24 h Las Vegas

Veröffentlicht am 9. August 2015 von Steffi

Being in the US for 24h made again one thing very clear: it’s going to be an expensive chunk of fun, so we better started thinking value.

Living next to the „old“ Vegas seemed to be extremely cheap. Only 17$ for a nice Hotel room until we learned about the resort fee that comes on top of the room price ;(.

From the point of food this meant for Las Vegas skipping breakfast and opting for one of the many buffets in the big Hotels. This doesn’t mean it’s cheap. We paid 28$ each but got an enormous choice of salads, vegetables, fish, meat, asian food, seafood, deserts, cake and ice creme, even including water, coke and coffee. We managed to eat the total of three plates and a bit more of cake on top. So an approximate amount of 2000 kcal and left very happy and very full.

I am not a big fan of food pictures, but I couldn’t deprive you of the cause of Tom’s little sphericity.

From there we started strolling down the strip, meaning through the collection of enormous luxury hotels and casinos. The casinos are basically pretty much the same but each of the hotel environment feature some other kind of attraction. Eiffel towers, impressive decoration of flowers or glass, a huge chocolate fountain, an erupting volcano, venetian channels or a romain colloseum everything spiced up with people strolling around enjoying themselfs, gambling and openly drinking in the streets.

The flower decorations in the Wynn Hotel.

How needs to go to Italy, if you can go to the Venetian Hotel.

Guess what you will find in the Hotel Flamingo.

And Hotel Paris really put some effort into it’s advertisement.

In my opinion Caesars Place has the nicest Casino environment.

but my absolute favourite was the Bellagio (some might know it from the movie Oceans Twelve). Not because of it’s legendary fountain, that was quite disappointing, but because of it’s no matched beautiful interior and it’s chocolate fountain.

When we after hours returned to our hotel, to drop the bags before heading to the casino ourself we just wanted to lay down for a second. We woke up the next morning without having put our fingers on a single game.

And just to make it clear, we neither lacked the alcohol or opportunity, but we did not marry.

And just to make it clear, we neither lacked the alcohol nor opportunity, but we did not marry.

Already on the next day we were leaving this big party location, but first we had to pick up our transportation vehicle on the other side of Las Vegas. While walking there we observed how this place would look, if not enormous amounts of water would be pumped into this artificial assembling of buildings. Very sad, very dry, very abandoned (the only people living here in cheap motels were kind of crazy).

A ’normal‘ street in Vegas literally and really leading no where.

Traveling Busses in South America

Veröffentlicht am 9. August 2015 von Steffi

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The way to travel around South America are busses! You can fly, but it’s usually only affordable within one country, if at all. Interestingly bus fares and bus standards vary widely between countries even if you only take into account tourist busses.

The most important thing you have to learn is to distinguish the classes. There is standard: the usually uncomfortable cramped busses that you find all over Europe. Then there is semicama: giving you a bit more space for the legs and the possibility to lean back you seat by 140dg. Cama: gives you support for your legs and and seat that leans back 160dg (if you ever wanted to learn how business class in a plane feels, this is quite similar).

And the 180dg: it’s the same as cama but your leg support can be adjusted to 180dg.

Argentina has in general the highest standards with clean busses, working toilets that don’t spill their content on the street. Sometimes they even serve real food (all of it contains in some way ham and cheese) and wine. Anyway, you should ask for the food otherwise you can end up on a 24h journey very very hungry. The downside: they are also the most expensive ones.

Our steward (wearing a suit) on the bus from Bariloche to Mendoza.

When they tell you that you get food in Chile be prepared for orange juice and cookies and that’s it. In Bolivia they make it easy: no food. But here you can buy supplies and even a warm dish at every corner. And if they don’t serve you food in Peru they will let the street vendors in the bus selling everything from cheese, meat (chopped from the bone in the bus), jelly, juice, but no coffee :(.

Trying to get a closet into the bus in Peru.

What you have to cope with, when taking the not very touristic busses are the cultural differences most pronounced in Bolivia, where seats are in general stained, people eating rice and fried chicken from there lap and people using the curtains to clean their hands or even worse their noses. Anyway what we never ended up with (and people transport the weirdest stuff) were living animals, not even a pet.

