Video of Me Jumping through a geyser!!!

It was an amazing journey that the four of us took to get to the geysers.  John, Rachel and I met eachother through one of the three day tours that takes you to the train grave yards, the salt flats, the volcanoes, the famous "tree" rock, the hot springs, the geysers, and the green and red lagoons. Everything was beautiful and breathtaking! I felt my soul connect with the earth. I could feel my very being fill with love and admiration for pachamama.

On the second day when we reached the geysers I was scared because on the way there people were telling stories about their friends getting burned from them. We were all cautious walking up to the first one which was recorded below. Our guide saw how hesitant we were being so he quickly ran up to it and ran through the geyser. I remember feeling my heart drop but when he turned to look at us he was fine. He later told us that this geyser in particular was man-made and was the only one that would not burn us to smitherins. John and Rachel ran through immediatley and I was going to skip it all together but then I thought, "how many times is a person able to run through a geyser and not get burned?!". Running through it shot hot air all around my body and I got a huge whif of sulpher. Which was Amazing!

Potosí

Irina´s feeling a lot better today, so we are headed to Uyuni tomorrow to visit the salares.  During our time here in Potosí I´ve realized that this city may be my favorite city in Bolivia next to La Paz which is also up there.  Though Potosi has a very complex history, so many things about this city intrigue me. 

Potosi was founded in the mid 1500´s surrounding el Cerro Rico, which is a mountain where plata was found among nearly a hundred other minerals.  When the spanish arrived and found that there was plata in el Cerro Rico, they used the labor of enslaved indigenous people to extract the minerals.  From what we have learned from the people here and also from a great documentary (The Devil's Miner, 2005) that we watched before we did the mine tours, indigenous folks would work about 20hrs a day and then rest for the remaining 4 hours of the day before returning back to work.  They were not fed during that time, and so the reliance on coca leaves for miners began.  African slaves were also brough to work the mines, but because of the elevation (4030 meters above sea level) and the cold weather many folks did not survive the conditions.  Those african folks that survived were than taken to the yungas to work in the cosecha of coca and natural plant resources.  The indigenous people revolted but were controlled through fear.  A devil that would consume miners was placed in the mines, and because many of the folks already believed that there was a darker spirit in those mines they accepted this "tio."  The D consanent does not exist in the Quechua language, so instead of dios the miners called this devil a "tio." To this day, miners bring ofrendas to the the tio so as to not upset him and be protected. 

At one point, Potosi was one of the largest and most "prosperous" cities in Latin America.  Although it is apparent that the people of Bolivia, la gente indigena, were not the one´s benefitting from the mining in el Cerro Rico.  I have not heard of any Bolivian families who became wealthy or part of the ruling class as a result of mining.  In fact, most men who work in the mines get silicosis in their lungs and start developing cancer after about 10 years of work.  There is no cure.  Miners are now paid for their work, but the silver that remains is not very good quality- the spanish financed their empire for centuries with quality plata.  The rivers surrounding Potosi have been polluted for more than 500 years with chemicals used to refine silver.  I´m unsure of what the effects were on people because of this pollution but I can only imagine.     

Much has stayed the same since the control over the mines has shifted over the centuries.  The spanish may be gone, but indigenous folks continue to work the mines. Often they work 8-10 hours a day but double shifts are not uncommon (20-24hrs).  What pay they receive for their work is miniscule compared to the profits the companies receive after refining the minerals that are extracted.  The miners in the end are the ones who die because of the back breaking work they do.  It is estimated that in 10-15 years their will be no more silver within the mines of el Cerro Rico.  1,500 workers work within those mines, the entire city is dependant on the mining industry.  If mining dissapears, Potosi will become a ghost town.  The miners mentioned that the next possibility would be to extract materials from outside el Cerro Rico, literraly flattening the mountain to dust.  An entire mountain gone.  Only 40-50 more years of work would come from this option.  For 500 years el Cerro Rico has been exploited.  El Cerro Rico looms over Potosi, y sin el Potosi dejara de existir. 

I am completely saddened at the though of an entire mountain dissapearing, of what the rivers have become, at the death of hundreds of thousands of people within the mines.  As one of the muxeres who was on the tour of the mines with us said after we left the mines, "el que yo tenga algo que presumir, no vale la pena conociendo lo que esos hombres tienen que vivir" and I would add to that that the continued enrichment of the elite was not worth any of it. 

But outside of this history, of the pain, otro Potosi existe.

I have fallen in love witht this city because within the mines we encountered extreme heat, unbearable conditions, we were barely able to breath, but the hombres within the mines were gente de dignidad.  They were proud to be miners, and they did the work for their familias, for their own survival.  They do what they have to.  Our tour guide told us, "I show people the mines and the work of the miners not to cause pity but to  create respect for the workers.  The miners are proud to be working en las minas."

