Got up very early to take a bus to Tupiza only to end of waiting for the bus to leave. it is a 6hr journey to Tupiza in southern Bolivia and much of the ride is over dirt road. the bus ticket cost $8. We left Potosi by climbing up the hill to the base of the infamous silver mountain. Saw lots of men around the base of the mountain with their jaws stuffed with coca. It is so sad to see the scarred mountain and to see the hovels that surround it. We rounded the base of the mountain which gave you a good sense of what 450yrs of mining will do to the landscape.
The bus was not as user friendly as an American would expect. Early in the ride a well dressed young man got up in the isle and begain talking animately. I thought he was telling us more than what we needed to know about the ride. Wrong! He was trying to pitch us a health drink. after 15minutes he sat down. 5hrs later we made a stop in a dusty town for convenience. lA new fellow got on the bus and he looked scary. He had long stringy hair (unusual for Bolivia), a goatee (also unusual), and a huge belt buckle that had a skull and cross bones, and well dressed. He was taling very excitedly and I thought it was all about politics. He started to get me a bit nervous because I was the only gringo and I tried to act calm and not look him in the eyes. After about 20minutes I realized he was a medicine man. He was pitching fish oil pills (from Japan) as the cure all. he went on for well over an hour and he talked some poor folks into spending a lot of money. I did hear him say this, ¨¨:yes, it costs only 60 Bolivianos (about $8) and that is not US dollars. Despite that fact that the USA is considered an enemy by the current regime, I see $ mentioned frequently. At the atms you can get US$ if you want. The ride seemed to take forever. The landscape was rugged, mountainous, very dry and covered with rock walls and structures, some inhabited and others not.
Got to Tupiza around 2pm and had a chance to walk around the city. It is small, clean and very quiet. there is very little traffic and you can walk in the street. the people seem happy and a number of them look Spanish as opposed to indigenous. the city has palm trees and it is surrounded by huge mountains of rock. Looks a lot like Utah or west Colorado. A pleasant place for the night. the hotel cost $15 and I had a grilled meat dinner (3meats), all the fixins and a glass of wine....$6.50.
Tomorrow it is off on a 4day jeep safari into some of the most geologically active land in the world. Should be very interesting. the nightly accomodations will be very, very basic. there are only three others in my group and they are all women. this should be very interesting. And, we sleep in a dormitory room at night. This is way more than I bargained for! (likely they are in their 20´s, been traveling for months and are on a very different wave length than me....i have met many of these types in my journeys so far.)
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