After we crossed the border in a small, lonely border station and went from Bolivia to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, we left already the second country on our journey, so again it is time for a country review. In Peru we were really surprised how well everything worked. Not always as planned, but after all, travelling is predictable and comfortable.

Nothing is like that in Bolivia. Here nearly nothing goes the way it was planned, most things do not work at all and people have learnt to accept that: Roads and city centers are blocked, people are later than expected, when You would like to buy what is advertised outside it won’t be available, if You want to open a box of biscuits You need a PhD in engineering …. Most often a strike causes problems, but there are also technical problems (which of course never have occurred before …. ) or carnival. And in the end Bolivians are more concerned about the fact that they do not have an open access to the sea, after having lost yet another war against Chile in 1904. This unbearable situation, comparable to the well-known third-world country of Switzerland, is still seen as the one and only reason for all problems and plays an important role in everyday life: we had the dubious pleasure to see a ceremony of the Bolivian Navy (no joke!), where Marines showed an uttermost pathetic movie named “El Mar de Bolivia” ….

However, there are two things that enable You to forgive all this hassle to the country. The first is that Bolivia is extremely cheap. You can easily travel with 10 Euro per day and if You only pay prices on that level, You do not expect perfect service. Moreover, You do not need everything to work at once, if You have time.

The second thing which makes it easy to endure all problems are the people. In fact, they are not friendly in that sense. Bolivia is very poor, in La Paz there are no westernized, comfortable neighbourhoods like in Lima (but on the other hand there are no really poor areas like in the Peruvian capital). In the country, especially on the Altiplano, people live in very simple mud houses without any heating systems in very harsh climatic conditions. This hard life creates hard people: In the country, the Bolivians were rather introverted, smiling not too often, especially the woman look old even when young, but most people are ready to help. So although people are not too enthusiastic, You feel welcome. And again, what is really amazing is a certain kind of naivety, which is widespread, very appealing and it explains why things seldom work. It is hard to describe this naivety in detail, but we will demonstrate it with an example:

When we were at the bus terminal searching for tickets to Potosí, which is one of the most important cities of the country, we heard some answers uniquely found in Bolivia. First of all, not even one half of the companies who put “Potosí” with huge letters on their counter actually offered passages. From the rest we heard responses like:
“Is there a bus from Your company to Potosí tomorrow night?” – “I do not know, but I do not think so”.
“What would be the price?” – “70 or 80 Bolivianos” – “Ok, but which of the prices do we have to pay?” – “I don’t know, I have to ask my boss”
“How much is it?¨ – “110 Bolivianos” – “Ok, accepted, we buy two tickets” – And to further promote his company he gives it to us for 100 without saying anything ….
And our personal favourite:
“Is the bus comfortable and can one sleep? What is the angle You can put the seats back? How many degrees?” In probably every other country You would get an answer like “150 degrees, but that is very comfortable”. Not so in Bolivia. On the question how many degrees are possible” they answer very sincere with “Oh, not very much”. And if You hesitate to book then they are very helpful: “But just look at the company over there. They have similar prices but much more comfort.”

You see, with that attitude a country cannot work – but what a lovely way not to work!

Welcome to Potosí, world’s biggest, richest and highest city. Okay, currently only the latter is still true. When soon after the conquest of South-America the Spanish discovered a silver deposit in Cerro Rico, the new founded city of Potosí soon developed to one of the most important places of the world. “Vale un Potosí” is still today a Spanish expression for being worth a million. The density of silver in the mountain was so high that in the beginning it was possible to melt the silver directly out of the stones. Lots of Indios had to work in the mines, the silver was sent to Spain with the famous silver fleet and provoked an inflation in Iberia.

Nowadays the past glorious vanished but what remained is Cerro Rico. Potosí continues to be a mine town with 15000 workers entering the mines every day and producing 5000 tons of stones per day. However, since silver is not abundant anymore, a complex chemical process is needed to get the minerals (silver, plumb and zinc) out of the stones. As mercury is necessary for this process, all the water in the area is contaminated and the working conditions are not any better: We did a mining tour which even though is attended by many tourists is surprisingly somehow non touristic. There are no special trails for visitors but you have to climb the same narrow tracks like the miners and you see them during their everyday work. They spend 12 hours under the earth and often sleep the rest of their time in cold and wet mud huts at the entrance of the mine at more than 4000m of altitude. Due to the humidity, they cannot bring any food inside so they work all day without eating and additionally it is not possible to go to the toilet because of the ventilation system. The solution like so often in the Andes: chewing coca leaves which dampens the feeling of hunger and improves the oxygen transportation. With the huge amount of coca in their mouth, they work in a hot and super-dusty environment, usually getting asthma after a couple of years. On the small paths we had problems getting down, they climb up with bags full of stones weighting more than 40 kilos – unbelievable, we could hardly lift them up. Enduring all these strains, they win between 800 and 1200 Bolivianos per month on average. This is between 90 and 130 €. Continue reading →