main river that bypasses the town. The boats we took were basically like long canoes. They were thin, long, close to the water and absolutely great for relaxing in. The water was perfect for swimming, although we didn't end up swimming until we were on the Pampas tour and the breeze we created as we glided along the water managed to keep the heat at an excellent temperature.

After three hours in the boat we arrived to the base camp where we would spend the night and do some hiking. The first thing I remember as we got off the boat and started along the trail to the camp were the smells. I've never been in a forest that was so rich in scents and smells. And that was only a prelude for the next couple days. At the camp we ate lunch, relaxed for a bit, and then went on a short hike. The food throughout the entire tour was spectacular. After spending 6 or 7 weeks more or less buying the cheapest thing around, it was amazing to eat well cooked, tasty food. The only unfortunate thing about the tour is that we spent a lot of time sitting around. We only went on a short 45 minute hike in the afternoon on the first day and then a short evening hike to spot the nocturnal animals. Personally I would have loved to have spent hours hiking around and seeing everything there is to see. Either way the second day was much better in that sense. We got up, ate breakfast, and headed out on a hike. Along the hike the guide pointed out various types of medicinal and poisonous plants as we headed through the forest to a nearby community. At one point along the hike our guide took us onto a side trail to a cliff where hundreds of birds had dug in their nests. Unfortunately for the forest, however, it seems that our guide didn't really want to double back. Instead he asked us to wait a minute while he went a bit machete happy, making his own path to the trail. Then he came back to where we were standing and told us he wanted to give us a slightly more "authentic" experience. I think we were supposed to thank him for his generosity in making our Jungle experience more "real", but I wasn't really sure how to respond. Either way it seems park laws are a bit more laxed out in the jungle. When we were on the Pampas tour our guide told us he was going to try and catch an alligator for us on one condition: we weren't allowed to tell anyone back in La Paz. He then explained that catching alligators is illegal (go figure) but that he would do it for us to give us a "better experience". Fortunately for the alligators we ran out of time and had to settle with seeing them 5 feet away from the boat...

Right, I'm getting a bit side tracked. So like I was saying, the second day of the Jungle tour was really interesting. It was especially neat to actually be in a forest where you can clearly see animal tracks--and lots of them. We even managed to spot some monkeys, a few armadillos, an anteator, a toucan (though from a distance), and a whole bunch of other birds whose names I don't know. The hike then culminated in a visit to one of the nearby communities. The community consisted of some 20 odd families (if I remember correctly), although it seemed to be fairly spread out (we only saw 3 or 4 houses). Most of the people seem to work in agriculture and probably earn something off of the tourism, although things such as school haven't yet made it to those communities. While there I had a chance to try Chicha made from Yuca for the first time. Yuca (aka Cassava) is a starch vegetable that grows throughout the region and from it people make Chicha, a mild alcoholic drink. While in Ecuador I tried chicha that was made from Corn, but the two are very different. I wasn't too big a fan of the yuca-based chicha, although the corn one isn't bad.

So after finishing the hike we ate lunch at the base camp and then returned to Rurrenabaque. In my opinion the tour was way too short, but since we didn't have much time and since we wanted to see the Pampas, we didn't have much of a choice. Aside from being too short though, it was excellent and a good prelude for the Pampas, which was even better.

The Pampas tour started with 3 more hours of dust and bumps as we drove to the river that runs along the flat lands. Once we got to the river though, we hopped into another boat (same style as the Jungle boat) and started down the river to our camp. Now, whereas the boat on the Jungle tour was more about getting to the spot, the boat on the Pampas tour was more about getting to the spot, while seeing as many animals as possible. Over the course of the three or four hour trip to the camp site we saw a good 60 or 70 alligators (and probably more), monkeys, river dolphins, capivaras (sp?.....a big beaver-like animal), all kinds of birds, a crap load of tourists, and a bunch of other animals that are slipping my mind at the moment. The best part was when we first came across dolphins in alligator infested waters, and our guide told us to swim. I was a bit hesitant at first, but he claimed it was fine and rumour has it the dolphins scare away the alligators (though another tour group claims they saw alligators swimming in and among dolphins). Either way I jumped in and the others, seeing that I didn't get eaten within the first 10 seconds, followed suit. All I can say about the water is Wow! I mean sure it looked dirty (probably from silt more than anything), but the temperature was perfect and after laying on a boat in the scorching heat, a nice swim was exactly what we all needed.