And against the warnings of the German embassy and the constant lack of seat belts in Bolivia and Peru we only felt insecure once. On our last ride from Cusco to Lima the bus driver tried to get home early. Instead of 22h he only needed 19h, 12h of them in the middle of the night through narrow bends next to steep cliffs through the Andes. I rarely slept a minute on this overnight bus.

We also took the train twice but more about that in the articles about Potosi and MachuPicchu.

Lessons learned about South America

Veröffentlicht am 8. August 2015 von Steffi

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Many funny things we observed in south america don’t differ so much between the countries you will get the whole collection in one rush.

Chile and Argentina, both somewhat influenced by the europeans since a few centuries kind of similar. Both countries have an amazing landscape (we only saw Argentina’s close to the chilean boarder), produce good red wine (Argentina’s is a bit better) and speak a strange version of Spanish.

1. Chilean love sugar, so much that they even sell sugar light in supermarket to reduce calorie consumption.

2. Chliean love color, especially in yoghurt. However the only seem to use one kind of color. Independent from the flavor all are bright pink.
3. There is no bargaining in Chile, not even on the markets. So you actual never feel cheated, but prices are higher than in the rest of South America.
4. Chilean don’t seem to have a sense of weight. While everybody tries to reduce weight while hiking, they even carry 1.4 kg heavy cookers around.
5. Steak is so popular in Argentina that the only kind of knives in Hostels are actual steak knives. It gave us a hard time to spread the butter on bread.
6. Argentines love their dulce de leche (some weird mix of caramelised milk and sugar) and put it into everything. I don’t like it but since it’s usually very brown I regularly misjudge it as chocolate.

I find it quite significant that the ice cream shop offers two kind of chocolate but four kind of dulce de leche ice cream.

7. Argentina is surprisingly expensive. Knowing about the unofficial dollar blue rate of 12.5 compared to the official 8.7 really saved us some money.
8. Argentines have a great relation to plastic bags. Every single person in the queue in front if me brought a fabric bag to carry their groceries home.
9. Siesta is still written in big letters in Argentina, causing two stupid looking persons in front of a supermarket more than once.
10. This is one for Nanna. Argentines are wild with Fernet, mostly Fernet Branca. They drink it for every occasion and mix it even with coke.

11. We never figured out for which reason but ham and cheese are really popular ingredients in the Chilean and Argentina cuisine. You get it with the scrambled egg in the plan, on sandwiches, in empenadas, on top of what they call Milanesa (in principle Wiener Schnitzel) or just pure.

12. Chileans knock on toilet doors. What a great habit, than just pushing down the toilet handle.
13. Surprisingly Argentina is the first country that really did something against plastic bags, so most people actually bring fabric bags for shopping. I like!
14. Despite the fact, that coffee is produced in south america they don’t really nurse a coffee culture. Most just dink freeze dried coffee with lots of sugar. but I kind of like the teabag version. Really handy in busses.
15. Of course they love soccer and are so proud. Even the screens in underground stations allow you to keep track off the doing of your favourite team.

Bolivia is so very different form Chile and Argentina. It’s characterised by the Andes (that maybe the european settlers just didn’t bother to cope with) and what they call the andean folk.

15. The andeans are very fond of highly colored sugary jellies which are selled everywhere.

16. Andeans probably invented shawls for carrying baby’s. Even tough they have a different understanding of how the kid should be carried than Europeans.

17. 60-70% of the inhabitants are indigenous and many especially women still practice the traditional clothing and hair style (long black braided plaits with some kind of deco).

18. Quinoa, the superfood of the western world is what have been oats for us. A cereal with a high protein content but nothing special. Because nearly all is exported, nowadays the average Bolivian can’t afford to buy quinoa but is eating rice instead.

19. Working kids, on the streets, in the markets and even in the mines is a sight you have to cope with while traveling here.

20. Plastic bags are also very famous here. They sell every kind of food in it. Juice to go comes with a straw. Food, like corn with rice and fried chicken is simply eaten directly from the bag with fingers. I even felt reminded of childhood when I found milk in plastic bags in the supermarket.

Ladies selling snacks and juices to passengers at the bus station.

21. Sometimes you get the impression time stood still for centuries in this country, when you observe the high technology used to get things done. But hey things like juice presses work and can easily be fixed with a wrench.

22. For what ever reason many Bolivians travel with blankets. Might be because if the constantly cold temperatures in places at 3500-4000m or simple the cheaper version of a sleeping bag.

23. Bolivians are big fan of whatever pooped grain. On every market you will find several options and bags are sold for cents or in supersize me versions.

