Silver Mines, Sucre, Dinosaur Footprints (And Don't Go To The Top Restaurant On Tripadvisor!)

Having spent one night in the very mediocre town of Uyuni following our salt flats tour, we proceeded north the next day to Potosí. This is a mining town that at 4070m is the second highest city in the world (the highest, El Alto, is also in Bolivia).

Iglesia de San Lorenzo de Carangas - one of the many churches in Potosí

We had heard a lot about Bolivian buses and boarded with some trepidation, but this bus ride at least wasn't too bad at all - we certainly had a lot worse in Asia. All the locals get on buses laden with blankets, clearly in the know about how cold it's going to be, we thought. I duly wore thermals and several jumpers, but actually, the bus got really hot and we sweltered in t-shirts for the whole journey. The scenery was incredible and we tried to enjoy this rather than thinking too hard about the huge drop down a cliff on one side!

View of Cerro Oro, the mine in Potosí

Bolivia is a refreshing change from Chile and Argentina in that it is far less westernised. Coming into Potosí, we passed busy outdoor markets, open trucks full of oranges, street stalls selling dubious looking snacks, etc. Everything is far less ordered than Chile and Argentina, with interesting, slightly puzzling things going on everywhere you look. The country also has a high proportion of indigenous people and the ladies of the altiplano region have a very characteristic style of dress: long skirts, usually with tights or legwarmers and sandals; apron; a boater style of hat, with two long black plaits of hair; numerous shawls; and a colourful sling across their back, often carrying a baby but apparently used for anything and everything. You really see a whole different culture here: it feels like travelling properly again, rather than being on an extended holiday.

The square and cathedral in Potosí

We spent three days in Potosí, which is a pleasant place to stroll around, with a plethora of colonial architecture and churches with intricate carvings. It is a world heritage site and an important town historically due to its silver mining heritage. During colonial times, the hill behind the town (Cerro Rico, or 'rich hill') was Spain's main source of silver and in Spanish there is still a saying 'vale un potosí' (to be worth a potosí, i.e. a lot!). We visited the Casa de la Moneda, Potosí's first mint, where silver coins were minted first for the Spanish crown and then for independent Bolivia until the 1950s. Native people and African slaves worked in the mines and in the mint, in atrocious conditions. We were told that the amount of silver extracted in Potosí in colonial times would have been enough to build a bridge of pure silver between there and Spain - but that you could also have built the same bridge with the bones of the people who died.

In the Casa de la Moneda, Potosí

In Potosí we visited a French restaurant that was highly recommended on Tripadvisor - an error, it turned out, as both of us and our Swiss friends came down with food poisoning. This necessitated an extension of our stay in Potosí,  but we are gradually getting better and have now moved on to Sucre, Bolivia's consitutional capital and another world heritage site.

Eiffel tower lookalike, in Parque Simón Bolívar, Sucre

Sucre is a beautiful city, with characteristic white buildings from the colonial era and numerous churches and museums. We've visited the Casa de la Libertad, where Bolivia's declaration of independence was signed in 1825, and walked around the pleasant park (with odd Eiffel tower replica). We've also been to see some 68 million year old dinosaur footprints, and the associated theme park with life size dinosaur models. Pretty cool - there's a steep limestone wall with the tracks of three types of dinosaur clearly visible. They'd originally have been flat but due to plate movements now look like they are walking vertically up the wall.

Dinosaur footprints

Sucre is proving  a great place to chill out and continue recovering from illness.There's a lot of expats living here so we've found several excellent cafés and even an English pub, where we watched Chile win the final of the Copa America last night. We have now signed up for a week's Spanish classes and then a 4 day trek, so will be here and around for a while longer. Our Swiss friends are pressing on to La Paz this evening though, so we're on our own again...

Ghost Mining Towns, Mummies and Llamas at 4500m

When Kev last posted we were still in touristy San Pedro de Atacama, trying to deal with extremes of altitude, temperature and aridity. It was thus a relief to arrive in Iquique on the west coast, which was at sea level and relatively warm. There's not much that can be said for the city - it's quite a gritty place, rough around the edges and swathed in mist for 90% of the time. Strangely enough however, it did boast some excellent sushi restaurants and, best of all, it lacked tourists other than than ourselves and Cindy and Julien, the Swiss couple with whom we're travelling at the moment.

Old mining machinery in Santa Laura

The four of us hired a car for the day to visit the nearby mining ghost towns of Humberstone and Santa Laura. The two towns and their surrounding area were one of the world's most important producers of nitrate from the 1880s until 1960 and were declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2005. We enjoyed wandering around the abandoned buildings, both residential and industrial, and imagining the lives of the miners living there. The conditions must have been pretty tough - the towns are in the middle of the desert, in unpleasantly dry and hot conditions. We read that the temperature in the mines could get up to 50ºC. At least Humberstone had a swimming pool they could cool off in!

Walking up towards the Atacama Giant 

We also took the opportunity of having our own transport to go to see El Gigante de Atacama, a huge geoglyph on the side of a  hill in the desert. It is the largest anthropomorphic  geoglyph in the world, at 86m tall, and estimated to date to around AD 900.  It was believed to have magical powers, seen as a shaman or a deity by local people of the time.

Chinchorro mummy, in Museo de Sitio Colón 10, Arica

We moved on from Iquique to Arica, another coastal city that was a lot more pleasant than Iquique. A number of mummies have been found in this area from the South American Chinchorro culture and are on display in local museums. They are the oldest examples of mummification in the world, dating back to as far as 5000 - 7000 BC (2000 years before Egyptian mummies). The main museum in the town showcased some remains as they were found - we walked across a glass floor and could look down at the mummies beneath. Some had red or black clay masks, some had wigs and others were decorated with feathers. Quite a weird experience!

We took a bus from Arica up to Putre, a slightly giddying journey up a winding road to an altitude of 3500m. Our main aim of coming here was to visit Parque Nacional Lauca, which is even higher at an average of 4500m. Quite few tourists come to Lauca on a day trip from Arica  - a little stupid, we thought, as an increase of altitude of 4500m in a few hours is a recipe for disaster. We arrived in Putre in the morning and spent a day acclimatising and admiring the incredible scenery. It's a little like San Pedro, but better, with mountains all around.

The town square and church in Putre

The second day in Putre we organised a tour to Lauca. Our driver was a friendly Venezuelan guy, so as well as enjoying the incredible scenery and wildlife of the park, we gained an interesting insight into life and politics in Venezuela at the moment. Lauca national park was one of the most stunning places we have visited so far, with picture perfect volcanoes and lakes. There were lots of animals - we saw endless llamas and alpacas (I still can't tell the difference!) and also herds of their shy wild relative, the vicuña. Plus, among others, the cute rabbit-like viscacha, giant tagua (giant coots) and flamingoes.

In front of Volcán Parinacota

At Lake Chungara (4500m, new height record!)

Feeding a llama

You could really feel the altitude up here and we were glad we had had a night in Putre to adjust a little. At one point we had to walk up a hill, not a particularly steep one, and within seconds I was gasping for breath. My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest and I had to stop and then walk at a really slow pace in order not to feel like I was dying! For once we were glad that we were driven around for most of the day and only minimal walking was involved.

Vicuñas in Parque Nacional Lauca

We travelled back down to Arica the next day and this evening will be taking a nightbus back to San Pedro, from where we'll head into Bolivia via the famous salt flats.