ideas for cheap stuff

Well hello everybody! How are we? I’ve been given out to for not writing in near 3 weeks in some emails, so I thought I’d brace cold fingers today to update the site. We arrived Sunday 13th July at 02:30 and decided to have our first taste of Bolivian alcohol to celebrate, then we found a nice corner of the airport to crash for a few hours where there was a continuous loop of old music videos on the tv. I saw the video for ¨My Name is Luca¨ by Suzanne Vega for the first time. Ah, I remember driving Lids and Ollie to NUI Maynooth years ago when they were belting out that song and then telling them it was about a battered woman. Man, don´t think they´ve forgiven me for running the song for them! It was all very grand until the ear splitting announcements disturbed our felicity. Seriously, why did they have the volume turned up to ¨make your ears bleed¨ level when you can’t understand a word the announcer says due to bad wiring in all airports?
We spent the rest of the day resting and toddling around Santa Cruz, a wealthy & warm town in the west lowlands of Bolivia. On Monday Tonge was sick so I went out and met two Swiss Couch Surfers who are living in Santa Cruz Corina and her boyfriend Ranjan. We hung out for the evening chatting and eating, and then met them again for lunch the next day when Tonge felt better. They invited us to stay in their house, which we would have loved, but due to our time schedule we had to decline the offer as we wanted to visit the mines of Potosi on a day when miners were at work, plus a stopover to visit the UNESCO town of Sucre, so our hands were tied.
So that meant on the afternoon of Tuesday 16th we went to the main bus station to catch a bus to Sucre, which would take 14 hours. It was so interesting to see the same people selling bus tickets dropping the price as the time for departure came. All the bus companies run buses at the same time to the same direction, so you just have to shop around, but they’re all similiar. The price drops a few quid before departure as the companies usually won’t go unless the bus is full to the brim. We got the last two seats on a bus at the back, which we’ve since learned is the bumpiest part of the bus to sit, but that journey wasn’t the worst. We couldn’t check into our hostel in Sucre straight away so we went for breakfast in a major gringo spot, Joyride, and then went to the wonderful textile museum. All museums close for lunch, but you’re allowed back in later that day or the next day to finish viewing the material. I planned to go to the view the dinosaur footprints that are a few kilometres out of town, but we went back for our siesta and that was that really! I got to finish the museum the next day though.
I’m sorry we didn’t have more time in Sucre, but we wanted to get to Potosi, the highest city in the world (it was so high that sometimes I lost my breath standing or lying in bed!), to see the mines in working order, so we got the bus on Thursday and booked our tour for the next morning with Koala Tours. What can I say about the silver mines of Potosi? I am so bloody thankful to be Irish, a woman, and most of all not have to work there. The mines were called “the mouth of hell” by one Spanish chronicler, and its an apt description. Mining is conducted much as it has been for hundreds of years. LIfe expectancy is 40 if you work in the mines and 50 if you work in the factories that refine the material extracted from the mine, which after sorting is sent abroad for processing, which is where the real money is made. Typical! The only thing that has really changed for the better is the fact that miners work for themselves and in co-op groups, but this means that there is no improvement in mining techniques that would occur if the mines were run by companies. A mine tour involves a visit to the miners market where you can buy gifts for the miners of bottles of soft drinks, 96% alcohol derived from sugar cane, dynamite and coca leaves. Then you don the “safety” apparel, which is overalls, a hard had with a lamp, and a neck scarf that you tie around your mouth to enter the mine. First we read through some of the museum pieces, which had information on the history of the mine. Potosi used to be the silver centre of the world and had more inhabitants than London or Paris at its height. Chewing coca leaves were, and are a huge part of miners’ lives as it gives them an extra lift and wards off hunger pangs. We descended 3 levels in the mine we were brought to, there are tonnes all over the mountain. The descent was slippery and daunting. The noise of the wagons loaded with minerals being dragged along by men was deafening throughout the mine, and the air was oppressive around us. We stopped with some miners who were shoveling the dirt into mechanical pulleys to be brought to the surface, but the wagons were dragged along tracks by teams of 4 people. We shoveled some of the dirt for the experience, and heaving that stuff into the buckets was bad enough. We also were left on our own to make our way through a mine tunnel, without the guide, simply for the experience, though this shaft was definitely used as a latrine. There was another level of the mine below us, but this was too dangerous, and too intensively mined for us to view. Children work as gophers in the mine, shuttling back and forth from the surface and between mining parties to deliver messages, though we didn’t see any that Friday morning. Friday is the last day of work for some miners, though many work on Saturday, and from about 4pm they start drinking in earnest. Our guide, Juan, wanted us Irish to stay with a mining party and have a drink, but another group came up behind us and their guide demanded they be allowed stay. It was fine by Tonge and I, as we’d tried the drink early and it fairly knocked us for 6, but our guide took particular offense and insisted that we go out for a drink with him and another guide, Pedro or Peadar Dubh as we called him cos he knew a little Irish, later that evening. The guides said that usually they only went drinking with men of the group, but because we were Irish, they made an exception. Funny that Irish title we have gets ya strange places. Such as a Texan themed Karaoke/Disco-theque, where everyone wears jackets, the men and women have to dance in couples, as a gringa ya get awful stares from the Bolivian ladies, celebrating Tonge’s birthday a week early with song after song and dance after dance, toasting Pachamama (Mother Earth) by spilling a drop of our alcohol on the floor (a ridiculous waste of good drink) and deflecting the increasingly amorous attentions of our wonderful hosts. What a world, eh? The next day was spent in bed till late, before we visited the Mint, where once most of the coinage of Europe was pressed, and now Bolivian coins are made in France! After that, I was seriously not in the mood of shopping, but it had to be done as we’d learned that Uyuni would be absolutely freezing.
