capital of Bolivia. We were 
minding our own business, about to take a tour of a museum when we hear some HUGE explosions. Now, we had been hearing explosions for the past hour and yes, they had been gradually getting louder, but we figured that we are in the center plaza of the city... it´s the safest place to be with lots of police around. Dead wrong! The miners were marching. They made their way down the mountain and into the city, lighting sticks of dynamite along the way! We were no more than half a block away when a stick exploded right in the middle of the plaza! these bastards are crazy! Of 
course I could not let this go undocumented, so off I went, right in the middle of it... I was able to film a bit of it and take some shots when all of a sudden I see people running. I look down and no more than 4 feet from me are two lit sticks of dynamite. I think I could have given Carl Louis, in his prime, a run for his money! :) Brandy is currently very angry with me. :) Just goes to show how wild it is here, and how safe we are in the states. I´d love to see how fast a protest in central park new york gets shut down if an M-80 goes off... here the police were just standing around taking in the sights. :)Ok... back to your regularly scheduled broadcast. Where were we... O´h yeah, Sucre... The evening following the last post Brandy and I had scheduled to check out this abandoned hacienda owned by a former Bolivian president. We randomly met up with our American friend
s and convinced them to tag along. Our taxi/tour guide/history professor Jorge arrived and off we went. For me who loves decrepid structures, probably one of the coolest things we´ve done so far! We parked the car about 1/2 mile away, walked over a bridge and through a really poor village to get to the gate. Jorge engaged the caretaker from outside the gate and tried to plead with him to let us in... even offered a bribe. I made a joke and I think the guy thought it funny because in we went. As Brandy commented, this place and our adventure to the hacienda would make an amazing horror movie! Young american tourists out for a little adventure approach a creepy mansion. They convince the caretaker (that looks like death incarnate) to let them in... the gate shuts behind them violently... you can infer the rest! 
The caretaker was really creepy looking
but turned out to be a great guy! He gave us a tour and told us all about the history. He lives there alone to watch over the place and says at night he often hears loud crashes and screams from inside the house. In all, Sucre turned out to be the most relaxing time we have had in Bolivia. It´s a beautiful city and people are really easy going. This is definitely a place we recommend anyone to visit.
s and convinced them to tag along. Our taxi/tour guide/history professor Jorge arrived and off we went. For me who loves decrepid structures, probably one of the coolest things we´ve done so far! We parked the car about 1/2 mile away, walked over a bridge and through a really poor village to get to the gate. Jorge engaged the caretaker from outside the gate and tried to plead with him to let us in... even offered a bribe. I made a joke and I think the guy thought it funny because in we went. As Brandy commented, this place and our adventure to the hacienda would make an amazing horror movie! Young american tourists out for a little adventure approach a creepy mansion. They convince the caretaker (that looks like death incarnate) to let them in... the gate shuts behind them violently... you can infer the rest! 
The caretaker was really creepy looking
but turned out to be a great guy! He gave us a tour and told us all about the history. He lives there alone to watch over the place and says at night he often hears loud crashes and screams from inside the house. In all, Sucre turned out to be the most relaxing time we have had in Bolivia. It´s a beautiful city and people are really easy going. This is definitely a place we recommend anyone to visit.The next morning we set off to potosi... To get there we needed to catch a cab or bus that leave out of this p
articular area of town. Our cab pulled up at the place and we were instantly mobbed by people trying to get us to take their transport. I mean mobbed! We had about 20 hands all over us pulling us towards their car and trying to take our luggage from our hands... Brandy freaked out for a moment and yelled at them. :) We chose a car as quickly as possible and off we went. Nothing exciting the rest of that day, just finding a hotel and a little city exploration. This morning we decided to do a tour of a silver mine, quite the entertaining experience. Our partners on this tour were 4 Argentinian backpackers who were hillarious! We began the tour stopping to pick up some goods for the miners as prompted by our guide. We bought coke, coca leaves and dynamite ... go figure. We then stopped to get geared up. We got big rubber boots, pants and jackets that went over our clothes. We dressed and were off in a mini bus up to the mines, of course they aren't paved. We arrive at the top of a moutain to a
bunch of mud b
uildings that surround the entrance to the mines. We entered in the mine through puddles of mud and dark rounded walls where we crouched, crawled, climbed for 2 hours, breathing dust, hitting our heads, and regularly moving asside for the mining cars to pass... yes, it is an active mine! We navigated our way to the statue of ¨Tio¨which is another name for Satan. They worship him as the ¨god¨of the mines. Tio is decorated and is given offerings to help prevent accidents and give the miners lots of wealth. We then circled our way out of the mine whe
re our guide proceeded t
o s
et off dynamite, just to show us what it was like .... those crazy Bolivians!
articular area of town. Our cab pulled up at the place and we were instantly mobbed by people trying to get us to take their transport. I mean mobbed! We had about 20 hands all over us pulling us towards their car and trying to take our luggage from our hands... Brandy freaked out for a moment and yelled at them. :) We chose a car as quickly as possible and off we went. Nothing exciting the rest of that day, just finding a hotel and a little city exploration. This morning we decided to do a tour of a silver mine, quite the entertaining experience. Our partners on this tour were 4 Argentinian backpackers who were hillarious! We began the tour stopping to pick up some goods for the miners as prompted by our guide. We bought coke, coca leaves and dynamite ... go figure. We then stopped to get geared up. We got big rubber boots, pants and jackets that went over our clothes. We dressed and were off in a mini bus up to the mines, of course they aren't paved. We arrive at the top of a moutain to a
bunch of mud b
uildings that surround the entrance to the mines. We entered in the mine through puddles of mud and dark rounded walls where we crouched, crawled, climbed for 2 hours, breathing dust, hitting our heads, and regularly moving asside for the mining cars to pass... yes, it is an active mine! We navigated our way to the statue of ¨Tio¨which is another name for Satan. They worship him as the ¨god¨of the mines. Tio is decorated and is given offerings to help prevent accidents and give the miners lots of wealth. We then circled our way out of the mine whe
re our guide proceeded t
o s
et off dynamite, just to show us what it was like .... those crazy Bolivians!And now here we are again at the miners march. Brandy and I are going to wait out the rest of the protest in this building. In a few hours we are off to Uyuni where we will see the huge salt flats. That´s all for now!
Us in the mines with actual miners working.
Their god of the underworld they call Tio.
This is an actual lit stick of dynamite.
My new girlfriend and her llama.
looks like you have done some cool stuff. I think the former presidents house would have been awesome. When do you both get back.. or are you just going to travel forever and make feel bad because the only place I travel to is the studio?
ReplyDeleteWe're back!!! I have tons of images to edit from the trip.
ReplyDelete