Popped corn delivery to a kiosk in Copacabana.

24. If you ever travel in Bolivian busses or Peruvian boats you should remember what Nr. 1 and Nr. 2 is. Both countries refer to pee whit Nr. 1 and to poo with Nr. 2.

25. Potatoes are vegetables! So when you order a Bolivian dish you will get meat, rice and vegetables (usually remind a lot of French fries).

In many ways the andean live in Peru is a lot like in Bolivia, even though they already know more about tourists (in good and bad ways) and their food is a lot better. But there are a few things we only found in this country.

Peru

26. Chewing coca leaves and drinking coca tea is legal in Chile, Bolivien, Peru and Columbia and an integral part of the andean culture. We also had them due to their supposed effect against altitude symptoms. Hope we don’t get into any drug test soon 😉 (trace amounts of cocaine can be found in urine after chewing coca leaves).

27. Transportation of nearly everything in busses is very popular. If they can, they even take dressers on board. In that case they couldn’t and had to leave it behind.

28. I guess the lable „Inca“ equals good quality. At least they put it on everything. By the way Inca Cola was the only softdrink CocaCola could never compete with in Peru. So they simply bought the company.

29. And if the peruvians can something than thats slides. They are huge and they are everywhere.

Just the small backyard version.

Lima – somehow not Peru

Veröffentlicht am 8. August 2015 von Steffi

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After several weeks in the highlands of the Andes with the andean people we got a little climate and cultural shock leaving the bus in Lima (Happy that we survived the Andean serpentines taken with 70km/h at night!).

Tom trying to look like a westerner again.

Lima was so different from what we expected. It was a pretty modern and big city offering everything a westerner could wish for. A beach (not the prettiest one) with waves for surfing, green parks with jogging people (though all around Lima we only saw desert), cafés (also the popular one with the green lady), bars (crowded and smoky), and of course big supermarkets that even sell german sausages.

Not only the western coffee culture found it’s way into Peru’s capitol.

We stayed in a hostel in Miraflores, you could also call it the Prenzl‘ Berg of Peru. Little luxurious villas, modern apartment houses and hip youngsters on skateboards. Unfortunately Miraflores is located 7km from the old city core and our hunt for rental bikes was very unsuccessful (no Wifi in the hostel to check upfront). We ended up walking the 7 km along busy roads not providing a single cafe with Wifi. Arrived in the city core we were so tired that we had to take the tourist bus to see all the important buildings, their balconies (Lima is also called the city of balcony due to its many colonial yeah well balconies.), and parks.

Lima’s historical center is crowded with tourist. What else?

The smelling boarder between the historic and and the living Lima. Water is not really a resource they have enough off.

The living Lima clearly is nothing that attracts as many tourists, maybe because the house walls are not as yellow and have less balconies.

I really don’t know, but Lima does not seen to me THE peruvian tourist city, but more a place were people really live and were you can easily fill your days with strolling along the pacific shore (maybe even surf of you dare) and eat good peruvian and international cusine.

It’s becoming modern – it’s getting becoming BIO. You can get some really fancy stuff here, but we still prefer the typical markets.

One guy in the hostel was a chief, preparing typical peruvian meat: guinea pig (peruvian: cuy).

And he did a really good job.

MachuPicchu – you can’t go to Peru without going to MachuPicchu

Veröffentlicht am 10. Mai 2015 von Steffi

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So we went. I really like a citation from Tom „yeah it’s a lot of old stones, but you have to admit that the Incas really had a great taste for locations“.

MachuPicchu – Scientist believe it was kind of a resort for important Incas. I can understand that somehow.

They really had! We already found out when the minivan after a 8h journey from Cusco dropped us next to the old hydroelectric power plant from where you walk over train tracks to now officially MachuPicchu pueblo (formerly Aguas Calientes). The surrounding valley is characterized by very steep very green hills through which a torrential river is bitting its way (in 2010 the river rose that high that it was flooding Aguas Calientes and tourists had to be evacuated). After 3h (1h drizzle rain) we arrived in MachuPicchu pueblo, found a very affordable hotel, dinner and waited for the next day to come.

The official foot path to MachuPicchu, as the sign indicates.

