Bolivia

La Paz is actually a quite a funny city and its inhabitants, as well :D

When entering the city, one gets a nice panoramic view. A huge valley with thousands of tiled-colored houses. The houses all look the same. One of its inhabitants, a guide for travelers, states:"We, Bolivians, are very intelligent people, we build our houses, but we do not finish them. We decorate the inside part of the house. Decorating and finishing the exterior of the houses means taxes to pay. We know how to avoid taxes. We are intelligent people." La Paz, the so-called "the highest capital in the world", is the dwelling place to app. 3 mln. people. Its downtown, situated at 3600m has a thicker layer of oxygen, a better transportation system, markets and nice plazas and inhabits of the higher social classes - 1 mln people. The other 2 mln. people, live on the hills of the town, where it is colder and windier.

Descendants of Incas, many of the inhabitants are still superstitious, believe in sacrifices, rituals and (black) magic. This makes the "Witch market" in La Paz survive. Dried fetus of llamas, dried frogs filled with golden balls, snake or jaguar skins, tea for arousing love feelings or other amulets makes the market a boom. It is a crazy thing to see all these things and to hide behind people and stands in order to take pictures, but still avoid the witch-seller.
Still, we cannot ignore the fact that the city becomes more and more capitalistic. Huge skyscrapers and well-dressed people populate the inner part of the downtown. Rarely can one see ladies wearing their traditional clothes with their English-borrowed- hats. The business environment marks this world.

Bolivia has just a spectacular nature. Just outside the city, one discovers the "multi-cratered" scenery, the Valley of the Moon.

A very big and hectic city, which one should visit and understand.

Mart:
I did it. With a nice hardtail bike, our guide, two gentle New Yorkers, a sick Canadian, and a Spaniard on a business travel, I went up to 4700 meters just to go 3500 m downhill.
Up on the pass, it was raining, then we entered into clouds and thick fog before getting to see how deep the fall actually would be. As we were such a small group, we made the tour in less than three hours, being the quickest this month. But of course I took good care :D Crazy views, but mostly I would just get a glimpse of the canyon 30 cm next from the tyre, before concentrating on the road again. The others, Jesse, Andy, Jeff, were actually on a moto bike trip from North America to Tierra del Fuego. Nice thing to have done, really nice indeed. Now we are in Coroico, Cris came by bus, we are staying in a jungle cabana and go to Rurrenabaque tomorrow.
PS: Being above 3000 m is so nice, without moskitos!

Cris:
Crawling in very narrow tracks, breathing tons of dust, working with the instruments dating from the colonial times, "enjoying" life for only 48 years and now suffering from the economical crisis, as well - that is what most of the Potosi-silver-miners have to endure in order to earn something for the wife and the 6 children who are taking care of their small hut at the bottom of the moutain.

Famous for their silver resources, the "Rich Mountain" above the city of Potosi, Bolivia has been explored since the 16th century. More than 8 million miners died since then. The mines are being worked 24 hours a day, everyday.

Knowing that it would be sad visiting one of the 500 mines, but, as well, fun for the opportunity to explode dynamites, we decided to put miners cloths and helmets on, and experience for a couple of hours the disastreous life of the local miners.

Before begining the tours, "the guests" are usually advised to buy some presents for the miners: coca leaves (that keep the miners awake, improve their breathing, and help them fight against hunger; no miner would ever go down without his coca leaves), alcohol (96%), some dynamite (in the miners market, there are more than 2000 tones of dynamite being sold; no one needs a permission), cookies for the children who work in the mines (starting at 13 or 14 years) or for the miners´children and some water.

No miner starts the day without visiting the "God" of the miners - a figure of a devil, whom the miners call "el Tio" - the uncle, because they couldn´t pronounce /d/ in their native language Quechua, impeeding them from saying "dios". They offer him some coca leaves, drink some pure alchool in his name, asking him to offer pure minerals in exchange. After lighting a cigarette and sticking it into the mouth of the devil, the miners can start their day.

The mountain is considered female, so if any woman goes down in the pit, it means that some disaster might happen - out of jealousy. Only males should enter the female mountain. The miners sacrifice llamas, water the walls of the mines with blood and hope for good luck.

It was an amazing experience, sometimes hard work, but it was extremely interesting seeing this combination of local believes, religion and hard work for little money. The financial crisis caused more than 90% of the miners to loose their jobs. Around 1500 miners work at the moment.

Because of the lack of regulations, we were alloud to blow our own dynamite after having heard several explosions inside the mine. Of course, we didn´t blow up the inside, as this might cause the blowing of the whole mountain, but outside the mines. That was some explosion, I must say. Martin enjoyed seeing and being part of the team who set the dynamite.