Potosi, Bolivia

12th September – 13th September 2017

After a great few days of having no schedule, we had a 4.30 wakeup call with 5am breakfast, in order to go to Potosi. Although the alarm went off at 4.30, we snoozed it a couple of times before dragging ourselves out of bed. We made it to breakfast on time but it wasn’t as good as it had been previously there – probably because it was so early! I had some fruit and yogurt and then bread with jam. We were meeting in the lobby at 5.30, ready to do back locker and leave as soon as possible.

We all got onto our new truck, Yana, and there was so much room! She is so much bigger than Amber and I guess with there only being eight of us, she seemed even bigger. There are enough seats for us to have 3 each, but obviously that doesn’t work when they are in twos, but two each was enough; we spread out and got comfy. In the back of the truck, we found some blankets and pillows, so that made it even better. Just before we could get some sleep, Lars jumped into the bad to go over some safety things and then the lights were off and we were allowed to sleep. I say we were allowed but I think Lars was a bit jealous that we could sleep, so he out his music on nice and loudly through the speakers – I turned mine off straight away which helped slightly.

After a few hours of driving we stopped off for our first stop. I hadn’t had much sleep at this point but I was relaxed across my two chairs, so it was okay. We pulled up at a service station which had no toilets, so had to hop back on the truck and carry on driving. We found another place just up the road where we could stop again, this time with toilets.

Back on the truck, Lars started to put up lists for cook groups and jobs – none of which we were able to sign up for. On the cook list, we had been split into two groups: me and Jack are the chefs (or group leaders as they are called on this truck) and in my team I have Katie, Joe and William and Jack has Sabrina, Aaron and Char. I’m not sure how I feel about being chef but I’m just glad it is only a small group. For the truck jobs, I have been given truck cleaner – something I’m not overly pleased with but I’ll give it a go; the girls go given the cleaning jobs and the boys got the heavy lifting jobs!

After all the formalities were complete, I put my head back down for a nap, until we stopped again a little way up the road for some diesel. I’m not sure why they didn’t do this in advance but anyway we had another chance for a toilet break.

Back on the truck again, and another nap squeezed in, before we stopped for lunch. It was only about 11.30 but apparently there was nowhere decent to stop after this place (which was only half decent anyway). The menu only had full meals and I didn’t fancy this for lunch, so I stuck to the snacks in my bag, which I had on the truck. We had only been stopped for lunch for about 5 minutes when Amber pulled up (they set off 45 minutes after us, so that shows how slow Yana is). We had a quick catch up with them, while some people ate, before we got back on the truck again and left. It’s strange getting back on this truck because we don’t have amigos, so we all have to check that we haven’t left anyone behind.

Even though we left before Amber, we hadn’t been driving that long before they overtook us; Yana really doesn’t have any power when going uphill. I had my head down, napping (of course) at this point, so I didn’t actually see them pass, but I heard them tooting their horn.

At about 3 o’clock, we had our final break of the day. We stopped at a viewpoint (where Amber had also stopped) and could take some photos and have a final toilet break before carrying on another 80km to Potosi.

I had no trouble falling back to sleep again once we got moving, and I woke up just as I could see a sign saying ‘Bienvenidos a Potosi’, so I packed up my things and got ready to arrive at the hotel. Lars had suggested to us to pack an overnight bag for Potosi because we were only staying for one night and we couldn’t park near to the hotel, so had to walk. We all took the suggestion and it was worth it.

As we pulled up in the truck, Amber had just arrived before us, so they all got their things and arrived at the hotel before we did. When we all piled into the hotel, the staff weren’t expecting both groups, so they didn’t have enough rooms ready; this was soon sorted though.

After about 11 hours of driving, we arrived at the hotel just before 5. We chilled in our rooms and got settled a bit before agreeing to meet in reception at 7. Me and Sabrina were getting hungry before then, so we went down to wait and most people were already there. William had done some research of where to go, so we took that suggestion because it was cheap and close by.

