Oh Bolivia, you are fantastic!

Michael & I had a great time in our whirlwind tour of Bolivia.  We toured a working mine, visited the salt flats, a train cemetary, rode some horses and saw a mad game of soccer.  In La Paz we visited the witches markets which are full of llama fetus & statues of Pacha mama the earth goddess.  And I shopped up a storm managing to spend a couple hundred bucks in a couple of hours in one of the cheapest places on earth!

But like lots of places, it can be the people you meet that help make it.  We went for dinner with Cecilia & Patty - two Bolivian girls who Michael met travelling a few years back.  They were really cool.  Took us to dinner & out to a club where there was this Bolivian-African band with plenty of big drums and crazy instruments I've never seen before.

For our tour of Bolivia we had Freddy, also a Bolivian, as our guide and Laura & Ericka fellow tourists.  Freddy was a great guy, knew a lot about his country and was well excited when he realised we were going to be in Potosi for the football final between Potosi and Freddy's home town Sucre.  When he told us about it we were keen as mustard, so he organised tickets, I got me a Sucre scarf and off we went to the footy.

The mine tour was pretty cool.  We started with a trip to the miner's markets where we bought some presents for the miners; kind of a thank you for letting us visit and sorry for interrupting your work.  We bought cocoa leaves, fizzy drinks, cigarettes and dynamite.  Yep, that's right, anyone can buy themselves a stick of dynamite for 15 bolivianos, which is about $2!

Me and my $2 dynamite

Ready for the mine tour.

 In the mine it was hot and claustrophobic.  As we walked down the narrow tunnels we were regularly made to squash ourselves against a wall as a couple of guys pushing a one tonne cart came running past at full speed.  We also stopped by an idol of the devil, where the workers pay him respect and give him gifts, hoping in return that he will show them where the precious metals are.  They give him cocoa leaves, cigarettes and alcohol.  The alcohol is 96% and smells like metho.  Michael & I drank it and I thought I was going to choke, and was then burping up metho breath for hours - ugggh!

Ericka, Laura & I swimming at the hot springs.

Random street festival

All in all, there were so many things to see and do in Bolivia I think we could have spent a lot more time there.  We missed the Cholita wrestling, touring the prison (although I'd heard a lot of bad things so wasn't too concerned missing that), could have spent more time in the salt flats and Sucre and Michael never got to Lake Titicaca.  Ah well - next time.