El Mercado de Sucre

Sucre, Bolivia
I spent around a total of 2 weeks here, which is a long time if you're not actually living there (like on the farms). Two weeks is enough time to sort of figure out where the best place is for breakfast, where to party on a Friday night, where the good shops are, good museums, etc.
For me though, I cut out all of the bullshit and spent almost every day at the local market! (With the exception of Spanish class)
Sucre, as many already know, is an amazingly cheap place to get one-on-one Spanish classes. It costs around 4-7U$ per hour, which is crazy in my opinion! Then, you can hit up the amazing local market to hang out with the locals and chat it up! Couldn't get any better, right?
Quick from the paper journal- a description!
"Tonight, all of my travel buddies went out to see some movie and I was relieved to find myself with an evening... to myself! Sooo I've spent it here in Sucre, updating photos (HAHA, what a joke!) and trying to get in touch with loved ones. Sucre is beautiful, I could actually see myself staying here for an extended period of time for sure. All of the buildings are white with Terra Cotta roofing, looks like it's straight out of a dream! If it were on the ocean, and it looks like it should be, it would be absolutely perrrrrrfect!"
Writing about all of this makes me realize how much I actually DID do, and it makes me miss it so, so much. I'm having a really hard time, still, adjusting to this "normal" way of life. I want to just keep moving from one place to another, and if I remember correctly, that's what I didn't want to be doing anymore! That's why I decided to pack my bag and head on home. Now the way of life that I was supposedly hating at the time seems more suiting to me now. It is truly an addiction.
Onward, though. I guess we can't dwell on these things and just accept them as learning experiences. The market.... These photos don't even give this market any justice. I think this may have been the best market I've ever been to in South America. I'll paint a little picture.
You're walking down the main street in Sucre toward the plaza and as Bolivia often is, it is chaotic! People are yelling, you are getting bumped into, something wet just landed on your right foot, you almost got hit by a bus, but quickly missed it!, there is a motherless child standing there, looking lost and it sounds like some sort of protest is on its way down this busy, busy street. Your heart is racing and you are hungry, all you want to do is go to the market and it has become such an ordeal just to get there! But alas, you arrive to the huge black, metal gate which encloses one of the finest places in all of South America.
Still, people are screaming at you. Selling anything you could ever want... A lady (who I visited frequently) was consistently outside of the gate selling pistachios and figs. A man selling all colors of shoelaces and watches. ....When you enter the mercado, you find yourself mesmerized. There are enormous baskets full of oranges and grapes and every fruit you could ever imagine, but more! There are also dozens of fruits that you've never even heard of. (and about 15 types of bananas, which threw me off every time!) The women at these stands want you to try everything! You take a bite of mango here (the most delicious mango I've ever had), a bit of pineapple there, some papaya, kiwi, and the list goes on!
But you are still traveling through this hectic mess of the most delicious, fragrant produce you have ever had! more vegetables start to appear and you have so many choices which direction to take next. If you go straight, you come to a room full of women with fruit and blenders, making fresh smoothies and yogurt parfaits. If you take a left, you stumble upon more and more vegetables and spice tables. There was one man (his table pictured below) who had the best spices ever. I would buy tons of garlic and curries and whip up some awesome dishes! If you keep walking through the vegetable area, you can find chiles of all kinds, eggplants, enormous avocados, tomatoes and more! Following the vegetable section was the meat section, which I often skipped over because it made my stomach churn so many times that some days I felt like I could just barf all over the cracked cement floor.
Aromas filled this gigantic place... some good, and some absolutely horrendous. When you walked by the cheese area, it smelled of your old gym shoes, but when you walked by the empanada stands, yuuum!
And (like in most mercados), if you go upstairs, you can find full meals for under a buck! These women jump at you all screaming the same thing at your little overwhelmed self. They say that they can give you this for this much, or this...or that their soup is better, and would you like to try it? I always did, just so I could get in a little more chit chat and try new things.
My favorite thing about the market is that every day, you discover something new! Like the day that my friend Margaux and I were eating peanut soup at the "restaurant" upstairs, and saw this little gate that lead to yet another room! This room was filled with fresh pies and pastries and breads. So we treated ourselves to a little dessert, following our yummy soup.

Though the market was probably one of the dirtiest places to be, I loved every, single second I spent there. Everything in this market just tasted better. I can't really tell you why, but I think its because its just fresh! The carrots tasted sweeter, the tomatoes were juicier, the garlic was that garlicky taste that you could never resist. Most days I would just buy tons of fix in's for guacamole, because I was missing home so much. Some days, I would just drink a thousand kinds of smoothies and hang out there all day until I had to go to class. The ladies started to remember me, remembered my name, knew exactly what I wanted each day and it started to feel like home.

Migraines and the Lack of Oxygen

Bolivia... the shocker, in every way.
Bolivia remains to be one of my favorite places that I visited, even with all of it's enormous issues.

