Potosi

The oldest church in Potosi, San Francisco. First established in 1574, but rebuilt in 1707.

Lots of old churches, more than the girls fill.

A huge boliviastone - only found in Boliva

We did tour some crypts under a couple of old churches.

We did a night tour of one church; complete with ghost stories.

Cerro Rico, the mountain overlooking Potosi.


Typical streetscape of colonial Potosi and Plaza November 10 in the colonial centre


Potosi is a pretty quiet city, even in the evening.

There are about 25 old churches in the colonial area, some very fancy.

Up closer at Cerro Rico, the mine doesn't look so nice.

The mine tour was very interesting, but challenging to follow at times.

At almost 4100 meters, Potosi is one of the highest cities in the world. Way up on the altiplano, it's cold and dry and is hard to see why such a large city would be built in the middle of nowhere; except for the mountain of silver called Cerro Rico. The richest silver mine the world has ever seen, Potosi financed the Spanish royal family for hundreds of years. By the early 17th century, Potosi had a population of about 160,000: bigger than Madrid and about the same size of London or Paris at the time.

Today Potosi is a UNESCO world heritage site with hundreds of colonial era buildings, churches and art. The mine is still active with thousands of miners still looking for more silver but also finding tin and other metals.

Sorata

When the clouds would clear, we had some great views.


Okay, so all the stories of riding buses with animals has finally come true!


We call this the haunted hotel, just because it was sooo empty inside.


Overgrown bogenvillia (okay, I'm not a plant person and can't spell)

Check out the snakeskins mom! I can't wait to see one of these in the wild.

Bolivian lawnmower - get for trimming the edges and automatic fertillizer, and noboday has ever lost a toe.

Small river beside our hotel.

Sorata countryside

Market street in Sorata

Central square in town.

Enjoying a great Mexican meal (well the adults anyway, the kids had pizza of course).

On the way in to a cave outside of town.

Picnic table at our hotel.

We rented the entire building for $21 per night.

On the way back to La Paz.

Sorata is a great little town about three hours outside of La Paz. Close to some great mountain hiking, we just relaxed, enjoyed the views and did some cave exploring. A place I could see us visiting again.

Mecapaca

Views from the top of the Town

The church steeple and in front of the church, from the Town square

The valley below

And of course, the town cemetary

Mecapaca is a quite, small town nearly an hour outside of La Paz. It's in the same valley of our city, but a lot lower and therefore a lot hotter. They have fixed up the town centre by painting all the buildings the same terracotta colour and the central park if fixed up as well. Not too much to do, but a nice place to visit for the afternoon.

Oruro

On the Way to Oruro

There's even a couple of small deserts just outside of the city

Some buildings are nice; there used to be a lot of wealth here when tin prices were high

Oruro is best known for their Carnival. We're looking forward to seeing these costumes on.

Oruro is a city of about 200,000, 230 km South of La Paz. High on the Altiplano, it's cold most of the time, but we lucked out with great weather and even managing a sunburn.

At one time, when tin prices were high, Oruro was a financial powerhouse of Bolivia. Mining is still the major industry, but the economy is highly dependent on this one commodity.

We plan on going back. For sure to see the Carnival, but also for the sites we missed. One weekend just wasn't enough.

Day of the Dead - Cementerio Jardin

Cementerio Jardin is much more what we would see in Canada. Today, however, it was like there was a giant funeral, with flowers arranged on every grave. This cemetery is closer to the nicer neighborhoods of La Paz. It's newer, well maintained and appears to be more for the higher classes.

Day of the Dead - Cementerio General

Ladders to reach the higher tombs...and, just outside entrance number 6.


Some tombs/crypts are very fancy, but most are stacked in long rows, all above ground.

And it's a great day to high a band. Some family tombs will coordinate flowers.

It's customary to give some favourite food & drink. And believe it or not, these are graves, not an apartment building. Most will have a glass front with a plaque behind, leaving space to place flowers and gifts on special occasions, like today.

2 November is the Day of the Dead, celebrated in Bolivia by going to the grave of your relative or close friend for 3 years after they have passed away, with flowers and their favorite foods and drinks. In the third year, there is generally a celebration by the tomb with music. That is the final year that the soul comes to visit the grave on Day of the Dead. In the Cementary General, the class differences are stark -- elaborate family masoleums for the wealthy beside "apartment style" tombs. Some of the tombs which used to house bodies were empty, with notices on them that they were for rent. We think the families didn't keep up with the bills. The street was packed with flower sellers, vendors with hats, police guiding traffic, and locals bands. The cemetary is enormous -- we saw only about 1/4 in over an hour.