Bolivia Part 2. – Santa Cruz to Uyuni - 2018

As you know, we visited the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador, but the Amazon area is vast and can be visited also in Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, French Guyana, Suriname and Bolivia and it was towards this area we were heading towards after a flight from La Paz to Santa Cruz.

Flight path from La Paz to Santa Cruz

We noticed the difference immediately having dropped 3,200m in altitude from La Paz with Santa Cruz at 416m.  It was also warm at around 28c and climbing stairs now became very easy… bliss!

After an overnight stay, we drove 3 hrs west into some very hilly and dry countryside, until reaching the town of Samaipata where we were excitedly expecting to be staying at the Volcanoes Refuge Eco Lodge.  Alas, however it had been booked out many months earlier and unfortunately, we had not been advised.

Drive into the mountains around Samaipata

The local tour company looking after us had devised an alternative itinerary, including staying in the rear of their business in comfortable but very cold accommodation, and their plan had us doing a LOT of climbing.

Samaipata is quite an authentic Bolivian town with large cobblestone roads, old buildings and rustic, character laden cafes, along with the now obligatory central square.

Great little cafe we enjoyed Bolivian home cooked style food

Part of central square in Samaipata

After meeting our guide and driver, we drove to and climbed up to an impressive, approximately 220m long by 65m wide, curved sandstone rock looking a little like a miniature Uluru.

El Fuerte de Samaipata

This was the UNESCO listed ‘El Fuerte de Samaipata’ or The Fort of Samaipata, a ceremonial area with symbolic stone carved characters, stone seats, water flow features and carved ponds, plus places for the sacrifice of animals and beautiful young virgins located all over the rock.

It is the largest carved rock in the world.

Small sample of the carving on and into the rock surface of El Fuerte

Multiple cultures had used El Fuerte from ~400AD including and in order the Mojocoya, the Chiniguanos, the Incas and finally the Spanish who also used it to secure a trade route between Asuncion, Paraguay and Lima, Peru.

The history of El Fuerte was fascinating, especially because multiple cultures had used it and made their presence visible on it and it was here we also learned that water pools on the rock, were used to observe the stars.  The water pools flatten the night sky and made their observations easier.

Schematic of El Fuerte simply to show the sheer volume of carvings into the stone

Some of the ancient artefacts found at El Fuerte

During our stay in Samaipata we visited and climbed the hills around Laguna Volcan to view more of the Andes and were very pleasantly surprised by the close presence of a pair of condors, male and female, who happily sat and watched us… very nice indeed.

Rob with guide as we climb through the hills

Pair of condors hanging out nearby

Other attractions included yet another climb to see and enjoy 3 nice cascades or waterfalls on a river where we tried some slow shutter speed photography.

2 of the 3 waterfalls near Samaipata

We were meant to do a Condor specific climb for 2 hours one way up a tall mountain to see more condors, but overnight, heavy rain started to fall.  We did try to drive to it, but after sliding around on the now muddy road, elected to call it off.  Climbing in mountains every day to be honest is not our thing.

Instead however, after another slippery and exciting drive to more hills, with rain still falling, we immersed ourselves with our guide into an ancient fern forest.  

Walking towards the fern forest in fog

The ferns looked very similar to ones at home, but when we learned they only grow 1m every 200 years and you’re standing in front of 6m high ferns… they are ancient indeed.

Admiring just one of hundreds of very tall and old ferns

On our drive back to Santa Cruz, we detoured to look at the overall area at the Volcanoes Refuge Eco Lodge, the place we were originally meant to have stayed at.

It was simply stunning, the lodge sitting neatly in a little green patch, large reddish coloured mountains around it and renowned for bird life.  Pity!

The Volcanoes lodge is located in the light green patch near the very centre of this photos

Back in Santu Cruz for another night we were met by a very big surprise with news that our daughter had gone into labour 5 weeks early. Wasn’t much sleep that night until news a baby boy had joined the family.  Great news indeed, especially with everyone being fine.

After our flight from Santa Cruz to Sucre, the actual capital of Bolivia, we started exploring a delightful city full of history and white buildings. The names Bolivia and Sucre come from 2 heroes, Simon Bolivar and Antonio José de Sucre who lead the fight against the Spanish with the subsequent independence for Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.

Flight path from Santa Cruz to Sucre

Sucre is 2,810m above sea level with a population of 500k and is a very well laid out city.  Again in a valley with a beautiful central square and the first  we had visited without a church in it.  The Spanish influence in the buildings was visible everywhere and some very elegant buildings indeed.

Some of the elegant traditionally white buildings in Sucre

We enjoyed a very pleasant city tour, strolling the streets, admiring the buildings, enjoying a local specialty drink in a park before visiting a local and vibrant food market with its interesting local produce and aromas.

Very lively dancing in Sucre's main square

It was a 3hr drive from Sucre to the next city of Potosi, climbing in altitude from the 2,810m to ~4,000m through mainly barren and mountainous countryside and eventually plenty of snow.

Lots of driving from Sucre to Potosi and finally... Uyuni

On the way as the temperatures started dropping, we also came across the most elaborate walking suspension bridge we had ever seen.

Some footbridge isn't it

As we neared Potosi and with rain falling, our driver, who only spoke Spanish, excitedly mumbled something whilst pointing at the windscreen… there was sleet hitting it and about 10 minutes later, it turned to snow!

