The curious case of the disappearing shirt

Back in Colombia, after the Lost City tour, I got a free t-shirt that I was absolutely stoked about.  While traveling, a new shirt equals a clean shirt, need I say more.  However, after the first wash the shirt lost about an inch off the bottom, the second wash lost an additional inch, and so on.  This pattern has continued for each subsequent wash, and now the shirt shows my belly button and it’s getting tougher and tougher to wear in public.

As this trend doesn’t seem to be slowing, I’d like to pose a question (using the dichotomy paradox – which says in order to reach your destination you must first reach the half-way point, and then half of a half, and then half of a half of a half…) can a shirt really disappear? I’ll report back…

Copacabana & The Isla Del Sol

I spent my last few days in Bolivia hitting up Copacabana and the Island of the Sun on Lake Titicaca, before heading over to Peru for the last month of my trip.  I spend my first day in town hiking around the watching the massive Easter celebration, South Americans are extremely religious (like fireworks going off every night, religious).  Here are a few of the pictures from the hikes:

View of Copacabana

After a 2 hour boat ride, I was at the north end of the island

First hiked north and found these Inca ruins

Found a few more on the walk south

The trek south went along the ridge line

At the southern part of the island

Silver Mine Tour

First off, the average Bolivian in about 5’ 3” while I am 6’ 0”, those 9 inches would prove to be a huge disadvantage…

The silver mine tour is basically the reason you stop in Potosi, not that it’s a rundown town by any means, but it’s by far the main attraction (aside from being the highest city in the world at 4,300 meter – but there’s not much to do to ‘see’ that attraction).  It also isn’t the typical tour, there are no ropes, no safety nets, it’s a real working mine with actual workers, tourist just happen to be there.

The day started on the earlier side, around 8 the tour company came to the hostel to give us our pants, boots, jacket, belt, helmet, and most importantly, light.

The highest city in the world - Potosi

We'd be going inside this mountain

We stopped to get gifts for the mines, since basically we’re just in their way during the tour, we got them juice, coca leaves, gloves, and beers.  The story with the coca leaves is crazy, the workers work for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, they eat breakfast at home, then chew a ton of coca leaves which gives them energy and stymies their appetites during the day, and then a huge dinner.  Some of these guys look like chipmunks they have so many coca leave.

That's real dynamite is his mouth

Our guide giving instruction on how to not die in the mines

Then we just dove right into the mines, following the rail tracks that the workers push/pull the carts on.  The tunnel was pretty narrow, a little wider than a twin bed, and the roof was not much above our helmets to start.  Quickly the roof got lower and lower until I was walking in an awkward crouch with my head tilted to one side to avoid all the wooden logs, pipes, and rocks that were in the way.  I was leading the group down the first tunnel, behind the guide and kept hitting my head, each time she would yell back ‘mind your head!’  I wanted to yell back, ‘I’m not 4 feet tall! (average height of Bolivian woman is 4’ 8”),’ as our guide was short and was just walking like normal for most of the tour, barely noticing the tunnel.  I couldn’t help think of Skee Low ‘I wish I was a little bit taller,’ which of course made no sense as I hit my head for the 6^th time on another low hanging rock.

Surrounding this statue were bottles of 95% alcohol,
each morning the workers ask for good fortune with
sacrifices of coca leaves and alcohol, they also party
here on their days off...

There were several points when the tunnel got so small we had to crawl to get through, it was wild.  Then there is also the heat, the deeper into the mine you go, the hotter it gets, as well as getting harder to breath.  To sum up, we’re at 13,000ft (trouble breathing as it is), hiking through a sauna of a mine, no room to move, and tough to get a full breath.  It was intense.

We were in the mines for about 2 hours, and at the end I really did want to get out, I could not imagine working down there all day long, everyday.  The carts they push around all day come in two sizes, the ‘small’ ones weigh over a ton when full, the big ones are 2 ½ tons.  Their goal each day is to get 10 loads of rock out of the mines.  Then there was the guy shoveling rocks, all day long, he was sweating more than I’ve ever seen another human being sweat.

At one point we stopped for a break, and sat with some miners and gave them some gifts.  There were calling us loco, and I agreed that at that moment it seemed strange.  Being a miner is a shit life, you get paid $15-20 a day, for heavy manual labor and being exposed to dust, chemicals, harsh metals, low oxygen… and we paid money to come down there.  A lot of miners start when they are 14, work until they’re 55, and die of some lung complication at 60.  It’s just sad.  I honestly think it’s the worst job you could ever have.  Around Potosi, 16,000 people (mostly men) work in the mines, 500 work in the mine we saw.