I mentioned earlier that for the first part of the trip we were alone. That was only for the Jungle portion. For the Pampas tour we were with two others, a 20 year old German and a 22 year old Australian. As it turns out actually, the German guy, Lukas, had also spent the last year in Ecuador teaching high school English in a community about two hours north of Quito. He arrived about 3 days before me and is leaving on the same day as me. And there are a whole bunch of other random similarities we've come across, but I won't go into detail. The point is, after the pampas tour Lukas, who was travelling on his own, decided to come along with us and so he's been with us ever since.

As for the second day of the tour, we spent it hiking through the Pampas in search of anacondas. As it turns out, anacondas really aren't that big--8 or 10 feet at their longest. Unfortunately, despite searching for 4 and a half hours, we didn't see a single live anaconda--we did see some dead ones though). That didn't matter too much though, because I've seen long snakes before and it's probably for the best that they got left alone, at least for one day. That and the hike itself still served as a good way to see the pampas. And then in the afternoon we went piranha fishing (don't worry, I just relaxed on the boat) and played soccer, both of which were excellent. I must admit before hand that I was a bit hesitant about the piranha fishing and anaconda hunting before the tour, since I honestly didn't really care about either of them, but both of them were quite a lot of fun. They were both excellent ways to see the pampas, even if the tasks weren't that great.

Finally, we spent the third day swimming with the dolphins, eating good food, and driving home in the rain (everything was soaked by the end of it). We got back to Rurrenabaque, around dinner time, took our showers, ate some food, and then went out to one of the tourist bars for some pool. All in all it was a great day as well.

So that was it for our Jungle/Pampas adventures and we had to move on to the next part of the trip. Unfortunately before we could arrive at the "next part of the trip" we had to bus for a good 27 hours from Rurrenabaque to La Paz (21 hours with the delays) and then from La Paz to Cochabamba where we met up with a Pearson grad named Andrea. Now I have to say, this is one of the things I love about Pearson/the UWCs. We never met Andrea before arriving in Cochabamba. She graduated in May, 2004 and Jacquie and I started in September 2004. That really didn't matter though because when we sent out an email saying to the Pearson alumni network mentioning where we were going, she emailed us back and offered us a place to stay. Not only that, but she did so during her exam period and even took us around the city. We all had an excellent time, despite the fact that there really isn't much to do/see in Cochabamba and we really have Andrea and her family to thank for that. While we were there we also managed to meet up with another UWC who's at the Italian college right now and found out there's a UWC gathering in La Paz on the 21st, so Jacquie and I might go.

After cochabamba we took a night bus to Sucre. By the time we arrived in Sucre, after 3 nights of very little sleep, we were all completely dead. Now, whereas most countries only have one capital city, Bolivia has 2. Whereas La Paz is the executive and legislative capital of the country, Sucre is the judicial. In fact, in that past Sucre was the only capital in Bolivia, until protests broke out all over the country and the change was made. In the colonial period the city was known as La Plata (the silver, after the silver mines in Potosí), but according to Bolivian law, the capital was to be named after the country's first president, Mariscal Sucre (one of the liberators who fought with Simón Bolívar--Bolivia itself actually gets it's name from Bolívar). Finally, Sucre is also the city where the Bolivian declaration of Independence was signed, in an old converted Jesuit Chapel (now called the house of liberty). Unfortunately we didn't have much time to spend in Sucre and when we were there we were all exhausted, but it was still a nice visit and we managed to sneak in a museum visit and some street wandering while we were at it. THen at 5:00pm that day we caught the bus to Potosí where we are now.

