Uyuni

Hey Guys!
After that rather interesting tour of the mines we headed for Uyuni. From there it was actually the best road we drove in all of Bolivia, beautiful smooth black pavement. Kind of ironic considering we were planning on doing the Laguna Route south of the salt flats, which we were expecting to be the absolute worst road we would ever take Gringa on. Which it pretty much was.
After loading up on groceries and gas we cruised into the Salar de Uyuni, the worlds largest salt flat at 3600 m. It was flat as flat, and blindingly white. A really cool experience.





Of course, we weren't alone. Plenty of tour jeeps around, but the deeper we went they all cut south and we had the place to ourselves.





Believe it or not, this was actually our LEAST awkward jumping picture





Nothing for miles.....






......just hexagons






This is the Dakar monument. The Dakar race is an off-road race, which used to end in Dakar, Senegal but was moved to South America due to security concerns in Mauritania (its neighbour to the north). Now it cuts a different route each year through Argentina, Bolivia, Chilé and Peru.





A salt hotel, constructed out of huge blocks of salt.





The flags of the world monument, with Jared holding Canada's





We spent the next 2 1/2 days driving around, climbing on the 'islands' of earth popping out of the salt plain, camping, etc.





Oh, and did I mention taking silly pictures?





On the islands it was pretty much just rock and cactus......







Having viewpoints like this, all to ourselves was really fabulous and unforgettable.













The sunsets were just a beautiful contrast of stark white with the sky full of pinks, blues, oranges.






We had campfires each night of dead cactus wood, which actually burns pretty good! It's super light to lift, but we still got a workout as we carried a bunch down from the top viewpoint because we're crazy like that.





More silly pictures.....






Just appreciating the immense nothingness was really unique. I remember saying to Jared "this is the most nothing something we've ever been to"











It took us forever to get these shots because you're trying to run around behind the back of the camera as it's moving, then hold perfectly still for your next pose......oh well, kept us busy for at least an hour hahahah












A chinchilla! The hills on this island were actually full of them, and they were all in pairs. Super cute! Their Spanish name comes from Quechua, which is Vizcacha











By the afternoon of the second day I realized I had sunburnt pretty bad, so I spent the rest of the day like this. There was no one else around for miles so it really didn't matter what ridiculous things I was doing.











Jared mock preg-checking a sheep. We had a lot of time on our hands🤣





The next afternoon we headed back into Uyuni to get more food, gas, do laundry and get ready to set off again. Our next adventure was the Laguna Route, that would take us through some wilderness roads of southern Bolivia and end up in Northern Chilé. There would be no gas, towns, and at times no road, so we spent the day preparing for a real adventure.
That evening we camped out at the Uyuni train graveyard, an eerily beautiful place.
























The next morning we hit the road for Chilé, with only about 300 km of really garbage road and some fantastic paisajes (landscapes) in between.






This is at Lago Hedionda, at 4121m elevation and full of hundreds of flamingos. The wind was absolutely howling so we got a room at the hotel right on the lake. Thinking back on how cool it was to have this view for a night, I don’t regret spending the 60 Cdn. ☺️





























Back on the road the next morning. When the roads were really hairy we were too busy cringing so I never got any pictures of the really crazy stuff. Which is a little regrettable because I would love for you to see some of the things we took this car over. I will now forever and always be a Mitsubishi fan.
The reason the roads are so questionable is not only the fact that it’s a wilderness area and they are poorly maintained, but they are also driven by a bunch of tour guides in Toyota Land Cruiser‘s with more clearance than us. So they lower the PSI in their tires and just bomb down the roads which ends up making huge deep ruts and lots of washboard. Gringa didn’t have the clearance to do the road regularly so we had to ‘surf’ along the sides on the high ground between the ruts. When it gets sandy, it makes this process a little tricky to stay up and not sink back down to the ruts and absolutely cheese-grater the undercarriage of your vehicle. However, Jared did a great job of driving, which he did the lion’s share of. I took a few shifts and decided it was not for me.












The Arbol de Piedra- (Tree of Stone). It had one of the highest elevations on this road at 4577m. Plus the fact that the wind was howling, and it was cold!!






Next up was our lunch spot, and maybe the most beautiful place we saw on the Lagunas Route-Laguna Colorado. It’s at 4326 m, and is a red colour thanks to sediments and the pigmentation of some algae. Add in some flamingos, well, a lot of flamingos, plus a scenic mountain in the background and it makes for a magical place.





























This is the next day at Laguna Verde (4300m), with the beautiful cone of Volcán Licancabur (summit 5920m). It reminded me of one of those really beautiful glacial lakes in Banff, only this one was in the middle of the altiplano- surrounded by rocks and volcanoes.

















Me trying to take another jumping picture but my scarf blew up in my face






Oh Gringa.......as I write this I miss her so. Doesn’t she look amazing? Handled the Laguna Route like a champ. She was literally the only non-tour vehicle we saw on the road.