The next day started as was to be expected: rainy. So we first headed out around 9 am and were lucky with the rain stopping when we arrived (by bus) at the gates to MachuPicchu. We climbed MachuPicchu mountain, went to the sun gate and the Inca bridge and walked around between the many old stones and after a short while had spend 6 h in this sight. The only real negative thing to say, you can’t buy food our drinks anywhere and we were starving after 4 h („yeah it’s really beautiful, but I am hungry“ and you are officially not allowed to bring food inside though nobody cares).

It’s a beautiful place, but why all this fuss about old stones?

And of course as with all beautiful places, you are never alone :).

The Inca bridge is to the far right (and closed for tourist because a few years ago one surprising fall down). The bigger wonder: where does it lead to?

I am hungry! Me too.

These funny fellows are actually at work. Job title: lawn-mower.

The amazing thing about this old stones is that they were worked to fit perfectly together and by that stand solid since Inca times.

At 4 pm we decided to head back, missing the stairs (right next to the hotel) and therefore enjoying bend for bend the beautiful nature around us. Though we didn’t felt the spirit of MachuPicchu as many before described to us we really enjoyed the trip, though I still think it’s a bit a rip off.

Around 3 pm the clouds rolled in, giving the sight an even more mysterious look.

The next day we took the train back and the only thing I can say about it. If you have the time, take the bus, more scenic, a lot cheaper but very slow.

Looks nice, but is just a crowded train without view.

Cusco – a wet intermezzo

Veröffentlicht am 10. Mai 2015 von Steffi

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After a beautiful bus ride through the Peruvian Andes we arrived in Cusco a late Wendesday afternoon. It was quite an entertaining experience and pretty cheap too. We entered the bus a few minutes after it’s official departure time meaning we already started with an delay. Soon after the First Ladies selling food entered (kind of normal in SA). Then the bus steward started selling natural medicine for 45 min in an unignorable voice level, to give way the more woman selling actually some kind if backed meat that was chopped from its bones directly in the bus. After a while without disturbance men in black entered the bus searching for something, but did not seemed to find what they were looking for.

Our homestay in Cusco was not as nice as living with Bertha, but we anyway had a whole apartment to ourself for the next couple of days. Surprisingly the rainy season finally managed to catch up with us meaning it rained a good 50% of our time in Cusco banning us to our new home for most of the time.

Plaza de Armas in the shine of rainy season.

So we found a nice place around the corner to get lunch (2 courses for less than 2€ leaving you stuffed for the rest of the day), strolled through the city and it’s markets and learned how to prepare a proper Peruvian „Pisco Sour“ in the „Museo del Pisco“ (it’s a bar not a museum).

Familiar shaped shoes found on the „Inca market“.

The rainy weather also comes with a specific temperature range that is quite unfavourable for hanging out in a unheated unisolated apartment.

But we always could warm us up with high caloric lunch menus (sustainably only served between 12:30-14:30).

We didn’t visited any place of interested probably because we spent alone one day to figure out how to go to MachuPicchu. Originally we wanted to walk the Salcanty trek but after days of rain we were a little discouraged. So we asked several tour operators but including the inflexibility of a tour they were kind of pricy (more than 200$ if you want to spend more than 3h at the sight meaning you have to go by the overpriced train).

So we went for public bus/train as transportation, a cheap hotel to find when we arrive and buying the tickets our self.

The last part going to be the tricky one almost made me give up on MachuPicchu. The office were to by the tickets closes at 4 pm so we headed out a 2 pm. Arrived at the place pointed out by google maps turned out to be far of the actual address (google does not know house numbers). So after good 45 min walk we took a cab back to the correct house number only to find out, that the office was moved close to Plaza de Armas (the place we started at 2 pm). Another cab ride later we actually managed to buy the tickets a few minutes before 4 pm (don’t expect Peruvians to be on time but the officials know when their working day ends.).

Tom mixing his first peruvian Pisco Sour in El museo del Pisco. I was not quite convinced about the raw egg added to it.

Puno and the floating Uros

Veröffentlicht am 10. Mai 2015 von Steffi

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Our first stop in Peru was just behind the Bolivian boarder in Puno. I had heard about the floating reed island of the Uros and wanted to visit them.

The floating island also got wet from above that day.

They were just a short boat ride away, kind of touristy, but fascinating. You just have to take the evening tour (significantly less tourist) and then imagine, that people lived like that for thousands of years. Anyway, nowadays the also incorporate modern material like corrugated iron for their roofs, but the swimming floor is still made of floating reed roots and carpet and walls of dried reed.