A few examples:

1. Sanitation. The sanitation in Bolivia is horrible. My stomach was continually uneasy, always carrying toilet paper (this is when you know you're not in Argentina anymore!), the food was always questionable and I always made sure that there was a bathroom near by. I must say though, I probably put my body through some wild things that could have easily been avoided here. Being a budget traveler, I didn't want to spend all of my money (and waste all the plastic!) on bottled water, so I always drank tap. This is probably what lead to my continual illnesses in Bolivia. On the contrary, I exposed my immune system to some gnarly stuff, making my body stronger! Additionally, I LOVED the juice stands. For around 25 US cents, you could get the most delicious juices, freshly made at the mercado with all kinds of fruits you've never even seen before! But this was also a possible cause of my intense illnesses. Once, sometimes twice, per week in Bolivia, I found myself hurled over the toilet, with chills, sweats, high fever,... you get the picture. The week after I left though, I was like a whole new gal! Full of energy, ready to hike, bike, run, swim, you name it! So yeah, the streets are dirty and the people are too, but its all the more charming this way, right? : )
2. Poverty. Bolivia is the shocker, again. People are poor and will rob you. Many of my friends were robbed here, however- though people are always saying that it is the most unsafe here as far as robberies, mugging, and other stuff... I almost found myself feeling worse in Peru and even more so in Ecuador, surprisingly enough. In Bolivia, they're almost never violent!
   
3. Altitude. Shocking. This part was a challenge for most. Coca leaf chewing is encouraged by locals. I didn't feel the altitude until I got to Potosi, which is where this entry is all about! You become so short of breath, get headaches, get wasted on a drop of booze and walking up one flight of stairs seems like such a challenge. Which leads to my next point...
4. You are always walking uphill, no matter where you are going. Simply put! All I have to say is this: after you leave the Andes, you have the tightest ass you've ever had, ever!
5. Drugs. Here, drugs are a bit of an issue. I will mention this later when I get to the post on La Paz, but in La Paz there is a prison which tourists can go visit for a large cost. This prison is unique in that it has drug manufacturers within its walls that will give you a tour so you can purchase however much cocaine you want. You can only imagine, this brings in a LOT of tourist. Additionally, this is an "open" prison and the prisoners can RENT an apartment within the walls of it. There are classes within the prison and shops as well. You can buy groceries, clothes, etc! Luxury, right? Book Recommendation: Marching Powder (This is a great, quick read all about the prison) More regarding this subject later!!!
   

So there you have it, a few things that make Bolivia a serious eye opener! A few more might include the insane imagery of the capital: La Paz; the world's most dangerous road; the cost of living (so cheap! about 10-15 dollars per day, sometimes less depending how much you wanted to indulge) and the sketchy, sketchy buses!

This all leads to my next point, which is what this whole entry is about... Potosi mines. Going into these mines is actually considered an UNESCO world heritage cultural experience. I would have liked it more if it hadn't been so over-crowded and taken over by tourists, but isn't that how it always is when you want to go to some of the cool spots?

Anyway, the miners were happy, which surprised me. Now, after the whole Chilean mine collapse and all of that, which happened while I was in Ecuador, I realize how dangerous and how scary that kind of occupation can really be! The most appalling thing though, was how these people were slaving away to simply provide silver for the WORLD. Most of this silver was not even kept in Bolivia, it was exported to guess who! Us! The United States! So, before I left to go into the mines and talk with the workers (with a guide... it was totally safe...sort of, besides the dynamite part I guess), I removed all of my precious silver, which is my weakness as I'm sure a lot of you know. My whole family wears silver religiously, and here I am... a little blonde, white girl seeing where it all comes from! This experience made me think twice before purchasing my next silver item. I'm not going to be silver-free now, but seeing all of the work that goes into a vanity, such as a bracelet or a pair of earrings is really quite fascinating and upsetting as well.

These miners are anywhere from ages 10 to 80, but most of them don't live past say, 45 or 50. In Potosi, the average age of death is around 50. But... if you are young and worried about the future of your family, you're going to go out there and risk your life for the betterment of their future, right? I guess. Gosh, its just that I can't see anyone in my family going out and taking one for the team like that. The age of death is so young because these men who work in the mines are continually drinking 90proof alcohol, chewing coca, smoking cigarettes and breathing in tons of dust! I would love to see their alveoli under a microscope, I bet they are extremely over-polluted.

Being inside of the mine was pretty frightening. Even in level 1 I was scared and we went down a total of 4 levels! Down ladders, through tunnels, it was pretty surreal actually- mostly because it reminded me of Indiana Jones, except the fact that this was some one's life! Their real life! The company that took me down made me sign a contract saying that if I die or whatever may happen, I couldn't do anything about it...or I guess my family couldn't do anything about it. Why did I go? Man, I don't know. But as you go deeper into the mines, it gets hotter and hotter, and dustier and dustier, and you sort of feel like you might not be able to get enough oxygen in a few moments, and you get all claustrophobic and scared and sweaty and you're crawling around, barely able to move... and you wish you had told your mom that you loved her because you keep hearing these loud noises, which you later find out is dynamite blowing up not so far away, and you just wish you could see the sun again. Then, when you do see the sun, it looks more glorious than it ever has before! You are so thankful to be on top of the earth and walking around. And you're so thankful that you don't have to go back down into that dark, dark hole ever again.

This is the closest that I've ever been to Hell.

A few pictures...


"mike" assembling dynamite

the underground version of me

Sun setting, view from hostal terrace

I've never been so high, yet so low in one place.