October 6
Today was day 101. Wow! And opps that we didn’t celebrate day 100.
Last night we had our first night of difficult sleep due to elevation… both of us woke up short of breath several times. So we were a bit fuzzy at breakfast this morning when we visited with two nice Germans. They took the silver mine tour yesterday and told us all about it. Ernesto and I both like the idea of a silver mine tour, but do not the reality of activities that take place underground, and in all honestly I am straight up terrified of mines. We knew that silver mining was the history/original “purpose” of Potosi (to provide silver for Spain), but what we didn’t know is how active the mine still is. The German kids told us there were still 14,000 miners and that for the most part, it runs as a co-op. They buy in and then can keep most of it for themselves. Bueno. (Or government geologists who know it isn’t safe so they decided to stop paying people to work it and have people pay to mine-share it?
It was hard to top the geologic and topographic scenery of yesterday, but today came close. We saw many more geologic structures we didn’t understand, and added shades of blue and gold to our list of “colors of rock you can see in southern Bolivia”. The best word I can think of to describe the landscape here is mangled… it is as though this part of the planet took some acid and had a hella party over geologic time. We have seen sedimentary layers in ridiculous orientations. I guess this part of the world is so high the evidence of it has been pushed up and bullied around is inevitable?? We rode about 200 km from Potosi to Uyuni and saw too many alpacas and vicunas to be counted. We also saw some flamingos and signs for rheas, but no actual rheas. It was another day of blue sky and cool and dry air. And sadly, some trucks with opaque exhaust that actually gave me a black beard by the time we got to our hotel.
Uyuni is a little gringo, or at least has a few block radius of gringos, so we enjoyed seeing other people in Keene’s and puffy coats for an hour. We did not however, enjoy the food that is supposedly for gringos. We are in a gringo hotel, and La Senora, Wilma, is adorable. Upon arrival we put our motos in the mudroom, and before we even had our luggage off the bikes she was giving us freshly squeezed orange juice. We are on the fourth floor and both of us have been sucking wind each time we go up the stairs (and Wilma seems to fly up them). Outside of “gringo row” around La Plaza, this town is quite dirty and depressed. Most of the intersections have a pile of garbage swept to the center that seems to function like a traffic circle.
Also, one of us have also may or may not have taken our first roadside poop today.
October 7
Since Ernesto and I first talked about this trip, the number one thing on E’s list was visiting Salar de Uyuni. It is the world’s largest salt flat at ~10,000 square km (~4000 sq miles) and is at ~12K feet in elevation. It also contains an estimated 50-75% of the world’s lithium, so our iPads and Kindles made a pilgrimage home. In 2017 the mining of lithium from the salt flats is triple what it was in 2016, and that trend is going to continue exponentially (or at least that is what the current President Evo has promised Bolivia). It is an insane irony… the devices we are all using to capture the beauty of the salt flats are the reason the beauty is going to go away.
But for now, most of it is intact and it is fucking amazing. After Wilma made us a lovely breakfast (we have decided Wilma is our Bolivian mother), we drove the 25 km north and west to the flats. The “roads” are pretty trippy… Ernesto felt like he was floating and I felt like we were riding on snow. We rode for ? Km and eventually got to an area where we couldn’t see many other cars and people, so it was photo time. We took off our left side cases, made a pile, and took some selfies! It was really quite a scene out there… A scene and feeling Ernesto and I will never forget.
On our way back to the highway we veered over to the “Dakar Bolivia” monument and accompanying building, set of flags, and alpaca statues. When we pulled up to it there was a crowd, which was to be expected. But what I did not expect was a line of people waiting to get their photo taken in front of the monument. A queue for a memory… We decided that was one selfie we didn't’ want. So we proceeded around to the building-alpacas-flag area, almost (unintentionally) parading ourselves around the scene, and I have to confess; for the first time on this trip I felt like a total badass. As we circled around I noticed many (most) of them looking at us and our license plates and smiling. Every single person (except Jake) that was in that area arrived by bus or Land Cruiser tour and we drove there on our motorcycles. Awesome ends with me.
As we were leaving the gringo scene a moto pulls up. Jake from Ohio! He has been traveling around Bolivia for a few weeks (rented a moto in La Paz). He a bricklayer and has been around the world, with more travels ahead. Even though we only spoke for 15 minutes or so, I was really struck by his attitude and outlook on his life abroad. He had no fear of riding around alone, he had no high-tech gear or gadgets, and he was totally into geology. He wasn’t out to impress anyone, he was just out having a good time. He found something special in the salt flats, and we hope he gets it back to Ohio without any legal trouble ;) Buen viajes Jake, mucho gusto!
On our way back to town we visited the Cementerio de Trenes (Train Cemetery), and once one looked past the garbage, it was pretty cool. The train “industry” here collapsed in the 1940’s, so it's been rusting ever since.