It was a great tour, getting to see really what it’s like for a miner was truly amazing.  Yes it made me thoroughly appreciate what I have, and I couldn’t believe I ever had a negative thought about any of my old jobs, because working at a desk is cake compared to that.

The ever so dangerous Bolivian bus ride

Riding a bus in Bolivia is a calculated risk, this is of course the country with 'The World's Most Dangerous Road,' where back in the day an average of 26 buses each year would fall 600 meters into the abyss. 

Lonely Planet will often describe bus rides in Bolivia as 'bone chilling' or something to the effect, but until you really experience it, those are merely words.  Like they don’t say that most of Bolivia isn’t paved, so half your ride will be on a dirt road that’s not quite wide enough for two big buses to pass.  Or that the ride will be so shaky that you’ll probably drop the cap to your 2 liter water bottle full to the brim and have to make a cap out of a Ziploc bag and athletic tape, all while in the pitch black.

Let’s just say the ride from Uyuni to Potosi was an adventure…

Bolivia jeep tour

Day 1

We started off in Tupiza around half 8.  I had tried to manipulate the group I’d be with to at least have a few English speaking people, as it would be 4 people (plus a driver) in a Toyota Land Cruiser for 8+ hours a day.  I ended up with a French couple (limited English) and 2 Israeli girls (pretty good English), and an English guide.  But to my surprise, I'd already met the Israeli girls on my bus ride to Salta, Alla and Shelly, so that was a cool coincidence.  The other jeep was filled with Israeli’s, so I’d get a heavy dose of Hebrew on the trip.

We quickly left civilization, paved roads turning to dirt off-roads, and we got to see some amazing scenery, like large red spiky cliffs and huge mountains among other things.  The views really were beautiful, but a few things were worrisome to start the trip.  One of the other jeeps in our group kept stopping with engine trouble, all the guides would all gather around the popped hood with questioning looks.  When I asked our guide Milton ‘what’s wrong,’ his answer ‘nothing’ was an obvious lie.  The guides were all also mechanics, so at least if it broke down it might be fixable.

Lots of lamas on the tour

About halfway through the day it started to really rain, and then hail.  It was pretty cool looking with the scenery around us, expect that our windshield wipers didn’t work.  I was sitting shotgun at the time and could barely see.  It was a great relief to get out of the jeep after that many hours just sitting, and take a walk.  We got many breaks during the drive, but still a majority of our time is sitting.

When we got to San Antonio village, our home for the night, I was eager to get out of the cars and stretch my legs.  I walked around town, which to call it a town in generous, population of 260, I think I saw 2 motor bikes in the whole town, they have electricity, but tv (are you kidding) and internet (pretty sure they’re never heard of something so ridiculous). 

Village on San Antonio

Then I choose a spot up at the top of the hill that I thought would be perfect for a little reading, but my stamina turns out to be just terrible at 13,500ft.  After not even 100 feet, I was getting a severe headache and breathing far too heavily for what how far i'd just walked, I needed to stop on a mossy flat rock part way up the hill.

I got back to our little place or residence just in time for my first experience with coca tea, as well as much needed cookies and crackers.  Then I really had a chance to chill and talk with the whole group, i was surprised to learn that Israel has their weekend on Friday and Saturday (which makes sense with Saturday being their holy day – equivalent to our Sunday, but still something I thought I know before now).

Dinner was nice and filling, and we were surprised with a show after, some of the local kids playing instruments and singing. 

We went to bed early that first night, as we’d be leaving at 5am the next morning, yikes.

Out by 9pm.

Day 2

Four in the morning wasn’t as early as I thought it was would feel, but it was still damn early.  Bag packed breakfast (just hard bread and more coca tea) and then onto the ride.

Early on it was very dark and cold outside, and so I didn’t both to look at anything other than the back of my eye lids.  Our first stop was old San Antonio, an ancient town of apparently 1,000, in which most of the previous inhabitants died due to disease.  It is rumored to have ghosts, but sadly we didn’t see any, so consider that myth debunked.

Several of the really cool things we passed:

Group photo at Laguna Morejon

I don't have a photo of the hot springs just before lunch, be we also hit those up.