The floor of wet reed roots and dries reed allowed even for playing football, but basketball was no option.

But of course the modern world does not stop at the shore, even though I could not make out the electric cables above the water surface.

The other big attraction despite the huge street marked in front of our hostal was the big supermarket, that we found in the city (finally able to stroll through aisles of products after shopping around between piled fruits and vegetables for five weeks).

Isla del sol – no, not Bornholm

Veröffentlicht am 16. April 2015 von Steffi

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Copacabana (the original one) is located at the Bolivian shore of the famous lake Titicaca. It’s a pretty quite place inhabited by quite some hippies along with the indigenous people. It’s popular with any kind of tourist, so you find quite a choice of cafés, restaurants and people trying to sell you trips to the close by islands or bus tickets.

People here basically live of selling you (the gringo) something.

But what an tiny idyllic place, popular with tourists and locals.

While in Copacabana a trip to take is Isla del sol or the place where the sun god was born.
Boats to the island leave very day at 8:30 and 13:30 and you can just go down to the shore and buy a ticket for 3 US$. The boats look actually quite nice from far but turn out to be white colored wood with an attached diesel motor and get helplessly overloaded with tourist. When I first feared drowning due to a break down of the boat this fear was shortly after replaced by the fear of dying of carbon monoxid poisoning. It started raining so windows were closed and all the motor fumes accumulated in the inside of the wooden frame. However I seemed to be the only one concerned about that.

The boat was just a little packed with people and the fact that one motor was broken did not accelerated our journey.

After the total of three hours (not two as promised) we arrived in Challapampa at the nord end of the island. From here we headed to the famous Inca ruins (not without paying 10 BOV = 1.5US$ entrance fee) that seemed to us a bit to good looking to be thousands of years old, but who are we to judge. From the ruins most tourists including us head south to Yumami, but since we planned to stay there overnight we had all the time and the wide view over the lake, Bolivia and Peru almost to our selfs.

According to the ants, it must be a quite popular place. We stayed behind and had therefore all the attractions to ourself later.

I guess we and our carrots were the bigger attractions to the natives than the Inca ruins.

Looking nice, but 500 years old?

The landscape and the view over lake Titicaca definitely were the bigger attraction to us.

We also came along some sacrifice stones …

… and couldn’t resist. But no worries Tommy is just acting …

He was more in danger, when I tried to take a picture of him and his relatives.

Not far from Yumami we were hooked by a ten year old and his alpaca who sold us two his aunt, who owned a hostal in Yumami. It was quite simple but for 8$ per night we didn’t complained (later we found out that this is the average price and we could have gotten a better room). In a tiny restaurant in the middle of the eucalyptus forest we had our first candlelight dinner in South America and since the husband of the chief had a meeting until 8 pm we had a lot of time to enjoy the atmosphere (waited 2h for our food, but it was definitely worth it).

The little muggers and their Alpaca that hooked us to their aunts „hostel“. They even asked me for a tip later. Wonder what they raise their kids to here. 🙂

Yumami, spreading from the hill to the waterfront including some a famous Inca staircase and many donkeys which carry the beer for the tourists up the mountain.

Finally, steamed trout (a specialty from lake Titicaca though imported to the lake from Canada) and Pizza!

The next day we chose the rout via all the small villages on the island and experienced a little village life, with all the cute and not so cute animals and all their leftovers on the path. Tom helped a old lady down the hill and a nice lama got the great idea to spit on me to Toms great amusement (didn’t even got a picture of it).

It’s potatoes and not just polystyrene balls in this backpack prototype.

This cute one didn’t spit on me

We left Copacabana Easter Friday, when it got really funny because lots of people from all over Bolivia pilgrim here. Luckily camping is allowed in Bolivia where it’s possible, so people just slept on the central plaza :).

Should have know that and save the money for the hostal :).

LaPaz and the fast way down

Veröffentlicht am 16. April 2015 von Steffi

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After we spend two more nights in Sucre (didn’t wanted to miss out on quinoa cake and another round of squallyball) we took a morning bus to LaPaz. Actually we wanted to take an overnight bus but because of the election all over Bolivia on Sunday absolutely nothing was going to work from 0:00. They stop selling alcohol already on Thursday, every kind of traffic is prohibited except bikes, and absolutely all shops are closed. So we arrived in the biggest city of Bolivia which was paralyzed.

