Argentina and Chile had been very good to us when it came to travelling by bus, therefore it came as a surprise when we found ourselves on a bus not only without a meal and tv, but also without heating, light - and a paved road... The soundtrack was a mix of the shattering nuts and bolts of the bus and its passengers bones and teeth. Luckily I didn´t notice much of this since I was focusing on my motivational speech to Ritchie, who was already planning his escape to the Caribbean...
After about three shaky and freezing hours we arrived at the worlds highest city Potosi, 4070m above sea level. You get to experience a number of interesting phenomena when residing at such an altitude.
The climate is harsh and not much vegetation chooses to put its roots down up there. The nights are freezing and during the day the sun burns your skin within minutes. But applying sunscreen at altitude can be tricky if you have brought it up from thicker air... You pretty much have to take care with opening any kind of container or bottle. We´ve had Coke bottles exploding, sunscreen bottles emptying out all their contents, roll-on deodorants shooting the ball to the ceiling and Pringles packs exploding.
The human body reacts in a few ways, the most prominent probably being difficulties when breathing. Walking up the tiniest little hill or staircase makes you feel like a 93-year old with asthma. Many people also get headaches or feel nauseous, but our Australian travel doc had supplied us with enough altitude sickness pills to survive in the Himalayas for half a year, and we also drank lots and lots of water. So instead of headaches and nausea we enjoyed frequent trips to the toilet and tingly heels. For some reason sleeping also becomes an issue at altitude - maybe your body is scared to suffocate if it falls asleep... All in all, I understand the plants and wouldn´t put down my roots at altitude either.
And it wasn't the idea of the indigenous people to build a city in this harsh climate. Potosi was founded by the Spanish in the 16th century after the discovery of ore and silver in the mineral-rich Cerro Rico.
Two centuries later, Potosi was the largest and wealthiest city in South America. As so often in history, this wealth came with its fare share of heartache. Millions of indigenous people and African slaves died in the mines... The silver and with it the wealth of Potosi have now vanished but even today thousands of Bolivians - as young as 12 years old - work in the mines to extract other minerals. Tours into the mines are offered all over town, but we decided that we wouldn't have to see the horrible working conditions with our own eyes to undermine our opinion of mining... A week later though we watched a very well made movie/documentary about two kids who worked in Potosi's mines. If you have a chance to see "The Devil's Miner", do it!
We only stayed in Potosi for about 24 hours since our Spanish teacher was waiting for us in Sucre. But after the brief culture shock from Uyuni, we were positively surprised by the rough beauty of Potosi, which reminded us a little of Valparaiso (Chile).
The Bolivian police offered another surprise. What we had heard about Bolivia's policemen so far was that they (or people dressed up in their uniform) rob you. So we were a little apprehensive on our walk through town, when we ran into a parade of about 5000 striking policemen.
It turned out that ALL policemen in ALL of Bolivia were on strike and the military had taken over their responsibilities. Perfect conditions for a coup d'état...
A little weary but happy to have survived the first proper day of sightseeing and food in Bolivia, we travelled on to Sucre in order to polish our baby Spanish.
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