Bolivia, here we come

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Friday, 09. March 2018

Today Tobi was up quite early and started to prepare everything for the change of the clutch. The thing with the palet lift didn't work out quite the way we'd planned and so it was quite an effort to get the gear box back into place. Then came the big moment and "nothing"... That was not nice. So we thought about what could have gone wrong. Tobi called a friend from Switzerland and after wards we tried to get air out of the clutch hydraulics. Once, twice, three times... Nothing. At one point Tobi's friend had an idea: "You put the clutch in the wrong way!" Whaaaat!? WTF! At this point Tobi was close to burning the Defender to the ground. Good thing he didn't. We made a short break and then decided to fix the issue in the hope that the clutch had survived the ordeal. So we did everything again and in record time and with success. What a day!

As a reward we didn't spend the night in the service station but drove back to the camp ground. What a treat.

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Saturday, 10. March 2018

Today Tobi changed the bearings of the rear shocks. I'm not going into details but again there were surprises. However, around late afternoon the Defender was up and running again and we got out of town when it was dark.

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Sunday, 11. March 2018

After spending the night on a camp ground out of town we felt much better and got on the way towards Bolivia via the border town of Ollagüe. On the way we were passing Salars and long trains of the mines.

Funny thing was again that the asphalt stopped right at the border, whatever...

Today we could have used a minivan so many people were hitching a ride. Right at the border in Chile was a mother with her son who were forgotten by their bus! After the border of Bolivia were two men who had "lost" their money and were stuck there. On both sides of the border the next towns are about 100km away! We offered one of them a ride. Then we had to look out for the second one who was trying to climb into the back of the Defender! Boy was he quick for his age...
Further along the road we passed several broken down cars and all owners wanted a ride.
Then we passed some fields in the middle of the desert! I'd never seen these plants before. However, as it turned out later, had already eaten their fruits, Quinoa!

After we got to Uyuni we took a look around town and found a place to eat. Also we booked a tour to the Salar de Uyuni for me. Tobi didn't want to come along as he'd already been there. Because there is no camp ground in all of Uyuni we decided to camp out at the graveyard of the trains.

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Monday, 12. March 2018

After breakfast we went into town for my tour.

The start was rather chaotic. I was expected to be at the agency around 10:30 a.m. It wasn't until 11:30 a.m. that our ride finally arrived. After that we drove another half hour through town to pick up lunch, the drivers sunglasses and fuel up before we finally started the tour at the graveyard of the trains. Unfortunately our guide wasn't volunteering any information unless asked. His default line was "15 minutes, be back on time!" That was it.

After stopping at the usual tourist traps we finally arrived at the Salar de Uyuni, a salt lake. Actually it should be dry... However, there were heavy rains and now the salt lake is up to 50cm under water...

One of the attractions was the statue of the Rally Dakar which passed through here some weeks back.

Behind it is the only hotel in the lake where we had lunch. The night here costs about US$ 150.-

After lunch we went out again to take pictures. However, that wasn't as easy as I'd hoped. For one thing time was rather limited. Second as I was alone I always had to ask people to help me and thirdly for many of the pictured you'd have to put the camera into the water! What a crap... So if you ever come here either take a private tour or spend the night in the hotel so you have sufficient time to take pictures. Also there are about 100 jeeps out here every day! So it's difficult to take pictures without cars in them specially if your guide only drives out 300m if all others drive out 1km...

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Tuesday, 13. March 2018

After another night camping in the graveyard of the trains we went on towards Potosi, a famous mining town. Our first view of the city was shock and we felt an urge to run away. As ever so often we drove by mountains of trash and run down houses on our way into the city. Also the 1000s of one way streets which are often very narrow don't make it easy.

The center, however, is great! Really nice, with lots of green spaces, narrow streets and many churches. And of course full of tour agencies offering tours through the silver mines.

Unfortunately there are almost no camp sites in Bolivia and none in Potosi. So we set up camp on a parking lot...

Only the loo was rather shitty. Only one of three thrones wasn't full with sh... Yes, if one does a journey.

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Wednesday, 14. March 2018

Today was the big day, we were about to go under ground. For us into mine Rosario B.

But firstly we were explained the local customs and had to stuff our cheeks with coca leaves. Afterwards we bought presents for the miners. Among others coca leaves, 96% alcohol and Dynamite including ignition cord and primer capsule. The ignition cord is the green coil on the box full of Dynamite. Yes, even Dynamite has a use by date ;)

Then we went and got changed to look like real miners.

Afterwards we went below ground. On Cerro Rico there are more than 300 mine entrances to uncounted mines which are interconnected.

The entrance to our mine wasn't the lowest part of the mine by far. In places the shafts are only as high as a fully loaded lore.

At the beginning it was rather chilly in the shaft. Then we passed a shaft out of which came very warm air. Cerro Rico is a vulcano and still marginally active...

After about an hour we came by some miners. They were in the middle of preparing a blast. The miner in the front is filling sticks with Amonium-Nitrate. His colleage had just dissappeared into a side shaft with about 10 half sticks of Dynamite including primer cord and capsules.

For us we went up a very narrow shaft using 3 ladders each about 6m long and very used to visit Tio.

The story about Tio is too long to be told here. He's more or less the guardian spirit of the miners. They bring sacrifices in the form of coca leaves, cigarretts and alkohol. The alkohol has to be as pure as possible in order for the ore to be as pure as possible...
So we also brought some sacrifices and took a sip of 96% alcohol which wasn't that bad... Then again maybe the fumes, dust and coca leaves had already gotten to me.

On the way back be encountered some miners who had a problem pushing their lore and Tobi graceously decided to chip in. The lores are pulled by two miners and also being pushed by two miners. The lores weigh up to one metric ton! And in places the rails go slightly up hill or the lore jumps out of the rails... What a rough job!

The mines are not run by companies but belong to the miners who are organized in cooperatives. So they work for themselves and don't have enough money for tools other than Dynamite and jackhammers. To cart their rocks away they rent trucks as soon as their stockpiles are full.

What a great experience but nothing for people with claustrophobia or astma.

After the tour we went into town. Tobi was been looking for a post office for some time. The one in Uyuni was closed and also here the doors were always closed and an armed police officer was standing guard. The answer to our question when the post office would open again was usually: "Probably later, but we don't know."
This afternoon it actually opened its doors and besides 8 armed police in anti riot gear also about 10 people were lining up in front of the door. We decided to try our luck with the office in Sucre.

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Thursday, 15. March 2018

After a leasurly breakfast we left Potosi.

Driving through beautiful landscapes towards Sucre.

Here we'll spend the next few days. However, it's raining cats and dogs and will probably be as well tomorrow. Hopefully it'll be good for the weekend. This is a taste of what's lying in wait for us when we drive to the amazon basin.

Luckily there's a camp site in the middle of Sucre and therefore rather expensive for Bolivia. But after two nights in Potosi, who cares.