Just one day later these street was blocked with cars and busses.

On Sunday we literally walked over streets of LaPaz following the constant ascent of the altiplano surrounding LaPaz taking out our breaths but giving an amazing view over the hundreds of thousands red brick houses forming the city. And over and over again somebody would greet us with a friendly „buenos tardes“, a kindness being new to us in Bolivia.

If you live here and don’t have a car (most don’t) you don’t need to go to the gym.

The red bricks tower over the higher houses of city core on their hill sides.

The day of the election was a holiday for most people but the kids really got some fun out of the empty streets, because not one is flat.

In the afternoon just aiming for some food we ended up in a cafe with Kim and Ben where we spontaneously booked the adventure for the next day: a downhill ride on mountain bikes over the formerly deathliest road in the world.

Still smiling (before we got on the bikes).

The day started with a simply breakfast before a guide and a driver loaded the four of us into a Minibus and driving us up to 4700 m to the starting point. There we were dressed as warriors and put on full suspension bikes and off we went racing down the paved road with 40-50 km/h

This downhill bikes seemed a little overkill for the paved road we started on, until we got to our real destination.

As soon as I got used to that we were loaded again in the Minivan and driven to the road that really was the death road. This was the real challenge being hardly broad enough for a car, of rough gravel and with a very very steep cliff to the left side we were told to drive close to it all the time so passing cars had less trouble!!! Unfortunately (or not because you couldn’t make out the steepness of the cliff) the day was very foggy blocking the view on the incredible Bolivian landscape. To sad also because we were passing several climate zones on our 3000 m altitude race down.

I am not sure it was bad, that I could see, where this cliff ended.

The death road kind of looks cute snuggling its way around the hill side until you recall that once upon a time trucks were using due to the lack of alternatives (for an impression watch TopGears Bolivia special).

On the finish line we were brought to a „hotel“ (rather a falling apart barack, but who really cares) with a swimming pool and lunch. Which was okay but while hanging out we were eaten by sun flies and my whole body was itching the next day. The trip was pretty fun but I still think 80$ is a bit of a rip off considering average Bolivian prices.

First when the fog cleared the beauty of this country came into it’s own.

To finish off our visit to LaPaz Tom needed a ride with the newly build cable car (Evo paid the Swiss company Doppelmayer 300 mil. US$ for 7 lines.Very modern, clean, shiny and so not typical for Bolivia). They make traveling to the high ends of LaPaz really effortless and would make a good way to get a great view over the city, if the inhabitants wouldn’t just build houses into the view.

The very shiny and still rather cheap cable car makes the trip into the hillsides of LaPaz effortless (but of course it’s shut down on the election day).

What a view over the LaPaz, if there wouldn’t be this buildings everywhere. Bolivia still has to work on its touristic infrastructure.

Potosi – a visit to the devil in rubber boots

Veröffentlicht am 16. April 2015 von Steffi

The alarm went off at 5:45 am and Tom just asked whether I want to take the bus. Me and my bad stomach readily agreed to that even though we would miss the scenic train ride to Potosi (something Tom couldn’t forget about so we were actually taking the train back three days later).Three more hours of sleep and three hours in a creepy bus later we arrived in the highest city in the world at 4090 m and felt surprisingly good even though it was quite cold up here (our room had a TV! but no radiator so we slept in long underwear and with three blankets.).

Were ever you are in Postosi the towering "Cerro Rico" (rich mountain) is watching over you.

Were ever you are in Potosi the towering Cerro Rico is watching over you.

Once upon a time Potosi also was the richest city in the world though to the mountain towering over the city. Cerro Potosi general known as Cerro Rico (rich mountain) contained huge amounts if silver that was extracted by the hard labour of the indigenous people to be shipped away by the Spanish. Nowadays the mountain reminds if a Swiss cheese with its hundred of mines, but still 10.000 Bolivians still mine the mountain for tin and seldom earths under conditions that did not changed much in the last 400 years.

All the safety equipment you get is some extra layer of cloths, rubber boots and a helmet and that is far more than the miners have.

We decided to take a tour to visit the mines which was absolutely outside my comfort zone. Equipped with a thin layer of fabric, rubber boots, a dust mask and a helmet with lamps we more crawled through the 1 m high tunnels deep in the mountain knowing that an explosion could make a tunnel collapse and you are surrounded by dust causing lung diseases and toxic metals like arsenic.

