Bolivia and the adventures it brings...

WOW!! The mines were an absolutely eye-opening experience. We left our hostel at 8:30 am, after a very hearty breakfast of eggs, rolls, jam, bananas etc..., and hopped on a bus to the 1st miners' station, to get all geared up! It was funny, to say the least- over our trousers we all had to pull on red, plastic trousers, then massive knee-high wellies, a green plastic coat, a massive belt, with a battery attached, which then connected with a long wire to the torch on our helmet, which was bright yellow, and definitely evoked some sexy looks amongst the group! Our whole group consisted of 16 people, but we got divided into three groups: two guys from the czech republic ( its true, there are actually other czechs who travel- i am not the only freak) , who had their own spanish guide, and then two groups of 7, each with a english guide! I feel like I have to spend a few words on our guide, Rodriguez: his english was fine, and his enthusiasm definitely plentifull, but so was his supply of swear words in English, which he has learnt from the tourists over the years, and so there were several occasions, where I stared at him in desbelief, as he referred to us as "mad cows", or " f****** crazy bitches"!
Anyway, all ready to get dirty, we made one more stop at the miner's market: the tourists are asked to buy dinamite, alcohol, cigarettes or coca leaves for the miners, as a gesture of respect and general politeness! Amongst the 7 of us, we stocked up on a good amount of dinamite, alcohol, juice and coca leaves and were ready to party!!
We arrived at the mines, and a couple of people immediately backed out ( amongst them an 18-year-old lad, who had been boasting about his lack of fear in the bus- I am not going to lie, I laughed quite a lot)!!
Off we went...general idea: started out on the first level, absolutely fine, wide corridors, pleasant breeze and cool temperatures..
the first obstacle came, when we had to climb down a VERY small, slippery, tight ladder, down a dark hole, to get to the 4th level.
general idea: hot, crawling on all fours due to the lack of space, dusty air, strong smell of gas and other fumes, mud up to 50cm at points!!
We ran into numerous miners working and so got a good idea as to what the labour consisted of- whether they were blowing up sections, sorting out the materials or digging their way through scarsely existing holes, all of them were working crazy hard, in conditions that one cannot imagine till one sees it!!
I believe around 5 out of the 30 men we saw in the two hours we were down there, were between 50 and 60 years old, and had worked in the mines for over 30 years! And a further 5 were under the age of 15! The tragic fact, that these men will most likely die of a very serious lung disease, and the young boys' life expectancy is around 48, cast a sad and contemplative mood over all of us, but the truth is harsh and that became very clear!!
Two hours later we all crawled out, swetty, covered in dust, desperately sucking in the fresh air and getting used to the sharpness of the bright noon sun!!
The afternoon was then spent, strolling around Potosi, little stall there, cute shop here, yummy fruits there, strange jelly with meringue here!!!
In the late afternoon, just as I was about to start retreating to my hostel, I found the cutest little convent, which obviously had to be explored!! Judy, a lovely bolivian lady, took me around for almost 2 hours, telling me crazy stories of the lives of the 21 girls that used to occupy the convent almost 300 years ago!! Conclusion: I am never going to become a nun- if I haven't learned anything else in my gapyear, that I now know for sure !!
Later that night I had a good night out with my ozzie friends, in a local little bar, live reagge mucis and all...little tip: do not under-estimate the effect that altitude can have on you when drinking!!! Not saying that I got very ridiculously drunk or anything, just warning those people out there, that might do so!!! haha
The next mornign we all hopped on a bus to Sucre, and off we went bumping up and down little stone roads for 4 hours, till we arrived in Sucre!!
Quite a surprise: really hot, massive, well-dressed people on the streets, just a proper city I guess!!
We all ( by this point we were a group of 9, we were all headign in the same direction and so just stuck together), checked-in at the Amigo Hostel and ready to explore yet another town quickly made our way into the streets of Sucre!
The town is very pretty, with a very spanish feel to the old buildings and little squares!! In the evening we all went for a group dinner at Joy Ride ( not just for gringos, as the menu says), and had a great night!! We all shared two massive tacos combos - altogether 50 tacos, and heaps and heaps of guacamole, cheese, tomato and beef...all for 30 $ JOKES!!! It was a typical south american night: sangria, beer, cheesy music, out-of-breath dancing ( the altitude seriously kicks in)....
Yesterday, Ryan, Matt, Andy and me went horse-riding !!! Haha..it was soo mcuh fun. We rented horses, and with our guide, we roamed around the beautiful surroundings of Sucre!! The horses were basically not trained, so attempting to steer them was useless and caused alot of laughter. Matt had a horse, which nonetheless behaved more like an old donkey, Andy's horse just did anything that my horse did, and Ryan's horse was clearly very keen on hard terrain, and from time to time just started heading up into the hills. My "muchacha" was the most lively one, but seeign that I was the only one who can ride, it was better that way...As the boys struggled to get their horses trotting, I had a few lovely sessions of galloping trhough the country-side!! After about 3 hours our horses started to slowly have enough of it: Ryan's horse actually seriously broke down- legs out, just collapsed on the road and Ryan was lucky enough to have jumped off in time. My horse started standing up on her back legs, because she apparently doesn't like white cars ( my guide could have told me this earlier), and one passed us about every 5 minutes, as we had to ride along a main road for a while!! Anyway, it was fun and for 20 $ absolutely worth it. It is fair tosay though, that Argentina is a horse country, and bolivia isn't!!
In a little town of Yayana, where we finished our ride, we then discovered a strangelly posh swimming pool complex, with a beach volleyball court and a lovely loval eatery!! So the hot afternoon wa spent at the pool, playing volleyball ( or attempting to play on my part), sipping beer...
Slightly exhausted we arrived back home, and just chilled in the courtyard of our hostel..
Dinner was a lot more low-key than the previous night, with a visit to a pizza place ( amazing pizza, not even kidding) and ( I know that this is not very traditional but it had to be done) a banana split!!!
To walk out our acquired massive food-babies, we strolled around the night-lit city streets with my ozzie friends. To finish off a successful day, we listened to some music and drank one last Sol in our hostel, before calling it a day!!
Today, yet another sunny and hot day, is the last day in Sucre! We all, by now almost 20 of us, head to La paz tonight ( its a over-night 12 hour bus), and so we are all using today to just see those last things worth seeing...there are plenty of parks, churches, markets and old building!! That being a great excuse to stop writing, I finish today's entry and off I go to suck in some sun and bolivian city spirit...