1) Potosí, the mountain that eats people and 2) Sucre: chocolate town and 3) Brazil i am coming
Hola amigos
Yat great to hear from you i will defenedly catch up with you in Buenos Aires in october
Hrabba, kodak Galleri hljomar vel. Myndirnar fra Peru eru greinilega ennta laestar inni i ibud foreldra Sondru i Hollandi. Rek a eftir teim. Taer eiga svo ad koma a undan Boliviu. Geturdu athugad hvort diskarnir tveir Bolivia2 seu ekki tveir mismunandi diskar, og hvort helmingur se merktur Maju, tad er israelska vinkona min, vid tokum myndir til skiptis. Hennar afrit skemmdist svo hun verdur anaegd ef min kopia inniheldur hennar.
Hafdis: takk fyrir skilabodin, myndasida kemur bradum.
Solrun til hamingju med profin, tu ertu otruleg ad hafa getad tetta.
So my followers. Now i am in Sucre, a beatiful city in the middle of Bolivia. The altitude heare is only 2600meters (which is low for me now) the look is tropical here and it is warm. But mostly this is the chocolate city of Bolivia and there is a whole street of chocolates stores! HEAVEN. The rest of the streets is covered with lawyers, believe me i have newer seen so many lawyers offices in one city. From here me and Maya will go to Samaipata, tomorrow probably, and then Santa Cruz for Brazil.
We visited the mines in Potosí. it was a shocking experience. These mines were the foundation of the spanish empire. They forced the indians to work there and the mountain killed thousands each year. Today the workers are the descendants of the enslaved indians. They start working there at around 12 years old. It is illegal to work under 18 in Bolivia but the government doesnt do anything. The mean age at death for the workers is under 45, even today. they all develop Silicosis from the asbestos that covers the mines. Only 1/3 of the indians have insurances, so if they die/get sick they get nothing. They work from 8-24 hours per day and it is a hard work. To live through the day and the 25-50 degrees heat and humid (you cant bring in food cause it will be damaged) they chew enormous amounts of coca, a big part of their sallary. Inside the mines they worship the god Tío. Tío in spanish means the uncle. This names comes from Díos, put when the spanish enslaved the indians this god was banned, so they called him god in Ketschua and Tío in spanish. So how do they worship Tío? Tío looks like a blond red faced devil with horns. They make his images from the minerals in the mine and clay. They have huge statues of him and the first friday every month they come together by the statue drink 96% alchohol, smoke cigaretes and chew the coca . Pure product to insure finding pure minearls (gold silver, zinc coppar and more) At the end of the month they do the same to say thank you. Sometimes they make animal sacrifices.
We stayed in the mines for 3 hours, there is no air, very hot and sometimes you crawl on the floor. Sometimes it was quite scary. We also hadnt eaten much cause both me and Maya have food poisoning, this is the 3 or fourth one in Bolivia.
My friends, take care.
Stella
Yat great to hear from you i will defenedly catch up with you in Buenos Aires in october
Hrabba, kodak Galleri hljomar vel. Myndirnar fra Peru eru greinilega ennta laestar inni i ibud foreldra Sondru i Hollandi. Rek a eftir teim. Taer eiga svo ad koma a undan Boliviu. Geturdu athugad hvort diskarnir tveir Bolivia2 seu ekki tveir mismunandi diskar, og hvort helmingur se merktur Maju, tad er israelska vinkona min, vid tokum myndir til skiptis. Hennar afrit skemmdist svo hun verdur anaegd ef min kopia inniheldur hennar.
Hafdis: takk fyrir skilabodin, myndasida kemur bradum.
Solrun til hamingju med profin, tu ertu otruleg ad hafa getad tetta.
So my followers. Now i am in Sucre, a beatiful city in the middle of Bolivia. The altitude heare is only 2600meters (which is low for me now) the look is tropical here and it is warm. But mostly this is the chocolate city of Bolivia and there is a whole street of chocolates stores! HEAVEN. The rest of the streets is covered with lawyers, believe me i have newer seen so many lawyers offices in one city. From here me and Maya will go to Samaipata, tomorrow probably, and then Santa Cruz for Brazil.
We visited the mines in Potosí. it was a shocking experience. These mines were the foundation of the spanish empire. They forced the indians to work there and the mountain killed thousands each year. Today the workers are the descendants of the enslaved indians. They start working there at around 12 years old. It is illegal to work under 18 in Bolivia but the government doesnt do anything. The mean age at death for the workers is under 45, even today. they all develop Silicosis from the asbestos that covers the mines. Only 1/3 of the indians have insurances, so if they die/get sick they get nothing. They work from 8-24 hours per day and it is a hard work. To live through the day and the 25-50 degrees heat and humid (you cant bring in food cause it will be damaged) they chew enormous amounts of coca, a big part of their sallary. Inside the mines they worship the god Tío. Tío in spanish means the uncle. This names comes from Díos, put when the spanish enslaved the indians this god was banned, so they called him god in Ketschua and Tío in spanish. So how do they worship Tío? Tío looks like a blond red faced devil with horns. They make his images from the minerals in the mine and clay. They have huge statues of him and the first friday every month they come together by the statue drink 96% alchohol, smoke cigaretes and chew the coca . Pure product to insure finding pure minearls (gold silver, zinc coppar and more) At the end of the month they do the same to say thank you. Sometimes they make animal sacrifices.
We stayed in the mines for 3 hours, there is no air, very hot and sometimes you crawl on the floor. Sometimes it was quite scary. We also hadnt eaten much cause both me and Maya have food poisoning, this is the 3 or fourth one in Bolivia.
My friends, take care.
Stella
posted by G-Doc @ 10:43 AM
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