Today was day 101. Wow! And opps that we didn’t celebrate day 100.
Last night we had our first night of difficult sleep due to elevation… both of us woke up short of breath several times. So we were a bit fuzzy at breakfast this morning when we visited with two nice Germans. They took the silver mine tour yesterday and told us all about it. Ernesto and I both like the idea of a silver mine tour, but do not the reality of activities that take place underground, and in all honestly I am straight up terrified of mines. We knew that silver mining was the history/original “purpose” of Potosi (to provide silver for Spain), but what we didn’t know is how active the mine still is. The German kids told us there were still 14,000 miners and that for the most part, it runs as a co-op. They buy in and then can keep most of it for themselves. Bueno. (Or government geologists who know it isn’t safe so they decided to stop paying people to work it and have people pay to mine-share it?
It was hard to top the geologic and topographic scenery of yesterday, but today came close. We saw many more geologic structures we didn’t understand, and added shades of blue and gold to our list of “colors of rock you can see in southern Bolivia”. The best word I can think of to describe the landscape here is mangled… it is as though this part of the planet took some acid and had a hella party over geologic time. We have seen sedimentary layers in ridiculous orientations. I guess this part of the world is so high the evidence of it has been pushed up and bullied around is inevitable?? We rode about 200 km from Potosi to Uyuni and saw too many alpacas and vicunas to be counted. We also saw some flamingos and signs for rheas, but no actual rheas. It was another day of blue sky and cool and dry air. And sadly, some trucks with opaque exhaust that actually gave me a black beard by the time we got to our hotel.
Uyuni is a little gringo, or at least has a few block radius of gringos, so we enjoyed seeing other people in Keene’s and puffy coats for an hour. We did not however, enjoy the food that is supposedly for gringos. We are in a gringo hotel, and La Senora, Wilma, is adorable. Upon arrival we put our motos in the mudroom, and before we even had our luggage off the bikes she was giving us freshly squeezed orange juice. We are on the fourth floor and both of us have been sucking wind each time we go up the stairs (and Wilma seems to fly up them). Outside of “gringo row” around La Plaza, this town is quite dirty and depressed. Most of the intersections have a pile of garbage swept to the center that seems to function like a traffic circle.
Also, one of us have also may or may not have taken our first roadside poop today.
October 7
Since Ernesto and I first talked about this trip, the number one thing on E’s list was visiting Salar de Uyuni. It is the world’s largest salt flat at ~10,000 square km (~4000 sq miles) and is at ~12K feet in elevation. It also contains an estimated 50-75% of the world’s lithium, so our iPads and Kindles made a pilgrimage home. In 2017 the mining of lithium from the salt flats is triple what it was in 2016, and that trend is going to continue exponentially (or at least that is what the current President Evo has promised Bolivia). It is an insane irony… the devices we are all using to capture the beauty of the salt flats are the reason the beauty is going to go away.
But for now, most of it is intact and it is fucking amazing. After Wilma made us a lovely breakfast (we have decided Wilma is our Bolivian mother), we drove the 25 km north and west to the flats. The “roads” are pretty trippy… Ernesto felt like he was floating and I felt like we were riding on snow. We rode for ? Km and eventually got to an area where we couldn’t see many other cars and people, so it was photo time. We took off our left side cases, made a pile, and took some selfies! It was really quite a scene out there… A scene and feeling Ernesto and I will never forget.
On our way back to the highway we veered over to the “Dakar Bolivia” monument and accompanying building, set of flags, and alpaca statues. When we pulled up to it there was a crowd, which was to be expected. But what I did not expect was a line of people waiting to get their photo taken in front of the monument. A queue for a memory… We decided that was one selfie we didn't’ want. So we proceeded around to the building-alpacas-flag area, almost (unintentionally) parading ourselves around the scene, and I have to confess; for the first time on this trip I felt like a total badass. As we circled around I noticed many (most) of them looking at us and our license plates and smiling. Every single person (except Jake) that was in that area arrived by bus or Land Cruiser tour and we drove there on our motorcycles. Awesome ends with me.
As we were leaving the gringo scene a moto pulls up. Jake from Ohio! He has been traveling around Bolivia for a few weeks (rented a moto in La Paz). He a bricklayer and has been around the world, with more travels ahead. Even though we only spoke for 15 minutes or so, I was really struck by his attitude and outlook on his life abroad. He had no fear of riding around alone, he had no high-tech gear or gadgets, and he was totally into geology. He wasn’t out to impress anyone, he was just out having a good time. He found something special in the salt flats, and we hope he gets it back to Ohio without any legal trouble ;) Buen viajes Jake, mucho gusto!
On our way back to town we visited the Cementerio de Trenes (Train Cemetery), and once one looked past the garbage, it was pretty cool. The train “industry” here collapsed in the 1940’s, so it's been rusting ever since.