April 12-April 17

Howdy. We arrived back in Denver on May 3rd, after almost 6 months (5 months and 23 days) abroad. I truly can’t believe it was that long. And being away from Bozeman for nearly seven months! Wow. I thought we might be shocked to be back in the States, but so far it has been very nice and relaxing. I think the real shock will be going back to work!!! And waking up to an alarm. The luxury we have lived. We have chronicled all of the adventures, so it would be amiss to leave the journey unfinished. I imagine we will have two or three more blog posts to wrap everything up. It has been so fun to write this and I know we will look back on it for years beyond; thanks for all of your inspiring comments and feedback!!

La Paz

After Huyana Potosi, we connected with Haylie back in La Paz. Haylie is one of my best friends who I met while studying abroad in Ecuador. She lives outside of London, Ontario; I remember when we first met I was confused how she was from London without a British accent. Since 2019, we have seen each other a few times, including two visits from her to Bozeman!! And now she has flown so, so far to spend some time with us in Bolivia. Haylie is a girl who likes a plan, and after 5 months of constant decision making, Devin and I were glad to hand the baton over. We knew the day we had to be in Bolivia, and left the rest to her. Since she spent so much energy planning, I will forgive her for not guest writing this journey. 😉

To start our tour of Bolivia, we spent the day in La Paz, a city like no other. La Paz is defined by unique geography, being built from a valley floor up to a plateau. El Alto, atop the plateau, is another metropolitan area with a population nearing one million; we learned that many residents moved to El Alto from La Paz in search of affordable housing. However, they continued to work in La Paz which meant logging commute times of over an hour each way on crowded collectivos, or micro buses. I guess this created a serious disconnect, so a somewhat crazy solution was presented: telefericos, or cable cars! Just like gondolas we know, there are multiple lines across the city providing residents commute times of minutes versus hours. We had a lot of fun riding the different cable cars and getting panoramic views of La Paz.

After a bit of self exploring, we went on a city tour with our amazing guide, Paola. We walked around the Witches Market and the main government square before hopping on a roofless city tour bus to drive to some other must-see sights including Mirador Killi Killi and Valle de la Luna. The tour ended with us taking a cable car to El Alto and back down to La Paz, just as the sun was setting and street lights were turning on, gifting us an incredible view of the city. We quickly grabbed some dinner, headed back to the hostel for our stuff and then to the bus terminal for a night bus to Uyuni in southern Bolivia.

Uyuni — Salares de Bolivia

FREEZING BUS = dormir poco. We had a quick turnaround time after the restless night bus to start our three day, two night tour of the Salt Flat region in Bolivia. Uyuni is the residential area that is entirely reliant on tourism to the salt flats. On day 1, with our guide Beto as the chauffeur, we drove to an abandoned train depot for a quick photo op. We then stopped for lunch in the tiny pueblo of Colchani, where the salt is collected and processed. Additionally, many of the buildings there are actually made of salt bricks. The rest of the day was spent driving around the salt flats, Beto setting us up for a fun photo shoot, and enjoying an amazing sunset!

Day 2 was a lot of driving to different lagoons for a chance to see flamingos!! Our car had some issues, so we pulled off about 45 minutes into the day to swap for a different car from Uyuni. Haylie and I did some yoga and Dev was probably off juggling. We spent the night nearby the red lagoon in a small town; not sure it can even be described as a town, but there was accommodations and two bars! Our group went to the bar after dinner for a quick beer and we enjoyed sitting around the wood burning stove warming us up before a chilly night.

The next morning we woke up at 4 am so that some group members could cross into Chile! As we were waiting around to get in the car, Beto found our group and admitted that he had lost the car keys. Oi, so we had to squeeze eight people into each car for a bumpy ride to some natural geysers and then hot springs. Beto thought he had lost the car keys in the bar the night before, so he had to wait for the owner to wake up and unlock the doors. While it was a cluster with ill communication, we could’ve been left waiting at a worse place than the hot springs! Finally, we heard news that Beto found the car keys. Guess where they were?

Beto was turbo boosting through the desert after he got us from the hot springs, but it was still nearly six hours of driving to Uyuni and we got back just in time to catch a four (or more) hour bus to Potosi. 🫨

Potosi

The main attraction of Potosi is to visit the silver mines. We had heard from other travelers that the mines get realllly tight, so Devin opted out of the tour and did some work back at the hostel. I think he was also ready for some alone time from the girls. The mine tour is unlike anything I did growing up in Colorado because these mines are still very active. We would frequently have to jump to the side as workers were sprinting by with 2 ton wagons full of minerals; they aim to haul 20 wagons per day to receive the maximum payment.

The experience was fascinating and humbling to see the conditions the miners are still working in. A large majority of the population in Potosi work in the mines, including women and children from ages 12 and up. The pay is substantial, in comparison to other jobs in Bolivia, but we learned the life expectancy is around 55. Many blogs and travelers wonder if the tourism is ethical. After doing it ourselves, Haylie and I agreed that it is ethical. Part of the expectation is to bring gifts for all the workers, including coca leaves, soda, and other sweets. Our guide was friends with many of the workers and we ended up helping one man lift a bucket full of minerals off the winch, which he was elated to demonstrate and share with us. One worker gifted us a piece of silver as a thank you for the soda we had given earlier. So…from our experience the workers were welcoming and happy for us to explore the mines.

Next stop: Cochabamba