Laguna Verde - Green due to the minerals

Geysers at 15,000ft

Laguna Colorado - Red due to algae

Tons of flamingos on Laguna Colorado

Some of the road conditions are pretty crazy, just driving right through rivers, large patches of mud, nothing seems to phase the guides. 

Day 3

Rock formations above 15,000ft - note the high peaks in the background

The caravan from one of the many lagunes

I’ve climbed Mt. Whitney at just under 14,500ft, and at the top you honestly don’t feel great.  I used to think that was a high mountain.  Today, we were checking out some rock formations that were created due to the insanely high winds that continue to cause erosion, eventually the rocks won’t exist.  When we got out of the cars for the first time today, we were above 15,000ft on a flat plateau surrounded by snow capped mountains  towering above us, it was unreal.  Of course the guides were completely unphased, playing soccer and running around like it was nothing.  I played for a second before nearly collapsing from exhaustion. 

We continued the day by checking out a series of lagunes, but I’ll be honest, most were sweet looking, but they were also my 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th lakes of the trip, so I was sorta getting over stopping just to look at more agua.  Then we continued driving through our last bit of true off-road, because reaching the real road (still dirt, but hard packed and flat), and the valle de rocas (valley of the rocks).

Valle de Rocas - The Condor of Bolivia

We drove on much fast now, continuing on to the cemetery of the trains, basically a glorified landfill with some 45 year old trains that are now out of service.  After, we arrived at Uyuni, a total shithole of a town with all dirt roads and rundown buildings.  I didn’t want to spend a minute longer in this place than needed.

One interested thing about Bolivia is a surprisingly high number of dentists.  Like Tupiza had at least 5 places, and in Uyuni we saw 2 just walking to the downtown.  However, based on the quality of the locals teeth, they seem to be neglecting to use such prominent facilities.

It was also April Fools day today, and we tried to convince Milton, when giving the outline for the next day’s activities after dinner, to tell the rest of the group that the salt flats were closed the next day and we’d have to cut the trip short.  Trying to explain to him why we pull pranks on each other on April 1^st was like explaining to a child that Santa Claus doesn’t exist, it just clearly wasn’t sinking in, and hence no fools were performed :(. 

I ended the night playing a few card games that were favorites of the Israelis: Yanif, Cambio, and Taki.  The first two are a bit tough to explain in writing, but the third (Taki) is like Uno only with a few different rules.   After being taught the rules and then playing I ended up winning (NBD) to the surprise of the entire table of Israelis.

Day 4

Salar de Uyuni at sunrise

Today is the last day of the jeep tour and we were again up early to drive to the Salar de Uyuni (the largest salt flat in the world) for sunrise.  Wearing my clothes designed for the beach, it was incredibly cold and I could barely feel my face and feet by the time the sun actually got up.  I needed some time to recover, and a nice breakfast inside a building made entirely out of salt, walls, chairs, everything, did the trick.

Then we drove actually onto the salt flat and had 2 hours for picture, which at first I thought was way too long, but we kicked around the soccer ball, and then spent time thinking up cool perspective pictures to take, like one person holding another in their hand, or pushing a ball, or whatever.  It was pretty fun.

As we were leaving we passed by a village whose whole economy is based on salt.  We saw people actually digging, like with shovels, the salt into trucks.  2.2lbs of salt = 50 Bolivian cents, which equates to about $70 for a ton of salt.

We drove the last few miles back to Uyuni, rounding it out to an even 600 miles for the trip.  A pretty solid four days all said and done.

My 1 year anniversary

Last year, on April fools day 2011, I did the least foolish thing I could think of, I quit my job in pursuit of a different life.  And after 365 days, I can honestly say that it was still a great decision that I'd make again 100 times out of 100.  If you’re thinking about it, I couldn’t encourage it enough, go have an adventure and do something that right now might seem crazy.  I promise you won’t look back at life from your deathbed and think, ’man, I should have worked more.’

I’m in Bolivia

Well I’m in Bolivia, after my bus arrived at 5am and I huddled in the corner of the bus station with a couple of Australian girls who also made the mistake of taking the earlier bus… Immigration doesn’t open until 7.

But got into Bolivia just fine, managed a visa, exchanged money, and snagged a 2 hour bus ride for $2.  It’s cheap here, but also dirty, you certainly get what you pay for.

My first town is Tupiza, a small little town that isn’t too special, expect that I can afford a private room with a bathroom for only $13 a night, and it’s the launch point for a 4 day jeep tour that I’ll be starting tomorrow…