Look theres a llama...head.

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  Llallagua, Bolivia
Monday, July 7, 2008

hello everyone, I heard from a number of people after returning from my trip and it felt really good, so thank you. Oh my I have so much to tell I dont know where to start. Well all the details I was given about this trip was in spanish and so I guess I didnt know what I was getting into. What I heard was a 2 and a half hour bus ride, and actually it turned into eight. I thought we were going to a town with mines, which was true in part, but I didnt know they would send us into what seemed like indiana jones for real. So after two separate bus rides, going up 5000 feet, I disreagarded the tips to eat frequently and enjoyed talking to my fellow travelers etc. Although after we arrived I had this horrible headache. Sorochi is the word here for altitude sickness, and coca leaves are the cure. I figured it would go away, since I had been in La paz (the capital) which is a similar elevation and had no problems. Well our guide took us three from the US and one girl from switerland, on a little walk to meet our mine guide, and as we stood there, the world started turning and I started vomiting into the nearby trash heap with some nearby town dogs looking on. So after that stopped we started walking back, my friends were very sweet and taking care of me, but I felt like shit. Our guide took us to a cafe so I could have some coca tea and a little to eat, I tried and then went outside and lost it in the street. So needless to say, I was dyhdrated (by this time I had diarrhea for five days as well) and I couldnt keep anything down.

in the mine with the guide

I went to bed and remember praying in my half dreams-please jesus heal me or kill me. So in the morning I drank some water before moving around hoping that would do the trick.  But I lost that before breakfast. >So at about this time all I can think is ´oh my god, all I need is two bags of saline, a line, an 18 gauge, and an MICU nurse´ but what I got was a really long walk around the town followed by a hot sulfur bath. This particular place has natural sulfur bathes, which they have enclosed and moderate the temperature. You might be conjuring a pretty picture in your head, please dont, it wasnt pretty. But it was a hot pool and it cured my headache and my nausea. Alot of the nearby towns dont have running water, or dont have it all the time, so we were told people come once a week to this place to bathe. So ´some of the other interesting things- this area depends on llama for a lot, they use everything. and we had llama for dinner that day. It was kinda like bacon cause it was fried pretty hard, but not the same flavor.
The next day we woke up at 430 to go into the mines with a different guide named clemente. He has worked the mines for 20 years. We had to have wellies, and huge batteries linked to our belts to power the head light and hard hats etc. I will try and post pictures later, its hilarious. So its pitch black out, we are in this big truck with 5 other miners heading up the mountain. We are just doing what we are told, and we walked literally through a mountain. It must have been a couple kms after we reached the tio, which is the god of the mine, every mine has their own tio and the miners go to him and give him coca, cigarettes, alchol, as a little sacrifice for good luck in the mines.

our mine group

It was very interesting. So then we walked farther, through places where we had to get all the way down to crawl through (where our guide would tell us to go quickly cause it was dangerous), some places the path was a foot of water, and I realized quickly the tall water proof boots was an illusion as the water poured in through a hole somewhere. I had to sit down on a rock and pour it out after wading through these spots. It was hilarious. Actually it was kinda scarey at the time. As a nurse I am kinda freaking out about the silicosis I will devolop later as a result of this 2 hour trek, and wondering why we didnt bring a canary so we would know when to get out, and if our guide had a heart attack, if we would be able to find our way out. Anyway enough hypochondriac. They are mining tin in the mine, all by hand, with exposives of course. They go in, crawling down shafts on a rope with no bottom, swinging into caverns and insane other things, and bring out 30 kilos of rock on their backs and then smash it with these huge cement seesaws and then sift through it with water like you see in the old west films. Horribly hard work, and it doesnt appear to be very profitable as it takes so much work for a little tin.
After escaping the mine, we made it back to the town and all agreed we would never do that again. HAHA.
We also went to the animal market. I am picturing the arizona state fair, mistakenly. and it turned out to be a large dirt field, with a lot of herds of burros, llamas, and single bulls with huge horns pawing the ground. Every owner standing nearby and the prices were as follows 450 bolivianos for a burro. 350 for a llama. (divide that by seven for the dollars) but there is not actually a functioning bank in this town and so the system is more on trade. Ill give you two llamas for that burro and a pile of hay, etc.
Afterwards we walked through the street markets, and first we saw the piles of llama hair for sale next to the llama leg bones which are used to comb the hair, or spin it, and on the other side of the street there was the llama head, upside down, a bizarre sight. Next to the head was the rest of the llama in a blanket, cut up for sale. <Two feet from this were women frying meat in large pots of hot oil. The smell, oh my. I wanted to be strong, but I couldnt and I moved down the street quickly to avoid more vomiting in front of everyone. Okay, I used up all my time. If I think of more I will write later. thanks for listening.

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sacrifice to mine god tio

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