We almost missed our bus to Uyuni that Sunday, but learned two valuable lessons: 1. always keep an eye on the clock when you’ve to get a bus and 2. never book a tour from another town, as you’ll always get it cheaper when you reach the town itself. We booked the 3-day-tour of the Salt Lake and southern region of Bolivia in Potosi, because we were afraid we wouldn’t get to do the tour on Monday, but when we reached there we found that we could have save $30 on the tour with the same company. That’ll learn ya! It was still a really good price for the 3 days though, but its the principle. We were apprehensive as to who we’d get stuck with for the 3 day tour, but we got an incredible group, who became our Uyuni family over the course of days. There were Sofia and Triona, two Danish girls who’d been following us for a few days on our mine tour and bus. When Tonge introduced herself to Triona she said, “We’ve met loads of Danish people here…oh wait, that was you!” Then there was Tim from the USA, who’d packed in the day job for a spot of adventure. Everyone else on the tour spent most of the next few days ear-wigging on Sofia and Tim’s very intense conversations, and burgeoning love story. Finally, there was Kent (Aussie) and Kate (Kiwi), who’d lived in London together for 4 years are on their way home. They’d gotten engaged just a few weeks before when they’d finished the Inca Trail at the top of Machu Picchu. How rosemantic! We’ll be there in a week and a half!
The tour involved a hell of a lot of driving. The first day was by far the best as we spent all day on the salt lake making funny pictures, watching the landscape change, not being able to tell where land ended and the horizon began, seeing mountains shimmering above the white land like ghosts, walking around the Isla de Pescado, and seeing the sun-set. We went with Andes Salt Expeditions, and the first night they bring you to stay in a hotel made of salt, which was gorgeous, and surprisingly warm. The night sky was astoundingly clear, and Kent pointed out the Southern Cross to us. The food was simply gorgeous. Really tasty and satisfying. Tuesday we introduced everyone to David O’Doherty’s whimsical style of comedy, saw the Red Lagoon with Pink Flamingos and Salvador Dali Dessert, which was the inspiration for a few of his paintings, though he never visited the site, only heard about it from Russian mates. That night was a lot colder, so we couldn’t stay out drinking and chatting for as long as we’d planned. When I got comfy in bed though I was lovely and toasty. Next morning we set out ridiculously early, and got a flat tyre, which was replaced with a tyre that wasn’t fully pumped, so it took our driver, Obert, a long time to get us going again. We drove out to the Green Lagoon, which due to lack of wind and other variables, was red that day, unfortunate, but still beautiful to be in this really remote part looking at the boarders of Chile and Argentina. We went back to breakfast, listening to this annoying Israeli couple who were constantly complaining giving out to the guide because the lake was red not green. Hello guys! The man can do nothing about the weather!!! Then came the best thing of the 3 days, the first time we were truly hot in all our time in Bolivia, yes, it was the thermal bath! It was hard to strip in the cold wind, but so worth it when I could actually feel the burn of my feet stinging from the heat. We were all exclaiming, “wow, my feet are alive!”, while watching a small dust cloud that formed above our heads and whipped around in a tornado formation. A long drive back to Uyuni was ahead, but Tonge and I had to change to a jeep with broken brakes due to the fact that we’d no bus to catch. In the end we were only 30 minutes behind the main group, and that night we met the family in Minute Man for beautiful pizza. The bus was apparently sold out to leave Uyuni on Thursday night, so we were all really worried about being stuck in Uyuni with nothing to do, freezing to death at night, but luckily, the Danes, Tonge and I managed to score some bus tickets to La Paz overnight on Thursday. It was sad to say goodbye to the other 3, but we were excited about civilisation and a cinema visit on Friday night, which picked up our spirits.