There is not much silver left in Cerro Rico and most of it ended up somewhere in Spain.

Also the visit to the refining plant didn’t attested of many safety rules for workers in Bolivia. You better keep your distance to this machine.

And than equipped with our presents for the miners (juice, coca leaves and writing pads for their kids) we more crawled then walked through the centuries old mines.

The toxic stalactites are just a few cm above you head (if you bend down).

We crawled for about 2 exhausting hours visiting the miners that work there in average 12h, chewing coca leaves to not feel the hunger while drilling holes for explosives, carrying 20kg of stones in the back up the ladders between different levels our pushing wagons weighing tons out of the mountain. Most of them die in their fourties of lung diseases. We also paid a visit to the miners devil the Tio, which owns the erze. The miners regularly bring sacrificial offerings to ask for better ore quality and protection.

The guys in the back unloading the 20 kg heavy bags of scraps are supposed to be only 16 years old (still look younger). The guide told us kids start working in the mines when they are about 8 years old. Even though its forbidden, they need the money.

„El Tio“. God rules on earth, but below earth it’s the devil you need to keep an eye on. Anyway most miners more see El Tio as god below earth, who you have to respect. That’s why he is wearing rubber boots as the miners. Oh and of course the little insulting feature is an appeal for fertility for the miners.

Miners offer coca leaves, cigaretts and alcohol to El Tio. And here something for the food chemists. They offer and drink 96% alcohol with good taste („buen gusto“). One liter of this cost 10 BOV, one liter of beer 20 BOV!

We also tried this stuff. It’s actually strong but tasteless.

The guy here is drilling a hole for the explosives by hand (he can’t afford a drilling machine). The lump in his cheek is not from any disease but a bunch of coca leaves.

Somehow I was very happy, when we got out of the mountain again.

If somebody wants to know more, watch the movie „the devil’s miners“ about the 14 year old Basilo working in the mines. The movie is 10 years old and we were wondering what became of the boy. However we got three very different versions. Bertha from our homestay said he is indeed a teacher having three kids, Wikipedia says he is studying and partly still works in the mines and our Tour guide said he never worked in the mines and nowadays is a alcoholic working as a driver in Potosi? Officially children labor is not allowed, but nobody obeys the rules and kids as young as 8 years work down there. I also asked our guide whether conditions change with the new president but he said it only got worse and most miners would like to put a bar of dynamite into the presidents arse.

Have a close look on the three guys. This wagons are probably centuries old and weigh tons.

The next day we tried to climb the Cerro Rico, which was a quite different experience to hike between rubbish, rubble from the mines, mine entrances, trucks and miners, but the view over Potosi was exceptional.

Are green flamingo over viewing the Altiplano around Potosi.

The paths that we used were not any kind of leftovers but are used everyday by the people how can’t afford to live in the city and therefore live in little huts on the mountain.

And than the day came to take the „train“ back to Sucre. A bus on tracks! You can’t call Bolivians not to be creative.

This is the funniest train I have ever seen, but really comfy.

The ride (with thrilling 40km/h) was really entertaining. First we had to wait until the market cleared from the tracks in Potosi, than several obstacles like wheelbarrows and pigs, people getting of at nowhere, people asking the driver to take a bag of potatoes to relatives slowed down our journey and than again and again we were struck by the beauty of the green mountains of the altiplano sprinkled with tiny Bolivian farms. This trip really gives you a look on the life in the Bolivian countryside. Oh but I forgot to mention you shouldn’t be afraid of heights because the train is constantly driving along steep cliffs without any obvious security vorkehrungen.

The „train“ has a fixed schedule but people selling potatoes were still surprised that it passes exactly through the marketplace (the market took place on the tracks).

But we were not the only ones being excite about the journey. It’s the only way to get to the mountain villages.

I spend the total of 6 h looking out of the window, only the last 1 h I couldn’t resist sleep anymore.

Steffi and Tom on the Road

With Tommy traveling in the trains of this World.

Archiv des Autors: Steffi

24 h Las Vegas

Traveling Busses in South America

Lessons learned about South America

Lima – somehow not Peru

MachuPicchu – you can’t go to Peru without going to MachuPicchu

Cusco – a wet intermezzo

Puno and the floating Uros

Isla del sol – no, not Bornholm

LaPaz and the fast way down

Potosi – a visit to the devil in rubber boots