The streets of Potosi, once one of the richest towns in the Americas, were packed with people because we had driven into the beginning of Potosi’s celebrations of Bolivia’s independence from the Spanish.

There were multiple large bands, resplendent in their colourful uniforms, marching through the streets of Potosi and as we experienced later, kept marching into the night, passing our hotel every 30 mins or so. They were obviously very proud of their country.

...and the band played on, snow and temperatures falling... fast!

Our first visit was into a silver mine and it was quite an experience, but a little history first to set some context for what follows.

Potosi is one of the highest cities in the world at 4,090m and was the location of the Spanish colonial mint because of all the silver. Potosi is located at the foot of a mountain called Cerro de Potosi, the source of 60,000 tons of silver since 1545 and the largest silver deposit in the world.

At one stage it was the second largest city in the Americas and because of its wealth, like many rich mining towns had lots of brothels, grand buildings and places of entertainment.

The price of silver has fallen considerably from 1891 and consequently, so did the size and condition of Potosi as we saw first hand during a walking tour around the city.

Then the small bombshell, the silver mine tour we were doing was through an ex silver mine, where miners were now mining zinc.

Our guide collected us and we drove to a very muddy, grubby street and entered a small shop.  Here we learnt that the current miners who effectively work for themselves as a part of a co-operative, buy their dynamite, detonators, beer, pure alcohol and other supplies.

In this shop we bought 6 small bottles of beer and were assured would be used as part of the mine tour.  Confused… well so were we as we walked to another street and entered a small room owned by the guide.

Here we were fitted out with overalls, rubber boots, miners hats, a light to go on the hat and associated battery then it was off to the mine.

All geared up and ready to go

With sleet and snow flurries falling, combined with a brisk wind, it was very very cold as we sloshed our way through the muddy yard to the entrance of the mine.  In we went, to almost be pushed into the dark low tunnel by a near gale force icy wind.

Part of the mine site we walked through to reach the tunnel

The mine tunnel, which forced me to walk, bent over most of the time and Rob many times, was rough and wet under foot, combined with having to miss stepping on the narrow railway tracks throughout.

Rob with the beers in hand ready to enter the mine

It was really cold as we disappeared into the darkness, our headlamps our only means of not only stepping carefully around obstacles but also to ensure we didn’t bang into timber, pipes and rock at head level. The helmets saved both of us many times.

Our guide took us into a little branch tunnel, which turned out to be a dead end, a strange devil looking ‘statue’ surrounded by stuff looking back at us.  

The guide explained how the miners come to it; give the devil cigarettes and splash alcohol in four directions in front of it as offerings to Pachamama (Mother Earth).  All part of the miners beliefs aimed at staying safe whilst underground.

Paying homage to the 'devil' somewhere under a mountain

On we walked and walked, stopping 6 times at parts of the mine, blocked off with locked grates, sites where miners were still toiling away underground in very crude, cold and damp conditions.

Each time we stopped, the guide took a can of the beer we had bought for this exact purpose and pushed it as far as she could past the grate.  It was our way of saying thank you to each of the absent miners for letting us into their mine.

After walking almost 4 kms underground beneath the mountain above, we re-emerged into the rain, the temperature continuing to drop.

We emerge out of the mine into sleet and rain

Overnight as the marching bands continued circling around the city, the temperatures plummeted to around -10c and when we opened the blinds next morning, all the rooftops across the city were layered with about 8cms of snow.

The view out of our hotel room window in the morning

The city tour later that morning was chilly, and the city looked quite beautiful with either snow everywhere or icicles hanging off parts of many buildings or electricity and phone cables.  

It was cold overnight!

With so much snow having fallen, it also meant trees and their branches around the central square were layered with snow as the bands started the celebrations up again.

The locals of Potosi celebrating their independence

Our guide spent a lot of time warning us to be careful of the ice on roads and footpaths, especially after watching a van slowly sliding out of control sideways down a road.

We could see during the tour what would have been many fine and grand colonial buildings of a once very elegant city, but time and a lack of money was catching up with Potosi.

Some of the past elegance of Potosi

The snowfall had been very widespread, which made the 3 hour drive south-west from Potosi to Uyuni, both eventful and quite beautiful.  Much of the drive was through the mountains, which by now were mostly covered by snow, making the roads either wet from some snowmelt or icy where the road was in shadow.

Snow and ice were on the road very often

Need to watch out for lamas...

...and this is why

At one stage, we had to go off road around a semi-trailer that had lost control, jack-knifing sideways across the highway and blocking traffic in both directions.  

Occasionally we descended down into a valley to pass through remote villages devoid of people roaming the streets due to the cold in this rugged and desolate part of Bolivia.

Tough life in this part of the Andes

Finally from a mountain plateau we could see the small town of Uyuni below us, located on the edge of what looked like a huge desert stretching out behind it to the horizon, our reaction…”wow”.

Uyuni is barely visible amongst the massive expanse surrounding it

As we drove into Uyuni (3,656m altitude), there were 4WDs everywhere and it had the feel of a real frontier town as if we were in the Wild West but with more modern buildings.  

In fact it was only 120 kms from Uyuni to the south east closer to the Argentinian border, where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid came to their end in the town of San Vicente, Bolivia.

There was plenty of water lying around everywhere as a result of snow that had melted, and that water was going to have an interesting impact on our travels next day… but more on that with the next and final post about Bolivia.

CLICK HERE for more photos Santa Cruz to Uyuni

Go well!