When I first thought about the idea of a ‘white’ country, the first thing that sprung to mind was Bolivia. I’m not really sure whether it was the blinding white salt deserts that sparked this thought, but the more I thought about it, the more bolivia was white. white salt deserts, white cocaine, white llamas and white snow—there is a lot that is white about Bolivia.
Bolivia is old-world South America. It feels like a place where time has stood still. A land-locked country high in the Andes, it is a place of incredible natural landscapes, interesting people, fascinating politics and as I mentioned, all things white. It’s an absolute ‘must experience’ on any trip through South America.
Thinking back on my travels through Bolivia, three things really stand out for me. Firstly the Salar de Uyuni, the whitest place (without snow) I have ever been, secondly the politics of Bolivia, especially the politics of coca farming and cocaine production, and finally the famous silver mines of Potosi, a sort of weird majestic ‘hell on earth’.
THE WHITE, WHITE DESERTS OF BOLIVIA
The Salar is like something out of space. It’s a giant salt desert that stretches 12,000 square kilometres. It’s white—blinding white—for as far as you can see in every direction. When you think of deserts you usually think of heat. But the Salar is cold. It’s nested high up in the Andes where the air is thin and the nights are truly freezing.
The blinding white salt is set against the brilliance of a long blue sky. The brilliant landscape is broken only by the occasional cactus island, which are made of old coral mounds that used to make up the ancient ocean that later formed the Salar. Spotted around the place are little white mounds where locals are digging up and drying out the Salar to sell the salt.
The Salar is one of those places that you can’t imagine actually exists, and once there, you find it hard to place your own existence within it. You can easily find your way to the Salar via a 4WD tour, but once you get there, driving across the dead flat salt deserts plains with tyre tracks in every direction is another worldly experience altogether. If you’re a keen photographer this place will blow your mind!
THE POLITICS
The words of a Colombian friend of mine rang in my ears as I stepped off the bus in La Paz Bolivia, the highest capital city in the world.
‘Be careful of the altitude man. If you feel sick get some Mate de coca’.
‘Some what?’
‘Some Coca tea man, tea made from cocaine leaves. It helps with the altitude sickness’.
I thought it was funny how a little thing like a coca leaf could provide relief from something as intense as altitude sickness. But after a few days in Bolivia, I realised how dependent the country is on the coca leaf. Coca farmers, their livelihood and the production of coca leaves are a big issue in Bolivia. The people chew coca leaves to help with fatigue and high altitude. On street corners everywhere, small shops sell bags of them. This is not for cocaine production—coca leaves are used in the same way the Thais use Redbull or we use caffeine. And in Bolivia you quickly become aware of the fact that the country is running on the coca leaf.
Politically, the two main issues on the agenda in Bolivia were the right of farmers to grow coca plantations and the ownership of natural gas resources. There is a US-led coca eradication program on coca production in Bolivia, however it is impossible to distinguish between coca farming and cocaine farming, and so the war in Bolivia on coca farming is incredibly pervasive and destructive. Bolivia is the poorest country in South America—a country that has had civil unrest for many years now. The Bolivian people are constantly struggling against overwhelming poverty, with over 70% of the population living below the poverty line. To eradicate coca farming would irrefutably damage the country collectively, economically and culturally, and so the Bolivians do what they can to protest it.
For my first few days in Bolivia I was stuck in La Paz. Nothing in Bolivia was moving. Roads were blocked and the country was at a standstill. As a tourist this was frustrating (though the upside certainly was that I was stuck in La Paz, the world’s highest city—an antique kingdom full of colour, life, amazing architecture and markets). Being an Australian, I was for the most part unfamiliar with civil unrest at this scale. Farmers, villagers and trade unionists shut down the roads everywhere. This is commonly done by piling giant rocks on the road to block traffic and by standing on the roads in the thousands. Nothing gets past. The whole country, its people and the economy come to a complete standstill.
While I nervously waited for the protests to escalate into violence, it became apparent to me that this is considered a relatively normal situation, and the Bolivian people appear to be just trying to get on with life in and around the road-blocks. There is a military response to this sort of unrest, however in a country where you can buy dynamite at your local general store, the response is considered, because the stakes can be high.
Recently Bolivia has undergone significant social and political change. However with the focus of world politics clearly in the Middle East, it’s a change that many of us have paid little or no attention to. However, for most Bolivians it’s a change they are hoping will create a new Bolivia and address some of the key issues surrounding poverty. Beyond that, it is a change that will likely challenge multinational and western interests in the rich resource wealth of Bolivia.
