Getting to know Potosí

Okay, I´ve been able to post a few new photos of Potosí.

First, here´s a quick shot of one of the ¨markets¨ that the bus went by during the night trip from La Paz....


As expected, I figured a few of the expectation I had when I left Canada would be changing when I got here. Living arrangements have turned out to be one of them. The original plan was to live with a family. Unfortunately, that isn´t going to happen for a few reasons. The first is that unless families are very well off, they typically only have enough space for the family they already have! Second, there was a volunteer here previously that was living with a family but ended up moving out after only a month due to ¨problems¨. I think the problems were associated with space (like I said before) and also that she was vegetarian and had a hard time fitting in with the family.

None the less, the plan for my time here is:
- Next two weeks: hanging out in a guesthouse
- After that: moving in with another volunteer from Calgary, Canada into an apartment that is currently getting fixed up.

I was initially really upset about not living with a family here. But, on the other side, I´ll be learning all sorts of other stuff about life in Bolivia including buying my food in the markets, cooking with those ingredients, etc. And besides, I´m getting quite a lot of exposure to the culture so far with work and wandering around town!

So, here is a view from my room in the guesthouse:


Th mountain in the background is named Cerro Rico, which means Rich Mountain. It is said that is used to be twice as big 500 years ago, before the colonization by the Spanish. When the Spanish came, Potosí turned into the richest city in the world through the mining of this mountain. Unfortunately, all the silver they took out of the mountain was sent back to Spain at the expense of many indiginous lives that were lost from being forced to work in the mountain. Although that isn´t the case now, the city has a glow from that time period. As an example, here is a picture of the room I have breakfast in every morning in my budget ¨guesthouse¨ before I head to work....


Most of the buildings here are made out of stone. And, the walls can me up to a meter thick! Although it makes it really beautiful, it also retains the chill from the night. So, I´ll be sporting my wooly socks and fleeces despite that I can get a sunburn in 30 minutes at 10am due to the high altitude!

Also, the area that the guesthouse is in, is considered a ¨tourist zone¨. So, we have the priviledge of signs on our street like the one below that says: ¨Prohibited from urinating or throwing (garbage)¨. You might think this is funny, but the other day when I was waiting to cross the street, I almost got pee-ed on by a boy when I wasn´t watching that I who/what I was standing beside!


But, enough of that fun stuff. Here´s another view from the guesthouse of the Andes, taken yesterday during a thunderstorm. I´ve noticed a pattern of thunderstorms happening every second day, but yesterday´s was bad enough for the power to go out to all of Potosí for the better part of the afternoon / evening. The locals didn´t blink before lighting up candles in each room. I guess this isn´t that uncommon.

Today was a clear day and I got out to wander the streets. Most streets are all one lane wide, and cobbled if they aren´t dirt. I´m not exactly sure how everyone knows which way they are allowed to drive on them since they they are all ¨one-way¨ streets. As for intersection rules, it basically follows that whoever honks first upon coming up to an intersection has right-of-way. Although it seems a little bizarre, it does infact seem to work rather well!!!

Here are a few pictures from my wanderings around Potosí the last couple days. You can see the age of the buildlings dating back to the colonization period (and maybe also see why I find it amazing just wandering around through these streets!).

And here, a bit of the same thing, but with a building in a bit of disrepair....

You can see that most of the streets are on a hill. Since I now feel like I have acclimatized to the altitude (i.e. have my appetite back and I´m not constantly nauseous, can actually sleep, and don´t feel totally woozy!), I know that taking the streets slow and being out of breath at the same time is normal!

Anyway, tonnes more to write, but I must get back to studying Spanish (of which, on average I figure I´m learning about 50 new words a day... talk about overload!).