We have met soo many kind and generous people here, gente humilde, gente who remind me of my family, of mi nana, de mi apa and mis tios.  We were treated like family at the hostel we stayed at.  The muxeres there were soo sweet, they would talk to us in la cocina and joke around with us all the time.  Irina was giving one of the muxeres english lessons in exchange for spanish lessons. 

One day I woke up late and skipped on breakfast and one of the muxeres who worked at the hostel me dijo "uuy dormilona, no te levantaste para desayunar hoy." ja, it was like hearing my mom or one of my tias!

Everyday we went to this comedor en el mercado and ate with the same muxer. Her name was Maria.  She made the best sopa de mani, and I hate sopa so that is a lot to say coming from me.   When we were leaving Potosi, we had our backpacks on pero llegamos a comer con ella.  Nos pregunto, "ya se van?" In this really sad voice, and she almost seemed like she was going to cry.  Me and Irina got all emotional too, it was weird. She served us our sopa, and told her amiga "ya se van."  Su amiga nos dijo, "muchachas no se vayan."  Irina wanted a picture, so we asked her for a picture before leaving.  We think she is soo beautiful, she reminded us of our grandmas, mi nanita and Irina's grandma from Texas.  She was such a fierce muxer, her puesto was the nicest puesto.  She kept it clean y todo bien en orden.  All the other muxeres wore average clothes, pero you could tell que Maria took her time getting ready to come to el comedor.  She wore earings, and fresh lipstick, and had her hair up.  She was beautiful & so we fell in love with her spirit. We would stare at her siempre cuando nos comiamos nuestra sopa.  Weird. sometimes you feel like you've known someone's spirit forever. 

Potosi was filled with amazing gente & spirit.  I think it's no coincidense, that such an intense history creates gente tan digna, resilient people, y gente that is wise and filled with love.  At least that's what we experienced, so I'll forever remember Potosi.

"Caminante, no hay puentes, se hace puentes al andar." - Gloria E. Anzaldua

I've been waiting to take this trip for years. I've been dreaming of what it would be like, trying to imagine what it would smell like here, what the people would be like, how I would feel once I was here. & I have arrived.  On this path, on my way, creating bridges as we walk. 

We arrived with no concrete plans.  All I know is that it took more than 6 months of working two jobs and any other odd jobs I could find.  Before leaving I was exhausted.  I loved both of my jobs, but it was too much.  Hopefully this trip will help clear somethings up, and help me prioritize.  My next goal: balance my life out!

The weeks before we left, we tried to see as many people as we could, soak in as much advise as we could, and prepare for the trip.  It felt as though we were leaving for years.  All in all we should only be gone about 11 weeks.  I had hoped it could be more, but we have so much to return to.  This is as much as we can do right now. I know this won´t be our last trip, together or alone, so we're trying to enjoy this as much as we can.

We´ve kind of just been figuring it out as we go.  We didn´t want to have everything planned out and feel restricted, so we´ve wandered many streets, stayed more nights than we though we would in bolivia, and talked to many people we didn´t know.   I´m not sure what I have learned yet, or how this is changing me.  I´ve tried to reflect every step of the way.  Me and Irina are keeping journals, and in the end we´ll see how it all feels. 

Irina has been sick for the past 6 days, she caught salmonella.  It´s been incredibly hard to deal with, she´s had really high fevers, hast thrown up almost everything she´s eaten, and been really tired.  We went to the hospital, she received meds, so she is recovering now.  She got an analysis done, and the doctor says the antibiotics are doing their thing so she should be all better by the time she finishes her treatment.  She´s still sick, but we hope she will be much better soon.  Every day I wake up thinking she´ll be better today.  I´ve decided to write to keep my mind sane. We stayed in Sucre 4 days more than we had planned for, just waiting for her infection to pass.  Today we decided we were leaving regardless of how things were.  Even though so many other people raved about how amazing Sucre was, we found that it wasn´t really our  city.  We're in Potosi now, hopefully on our way to Uyuni.  We´ll see how Irina wakes up tomorrow.  Uyuni is supposed to be freezing cold during this time of year, so we are trying to wait this out.
I´m sending prayers with the wind, in hopes that she´ll overcome this soon :)

Before we went to the hospital, we were reading my lonely planet guide.  It has a list of all kinds of illnesses you can catch when you´re traveling.  Every single one of them had the same symptoms.  All of which Irina apparently had.  We started freaking out! sooo we decided let´s just get it checked out.  Thankfully, its not worse.  Only wish the antibiotics worked faster!

We´ve had soo much delicious food while we´ve been here already, and we definately don´t hold back when it comes to street food and fruits and veggies.  We try to be careful and only drink bottled water but there is very little you can do if you want to take in everything.  Just hope, I don´t catch anything.  If it comes, we'll have to deal with it also.

My mom keeps hoping that I run out of money so that I can come home sooner.  Kenia is planning some kind of shin'ding for when I return, but we just got here.  I feel like I´ve barely had a chance to breathe in the air.  Sooo for now, if everything goes well, we´ll be in South America for two more months! Caminando...