Happy New Year!!

akemashite omedetou! (Happy New Year - in japanese)

Hope everyone has enjoyed their holidays and is all refreshed to get back to work/school/etc!!

I`ve enjoyed my little break a whole lot, and of course what made it so was Brandon being here! After Christmas, we travelled to the official capital of Bolivia - Sucre - which has beautiful colonial architecture and has the world´s biggest known collection of dinosaur footprints. Being the capital and all, Sucre recieves a lot of tourists, and there were dozens of museums and cool cafe`s with plenty of atmosphere.

The dinosaur footprints were impressive! It was so amazing to think that we were staring at evidence of massive animals living right there some 60 million years ago. But sadly, there has been no money and no effort put into preserve them. Apparently there is talk about injecting some chemicals so the footprints don`t erode away by strong winds and other natural threats, but nobody has stepped forward to make this happen. Its so sad because as we were examining the footprints, the edges of the footprints were literally crumbling away with a strong gust of wind. Us tourists helplessly gasped and prayed for the wind to stop blowing. Hopefully the footprints will still be there after time....

From Sucre, we travelled to Potosi. Potosi has a really sad history... in the early 17th century, it was one of the biggest and wealthiest cities in the world. Cerro Rico ("Rich Mountain") is the infamous mountain in Potosi, where the richest source of silver was discovered. The city was so famous for its riches that the Spanish used a colloquial expression, "eso vale un Potosi" ("this is worth a Potosi") to describe anything priceless.

They say that one could build a bridge from Potosi to Madrid with the silver that was extracted from Cerro Rico, and that TWO dridges could be made between these two points of bones of those who died in the mining process. You can basically think that all the silver extracted from Potosi sustained the wealth of the back-then strong Spanish empire, and that this was at the expense of millions of indigenuos Andean and African slaves. They say 7 out of every 10 slaves that were taken into the mines never returned....and shockingly enough, that the loss of lives in the mines was central to the demographic collapse in the Andes during Spanish colonial rule.

Slaves brought over from Africa didn´t last very long and suffered greatly because of the drastically different environment, and as well, the altitude (Potosi is at 4000m, the highest city in the world). Indigenous Andeans were also forced to work in the mines, and there was a system of taking slaves to work in the mines for 4 months at a time, sometimes even much much longer. In the mines, its it darker than the phrase "pitch black" could ever mean, the air is horrible, not to mention incredibly unhealthy for the lungs (mine workers usually die earlier because of this), and most of the time you can´t even stand up straight because its basically like a cave inside, and they don´t make the cielings high enough. After someone came out of the mines from their horrendously long "shift", they would have to cover their eyes for some time to adjust to the light.

We got a little taste of life as a mine worker, although obviously not as strenuous. You can visit Cerro Rico (and many other mines, also not just in Potosi, in other places too) with a tourist agency, which is what we did. We put on waterproof pants and jacket, a helmet with a headlamp, and we were ready to go in.

The first 50 meters into the mines was ok... but as the light from the entrance to the tunnel gradually dimmed, a sense of panic took over me, and i felt like I couldn´t breathe. Its all psychological ya know? I thought about how if i wanted to get out, there was only one way, and the further i went in, the longer it would take to get out .....and what if there was a miscalculation in use of dynamite while someone was mining and we got trapped in?

The walls, the ceiling, everything was just so close, it made me feel claustrophobic. I had to take several deep breaths, and remind myself that people work here and to not be such a wimp!! (although on tours, there are always people that turn back only after abit.. its quite common.... which says something about the conditions of the mines) I kept myself occupied by asking questions to the guide, to get my mind off the thought of not being able to get out of there. Inside the mines, its really like those ant farms that kids have, like a maze. Seemingly endless tunnels with several floors, and really at some places, we were on our hands and knees, sometimes pulling some acrobatic moves to get through. As you go lower, it gets hotter, which makes the air seem even thinner.

I gotta say, I was so glad when we reached the exit/entrance. I would not do it again, but I´m glad I did it... i really admire those miners for their ability to do such hard work.

The silver in Cerro Rico has pretty much been exhausted. Now they mainly extract tin and zinc, using techniques that have little changed from centuries ago. There are still tons of miners working there, and these miners usually don´t gain that much from working in the mines. But its still a job, it still brings in an income, and so they continue to mine. The city of Potosi is somewhat reflective of this tragic history, and walking through the narrow paths, there is a sense of sadness that lingers the streets, and its like you can feel it in your skin. (or maybe it was because it was cold) Our visit to Potosi was truly memorable, although not in the normal sense.

After returning from our trip to Sucre and Potosi, we went to work for a few days, during which Brandon got quite attatched to some of the cute babies and kids at my work.

On New Years Eve, we took a bus heading out of the city of Cochabamba, and got off about 1.5 hours out of the city. There, there are abandoned railway tracks that you can walk along, and I had heard from friends at school that the scenery is beautiful. So we decided to do the walk that day, and we walked and walked through rural Cochabamba for about 4 hours. Sure enough, it was a beautiful, enjoyable walk. But after that, we were so tired in the evening that we didn´t feel like going out, and we just stayed at home.

After New Years, it was a really fast 3 days until Brandon flew home to Vancouver. But it was a really wonderful 2 weeks, and now i feel re-energized to work and enjoy my last 2 months here in Bolivia.