Now I must admit, before researching Bolivia I had never heard of Potosí or it's silver mines, but the small description in the guide book made it a must see. Potosí is the city beside Cerro Rico (the Rich Hill), which, during the colonial times, was the largest silver mine in the world. In my last post I talked a bit about the exploitation that occurred in the mines as it linked to the coca leaf, but man, after visiting and seeing the mines themselves, I was awe-struck and sick to my stomach just thinking about what went on there. The mine has been active for almost 500 years now and rumour has it (although I'm not sure how much I believe it) enough silver has been extracted from the mine to build a bridge to Spain (where all the silver went). Indigenous were literally locked into the mines for 4 months at time, often having to work 48 hour "days" consuming nothing but Coca leaves, which were made legal by the King of Spain so that he could reap the benefits. Gods were created by the spanish to scare the supersitious indigenous into working and when mercury was discovered in Peru, despite the fact that it was linked to countless deaths (later discovered to be a carcinogen), it was used to extract the silver for over 3 hundred years. If miners didn't die from cave-ins, they would die from Silicosis, an infection of the lungs caused by certain properties in the dust, or by gas exposure. Our guide told us 8 000 000 indigenous have been killed since the mine opened. Another book I read said that 40 000 died a year, which works out to a much larger number. The sad thing is that while the Indigenous are no longer locked up like slaves in the mines and forced to work, many of the conditions remain the same. The average life expectancy for a miner is 55 years if they work manually and only 35 if they work with machines, which cause more powder to rise, thus leading to a quicker onset of silicosis. And if the work isn't back breaking enough, the walking is. Just walking through the mines was tiring enough for us, with its low roofs and an altitude of 4300 metres above sea level. That and many of the miners aren't just walking around in the mines, they pushing 2 tonne wagons or carrying wheelbarrows full of rocks and metal extracts to the surface. Many of the men we saw were dripping in sweat and looked exhausted. Not only that, but for all the work they do, a miner may earn between 500 and 1500 bolivianos a week, which ruffly translates to $60-180. And that depends on how good the metal they extract is (ie. it can be lower). While there are around 16 000 people working the mines right now, very few of them have any type of security and all are forced to fend for themselves; what they earn depends on how good their extracts are. In the mines kids can start working at around 13 or 14 and many work until their well into their 50's and can't work anymore because of the Silicosis. While tourism is serving to improve the security of the mines, it's only reaching a fraction of the workers. There are 500 mining shafts, each worked by a cooperative or a private company. Of those 500 shafts, tourist agencies only enter a select few that are relatively safe and secure. At the same time the money created by tourism ($2 per visitor) only goes to the mines in which the tourists enter. In this sense, the mines which are safer, with better oxygen flow and less chance of collapses, are getting the money to improve their shafts while the other mines (where the grand majority of workers are) receive nothing. Not only that, but most of the metals have already been extracted from the mines. The miners who are working there now are working for a lost cause and out of necessity, with little or no job opportunities in the city. What little they are able to extract barely earns them enough to survive, especially after they're forced to buy their own dynamite, tools, lights, etc.

We were only in the mines for 2 and a half hours and the mines we visited, as I said, were some of the best around, but the sight was something incredible. To see not only the current conditions, which themselves are appalling, but to have that within the historical context is astounding. According to our guide there are believed to be vast silver deposits, almost as large as those already extracted, still below the mountain. The problem is that the temperatures are inhospitable (temperatures in the mines already reach 45 degrees Celsius). When we asked why giant mining companies haven't already bought up the mountain to destroy it and extract the silver using machinery, our guide told us it was because the people of Potosí don't want it and were therefore stopping it. Personally I think, if the story about those silver deposits are true, the reason is more linked to the fact that it's a Unesco heritage site, but that's just speculation. Either way, the visit to the mines definitely constitutes one of the highlights of the trip.

Wow, I just spent way too much time writing this. Tomorrow morning we're off to the salt flats of Uyuni where we'll begin a 3 day tour on the 16th. That'll be our last new site and after the tour we'll head to La Paz, split up, and eventually I'll be back home on the second of August after another 70 hours in the bus and 27 hours in the plane/airports. I'll probably write the next update in a week from La Paz. Until then, take care.

Taylor