It was a cold overnight journey of 12 hours to La Paz. I finished The Kite Runner with light from the wind up torch because I couldn’t sleep. When we got into La Paz we went to El Solario hostel near San Francisco but couldn’t check in till after 11am, so we went for breakfast and then to the Coca Museum, which was extremely interesting, with a lot of reading. I’d recommend it to anyone. After a siesta and Lebanese dinnner we went to see The Dark Knight, which was simply stunning. Saturday, was Tonge’s birthday, so I got her a dozen roses from her boyfriend Frank and put them by her bed with his picture staring at her. Hope it didn’t freak her out! We’d organised a parade in Tonge’s honour, and the town was up to the task. The parade sponsored by student faculties from the local university to celebrate 200 years of freedom, and Tonge’s birth date of course, started at 08:00 in the morning and still wasn’t finished when we sat down to a gorgeous Indian dinner at 21:00 that night! On Sunday, we decided to have another easy-going day, we all seemed to really need it. I found out about the mountain bike tour down the world’s most dangerous road, with the intent of doing it on 1st August, which didn’t work out cos it was booked out and I was too sickly. At 16:00 we met at our hostel to go to see Bolivian wrestling. By god was it freaking funny! Karen, ya would have loved it. The costumes, the women in traditional dress kicking men’s arses, and the midgets! Yes, midgets, and everyone who knows me well knows how awesome I found that! The best thing by far of the evening was watching the faces of the Bolivian crowd, young and old alike, who really got into it. I found an old man and wife to my left, whom I watched religiously, who were seriously into it, yelling at the wrestlers, ref, announcers, throwing stuff at the ring when they didn’t like someone, such as Baron Rojo! Ah, they were brill altogether. I thought your one would wallop one of the wrestlers at one stage!
On Monday, Tonge, the Danes and I went to visit Tiwanaku, a religious only site that was originally on the edge of Lake Tiwanaku before the waters of the lake receded due to a 50-60 year drought, which spelled the beginning of the end of the Tiwanku culture. Inca civilisation was very much based on Tiwanaku mythology. There are a few different temples, one of them is dedicated to the sun, and the sun rises and hits certain parts of the sun door at different times of the year. It never ceases to amaze me how ancient cultures monitored the sun with such exactness, that’s why I love Newgrange so much. It took 700 years to complete the temple dedicated to water and the constellations, the symbol that became the Inca cross was originally here and reflected the Southern Cross as well as the four cardinal points and the spiritual levels of underground, mother earth, and father sky. This temple won’t be fully restored for another 5 years as the whole site is being recovered after hundreds of years from the mudslide that obliterated the site from view with the El Nino that occurred around 1200 following the decades of drought, but the scale, time, and exact measurements cannot fail to astound. Our guide, Carlos, was an over-weight, incredibly slow guy, who drove Sofia to the brink of a nervous breakdown with her medical background, but I have to say that I loved him, even with his slowness, he was incredibly knowledgeable and interesting. There are faces that were uncovered at the site that have features resembling Celts, Romans, Chinese and grey aliens. So was Columbus the first to discover South America? I’ve never believed so anyway.
We finally left the Danes on Tuesday and got the bus to Copacabana on the coast of Lake Titicaca. Copacabana has a real big gringo feel, but its laid back and we’d the most amazing trout dinner ever! The cathedral was seriously ostentatious too, with gold falling down all around ya! We hired a guide to walk us around the ruins of Isla del Sol, the birthplace of man and the Inca, according to legend. Roughly 20 priest lived on Isla del Sol and performed rituals of the Tiwanaku, and subsequently the Inca, cultures. Here, on a sacred rock table, chosen virgins from Isla del Luna, which we couldn’t get to visit in the time we had (not for any other reason!), were sacrificed. Then we’d a 3 hour walk from the north of the island to the south, which was tough going due the altitude. We’re seriously fecked for the first 2 days of the Inca Trail! We stayed in a hostel on the island that night, and met up with a couple from Ireland, Paddy (Longford) and Mairead (Limerick), who were great for the banter, and had more gorgeous trout to eat. Loving the trout! I’d my worst night’s sleep in ages due to my ass slipping through slats in the bed, but at least I got to see the most gorgeous of sunrises over the Andes and lake. It truly was magnificent and emotional. Then it was back to the mainland and La Paz, where we arrived last night and found that it was too late to book the mountain bike tour, which was probably for the best cos I’m not too hot, and learned that the girls (Lids, Dee, Fee and Colma) would arrive today, which is where I’ll leave ye. I’m off to meet the girls in Sol y Luna for a few drinks and a great natter. The real fun begins here!