After some trouble, because it was hidden, we found the restaurant ‘Manzana Magica’. We went in and upstairs and some of the other group were already in there eating. The seven of us (me, Sabrina, Katie, Jack, William, Aaron and Tom) all had to squeeze around a four person table because it was so busy – but this was good for them. It was a vegetarian restaurant, which I found interesting, so I ordered a quinoa burger with egg and cheese – it was very good. I couldn’t believe how cheap the place was: for my burger with chips and a glass of fresh lemonade, it came to 23 Bolivianos (less than £3)!

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel in the pouring rain. We sat in the lobby for a little bit and had a chat, before going up to bed. It’s amazing how tired I still felt, even though I had spent the majority of the day snoozing on the bus!

We were allowed to have another lie in on the morning before we left Potosi – I can’t get used to all these lie ins, it’s too strange! There was the option to go to the mines to see the workers but after the reality tour in Arequipa, I thought it would be too sad to see how people still worked in the mines; after speaking to some of the people who went I think I made the right decision because they said they had to leave after 20 minutes because they felt like they were in the way of the workers and it was too sad.

I got up just before 9 and thought I would go for a quick shower before breakfast. I turned the shower on to warm it up and by the time I had got my things together, the shower had gone off because there was no water; I have now lost count of the number of times I have tried to shower and there has either been no water or freezing cold water. Instead of the shower, I just got myself ready and we met Katie and Jack at breakfast, Aaron was there too when we got there. Breakfast was the usual basic stuff on offer; we asked for eggs but I’m pretty sure she used about 2 eggs between the five of us.

After breakfast, we went for a walk into Potosi to see what was available. We bumped into David on the way and he told us to find the main square because that’s the best thing about this place. We wandered through the streets up to the main square but there wasn’t really much on offer there. We walked around the square and took some photos before deciding to find a café and get drink. As much as it was nice to have a few days relaxing, I feel I haven’t done anything properly since Rainbow Mountain and I am beginning to get bored of sitting in cafes now.

We found a café and ended up sitting there for a while. I had a milkshake which came with a scoop of ice cream in it, which made it much better.

After the café, we wandered back towards the hotel, hoping to go via a market. We didn’t find the market and could barely find the hotel; we got a little lost. After wandering up and down streets, we eventually found our way and we were back at the hotel. We had to be back to check out at 12, but we weren’t leaving until everyone was back from the mine tour, so we still had time to chill.

After we checked out, me and Katie were trying to come up with a plan to get rid of Sabrina for a little bit so we could go back out into the town and try and get birthday decorations for her birthday. We were texting about all kinds of plans of how we could leave her behind and then in the end she didn’t even want to go back out anyway, so that made it easier.

We offered to buy people’s lunches (so it wasn’t obvious as to why we were going back out), but neither the lunch nor the decorations trips were overly successful. Despite the fact there were loads of party shops, none of them had anything decent in them so we only ended up with a bag of balloons which we will probably spread over Sabrina and Joe’s birthdays; Joe is going to be 70 a couple of days after Sabrina’s birthday so we wanted to make a little more fuss but we struggled with anything! The lunch trip was no more successful as we wandered around looking for empanadas – the only street food I have actually tried. Everywhere we went, they were either sold out or you couldn’t take them away; we were almost going back empty handed. We eventually found a woman with some and picked up that they had meat and potatoes in, so we bought her out of her stall – she did only have 4 left though.

After being out for over an hour, we were going back with a packet of balloons (which we needed to hide) and 4 empanadas – it wasn’t much to show. We had a short time left to chill in the hotel before people were back from the mines, before we were leaving to head to our next place, Uyuni.

It seems like the only things to do in Potosi is to see the mines because there really wasn’t much else on offer. However, one group that went to the mines came back very early because it was too much for them to see, so I’m not convinced I would like to see them. One morning in the town was enough; it was good to be able to move on soon after.

To travel is to live, Katie x