And that was the end of the Laguna Route. We crossed the border into Chilé, and lost all of that elevation by the time we entered the town of San Pedro de Atacama (2408m), which is the next blog.

Until Next Time!

Potosi and the Silver Mountain

So after our time in Sucre trying to learn some more Spanish, we were back on the road again. First, we headed to the gas station to fill up which in Bolivia can be an adventure in itself. Don't know if we mentioned this before, so I will go through it a bit. In Bolivia, there is a resident price and a foreigner price. The foreigner price is about 2.5 times the resident price. For foreigners, the gas attendant is supposed to take your passport number and do some paperwork. Most don't want to do this, so some will just give you the local price. Some will tell you they don't sell to foreigners. Others will start bartering with you right at the pump and then just pocket the difference. We found that having Roberta barter for the gas with the mostly male gas attendants was best. Other times they won't put it right into the tank, but will put it in a jerry can. You can repeat this 2-3 times to then have a full tank. Such a weird way of doing things, but this is Bolivia. In this case they weren't going to give us gas, so we got a guy off the street to get it in our jerry can and then we gave him a tip.

We headed to Potosi which is home to the most well known silver mine in South America. It was a nice drive gaining a bunch of elevation and winding through the mountains.



Upon entering the city, it was the same old Bolivian driving debacle with skinny colonial streets and everyone cutting each other off and honking. We found ourselves a hostel with parking inside off overlander and found a great little place for lunch. A four course meal that was $2.
That night there was a bunch of people parading in streets, dancing, and playing music. They had bells on there legs which jingled while they danced. They were practicing for an upcoming carnival which seem to be happening every other week.















The next morning we headed to the Casa de Moneda which is now a museum but served as a the mint from the 1700s to the 1950s. The original one was constructed in the 1540s. We walked around looking at how they have made the silver coins over time. First with a hammer press, then with a screw press, and then a steam press. You could definitely notice the quality increasing with time.






These large gears were driven by mules and they flattened out the silver sheets, before it was pressed into coins.







The next morning, we headed out on the tour that we had come here for: a tour in the mines of Cerro Rico.

When the Spanish arrived in the early 1500s, it didn't take them long to figure out that this mountain was full of silver as it was right on the surface. The natives of the area had always known it was full of minerals as well, but the mountain was sacred to them so they never took any of them. But then the Spainards made them into slaves and forced them to mine the silver.
It is said that you could build a bridge from South America to Spain with all the silver that was taken back to Spain from this mine. The silver was extracted from the rocks and processed in the mint. It was then carried by mule all the way up to the Caribbean coast and put on ships to head back to Spain. This was the reason the Caribbean became so full of pirates. It quickly became the richest city in South America.

It is also said that you could build a bridge from all the casualties that occurred in this mine. An estimated 8 million people have died in these mines! Quite a tragic story that still continues today. Although the workers are not slaves anymore, they still are using the same basic tools and have the same miserable working conditions there were 500 years ago. Nowadays most miners die from cave ins or "black lung" from inhaling the dust.

Before going to the mines, we stopped at the miners market. They sell all kinds of hand tools, clothes, and of course dynamite. Basically anyone can just walk in and for $4, buy themselves some dynamite with a fuse. Zero regulations. As a way of keeping miners cool with visitors in the mines, we bought them some drinks, coca leaves, and of course dynamite as presents.



We then made our way up the mountain towards the mines. We were informed that there are around 400 mines in the mountain with 180 that are still working today. Around 14000 people work in the mines today which has declined from the 25000 that did in the past. There are 37 mining cooperatives that the miners pay to be a part of that helps negotiate a price for the minerals which include silver and tin. The amount a miner makes in a month depends solely on how much minerals he extracts. Even though it's not a lot of money to us, they can make double the amount than they can at other jobs so they choose to do it.



Looking back at the city of Potosi.







As we came closer to the mine shaft, men were pushing out carts full of ore that had to have weighed a couple tons.










We made sure to stay out of their way. This continued as we made our way inside and our guide would show us where to go and sometimes tell us to run as there was no way to stop the carts. It was pretty real. As we made our way deeper into the mine, the walls and roof got smaller and smaller. We had to crawl and squeeze through some spots. Being at 4400 meters, it was also difficult to breathe especially when you were covering your mouth/nose for all the dust.















The way that they mine is they hammer holes in the rock by hand around a mineral vein, stuff the holes with dynamite, and explode the rocks.




They usually set off the dynamite at the end of the day as it creates so much dust. Then they carry the ore to the carts and cart it out of the mine. Where it is dumped and then wheel barrowed onto dump trucks. Hard, hard work.










It's crazy that they are still using pretty much the same ways of extracting the ore as they did 500 years ago. It is quite sad how bad the working conditions are and how there is still around 4 deaths a month from cave ins. In the western world, this place would have been shut down long ago. Should you ever be complaining about your job, just think about this and maybe you might realize things aren't so bad.

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