Hmmm, What to say about this place... not much, except it is quite cold and windy. The town appears to be a giant rubbish tip or as Bill Bryson says, perhaps all the residents are celebrating by putting on a festival of litter. Anyway, you find yourself constantly ducking and swerving to avoid the plastic bags, wrappers, bottles and occassional nappy that the gusts of wind send hurtling towards you. Meanwhile you have to watch your step or you find yourself skiddíng in human excretement that has been left on the pavements (and we thought it was dogs till I saw a girl having a squat). So if you don't step in shit you could find yourself coping a mouthful of it!
We left Sucre by bus and travelled the 3 hours uphill to Potosi on Monday morning. Potosi is 4060 metres high, making it one of the world's highest, if not the highest, city. We checked into our hostel, the Koala Den (we were feeling a bit homesick so Koalas struck a chord with us... not really, it was recommended). Unsurprisingly, they had not checked our internet reservation and so we were not in our matrimonial habitacion with bano privado and cable tv (I really want to watch a movie in the comfort of my nice warm bed) but found ourselves on bunkbeds in our own room right next to the internet area. While sitting on the toilet we could see the outlines of people typing their emails so I am presuming they could see the shadow of us taking a dump. If they couldn't see us they could definatly hear us, we had gastro!
We wandered around town very slowly as I was feeling a bit weird from the altitude. We managed to get roped into viewing the Museo and Convento de Santa Teresa by a vary convincing ticket sales woman who assured us it was beautiful and if we didn't agree we could have our money back. Sounded reasonable. It was surprising very intersting, at least to me. We had a fantastic english speaking guide who showed us around the convent and told us what it would have been like in colonial times. Today the 5 nuns (most from Bolivia but i think one might be Brazilian) live next door but in the 16 or 1700s there were 21 spots for wealthy Spanish women (usually the 2nd daughter, so that would be you Christy) to be sold to the Church. They were often exchanged for religious paitings and crockery (their dowry). Once they became Brides of Christ they never saw the outside world again. They were even buried under the floor in the room they heard the sermons from the church in (they actually weren't allowed in the church). Part way through this tour I started feeling really ill (it seems I get gastro from the altitude) so we had to excuse ourselves and there ended our first day in Potosi.
The next morning we found the local markets and stocked up on thermals for our upcoming tour to Salar de Uyuni where I believe I might die from hypothermia (it gets to - 20 degrees there. I am cold at 15 degrees). We also wandered around and took some pics of the colonial architecture on offer and the various churches, including climbing up the Jesuites Church (1707) to take some snaps of the city. Facinating stuff. I guess the main reason we are here, apart from that it is on route to Uyuni, is for the mine tours.
2 comments:
I know it shouldn't really surprise me knowing you guys as I do, but I am amazed that so much of your blog is dedicated to bowel movements - both your own and other people's. You really are obsessed!
I seem to be aptly named as the second daughter. Too bad our family isn't wealthy...I would have loved listening to sermons all day.
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