In December last year Bolivia elected Eva Morales, an Aymara Indian, as the country’s new President. What was significant about his election is that Morales is the country’s first indigenous president. Morales, a former llama farmer and coca grower, rose to power in a landslide victory with the party (MAS) The Movement Towards Socialism. Morales and other leaders like him in South America are the forefront of a new political wave. Recently Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba declared a new axis, ‘The Axis of Good’.
Morales seems clear that the welfare of the Bolivian people is best served not by allowing the free reign of multinationals and global institutions within Bolivian borders, but by maintaining some government influence over the country’s resources and reducing interference by Western nations (especially the USA) and supporting and encouraging literacy for the Bolivian people.
Two of his significant election platforms were to nationalise natural gas resources and remove the US’s ongoing ‘coca farming eradication program’. Being a former farmer himself, he is obviously close to the issue. What will be interesting to watch now is the west’s reaction to this new political direction for Bolivia. Beyond this, will Morales be able to achieve his election promises?
The other thing to watch is whether or not the recent changes in Bolivia and Venezuela pave the way for other South American countries with similar issues to make similar changes. If this occurs, what will the Western reaction be to a growing Movement Towards Socialism in South America?
I often hear people say, ‘I really want to go to Cuba before Fidel Castro dies’.
I wonder whether one day we may be saying the same thing about Bolivia and Eva Morales?
THE POTOSI MINES
Having travelled on and off for a number of years I thought I was relatively hardened to the extreme experiences that travelling can sometimes dish up. But after all I suppose those experiences are why many of us do it. My experiences in Potosi were just that—experiences, moments in time I will carry with me for the rest of my life. They were fascinating, wondrous, beautiful and yet overwhelmingly tragic.
Potosi is an old city at high altitude, and seems only to exist to service Cerro Rico, a mountain full of minerals that has been mined for over 400 years. I had heard about this mine in travellers’ folklore and was excited to visit it. The oldest mine in the world, a mine that abounds in riches, a mine that had provided more than 40% of the world’s silver. It sounds like a big adventure and in a way it is.
Travellers can take cheap tours to the mine where you are effectively thrown into the life of a Bolivian miner. You begin the day by visiting a local general store, where it is customary to buy gifts for the miners. A standard bag of gifts includes three things: coca leaves for the miners to chew, pure alcohol that the miners splash over statues of the devil (which are dotted around the mines, in the hope that the devil will not take their lives), and finally, dynamite. Yes, dynamite, bought straight over the counter from the general store, and used by the miners to continue their random tunnelling.
On arriving at the mine, I was struck by the beauty of Cerro Rico, the mountain that the mine covers. I was also struck by my shortness of breath from the incredibly high altitude. Our guide told us that hundreds of years ago the Spanish tried to use African slaves in the mine, but they proved useless because of their inability to deal with the altitude. I was rapidly finding that pretty easy to understand.
Looking around the mine I felt like I had been transported back into the 19th century. There is very little about Cerro Rico mining that is from this century. The miners use the most basic of tools and still barrel around the mine shafts in trolleys straight out of Indiana Jones.
You quickly become aware that the life of a Bolivian miner is not only an unpleasant one but a short one. The average life expectancy of a Bolivian miner is 35. Yet the miners in Potosi carry these broad smiles—smiles full of coca leaves that they chew on madly to deal with the conditions they face everyday.
So off we went into the mines of Potosi. Which I can honestly say was one of the most intense and unpleasant experiences I have had. Yet I can also honestly say that I am glad I did it. The mines themselves are boiling hot, freezing cold, dusty and dangerous. They’re full of tiny tunnels, strange noises, dusty faces and trolleys that randomly fly down the tunnels with the miners holding on for their lives as they guide them down the tracks.
A documentary has recently been released that follows the lives of two children in the mines (The Devils Miners). Apparently it is as much story of tragedy as it is of hope, with the viewer taken on the experience of traversing the cold, harsh, boiling hot, wet, dry life that is congested by toxic dust and lived every day by the miners. The children work for a better life, the horrible irony being they are shortening their lives so dramatically by working in these holes of toxic dust.
I headed towards Cerro Rico and Potosi full of intrigue and wonder, only to leave a few hours later grateful that I would never return to the mine, yet knowing that the miners I had briefly met would face that same day every day of their short, lives.
My experience of Bolivia—its politics, poverty and magnificence, its white landscape and harsh conditions—was colourful beyond description. My only advice: experience Bolivia for yourself—it’s a blinding place to visit.