Bolivia II: La Senda Verde, Sucre and Potosi

 When we began planning our 3 month adventure trip across South and Central America, we knew we wanted to start in Patagonia and work our way northward, but to be honest Bolivia wasn’t really on our radar, until I saw the website for La Senda Verde while searching for wildlife volunteering opportunities in South America.

La Senda Verde, or The Green Path, is located in the subtropical eastern flank of the Bolivian Andes (right at the end of the famous Bolivian “Death Road”, but that’s a story for another day).  Founded in 2003 by a Bolivian couple, Vicky Ossio and Marcelo Levy, the mission of La Senda Verde is to save and provide a second chance for wild animals rescued from illegal trafficking and habitat loss. Hard to argue with that!  Vicky and Marcelo are incredibly devoted (they sleep with baby animals in their bed when necessary, from bear cubs to monkeys) and their commitment is inspiring.  [Interesting small world anecdote:  their son went to the Berkelee School of Music in Boston and lives an 8 minute walk away from our son, Ben, in East Boston]

Today, La Senda Verde is home to more than 1200 birds and animals that lack the skills or ability to survive in the wild.  The list of residents ranges from many types of monkeys (howlers, squirrel, spider, capuchin) to exotic birds (toucans, parrots, macaws) to Andean spectacled bears, to big cats (jaguars, puma, ocelot, margay) to the less well-known, capybara, tapir, sari, and kinkaju, along with an assortment of snakes, turtles, fox, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.  

Our work as volunteers was not glamorous, but it’s what we are used to from our prior volunteering gigs:  principally feeding, cleaning, and doing small projects necessary to keep the sanctuary running and the animals safe.  At our first meal with the other volunteers it was nice to be warned to watch out for (and keep our boots covered at night) due to the risk posed by banana spiders.  A quick Google search put us at ease (not), as we read on medicinenet.com that “Fatalaties from the bite of banana spiders are rare if you are close to a well-equipped hospital.”  Not sure that Mass. General Hospital would be quite close enough.  Anyway, we obviously survived or I wouldn’t be writing this travelogue post (hopefully, at least most of you are happy with that outcome!).

Here are just a few of the animals that we worked with (or, actually, worked for) during our stay:

Melanie just couldn’t seem to get that monkey off her back, so to speak!

From Senda Verde we headed south to 2 of the most significant cities in Bolivian history:  Sucre and Potosi.

Sucre, the first capital of independent Bolivia, is named after the revolutionary hero Antonio Jose de Sucre.  It was actually the first city in Bolivia, founded by the Spanish conquistadors in 1538, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with a number of buildings dating to the 16th century (you won’t find anything that old in the U.S.).  Its numerous white walls and buildings earned the city its nickname of Ciudad Blanca, or the White City.  The University of San Francisco de Xavier was founded in 1624, making it one of the oldest universities in the New World

Sucre is also home to the Casa de la Libertad, which according to its website is”considered to be Bolivia’s most important historic monument.  This is the spot where the events leading to the independence of the country occurred and where the Bolivian Republic emerged.  Architectural highlights include the huge native cedar door studded with bronze nails and featuring big knockers…” [that last detail included for any Young Frankenstein fans out there 🤣].  Basically the equivalent of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall

From Sucre it was on to Potosi - for me far and away the most fascinating spot we visited during our 3 weeks in Bolivia.

According to popular legend, an indigenous herder, Diego Huallaga, discovered silver in Potosi in 1544 when, while searching for lost llamas, he noticed molten metal - silver - beneath his campfire.  This was a decade after the Spanish conquistadores had invaded and toppled the Incan Empire, and his find changed the course of history.  The mountain in which silver was discovered came to be known in Spanish as Cerro Rico - the Rich Hill.

Prior to the discovery of silver, Potosi did not exist - the altitude was too high and the weather too inhospitable for anyone to choose to live there.  By 1573, less than 30 years after the discovery of what would turn out to be the richest source of silver in the history of mankind and the engine that drove the expansion of the Spanish Empire, Potosi had a population of 120,000 - the same as London and more than Madrid, Rome or Paris.  By 1650, the population had grown to 160,000.  It was one of the world’s biggest and richest cities, ten times bigger than Boston - at a time when New York was still known as New Amsterdam.  “To be worth a Potosi” is a phrase that is still used in Spanish to this day.

But all of this wealth came at a huge cost.  A popular saying in Bolivia is that “you could build a silver bridge from Potosi to Madrid from what was mined here - and one back with the bones of those that died taking it out.”  According to the seminal history of Latin America, “Open Veins of Latin America”, by Edward Galeano, since its discovery, 8 MILLION people have died in the Potosi mines.  It boggles the mind….

Though the rich veins of pure silver have been exhausted, more than 10,000 miners still work in the mines of Cerro Rico today, despite the dangerous conditions in the mines.  And as you might have guessed, we decided to have a look inside the mines for ourselves

Led by our guide - an ex-miner who had to leave his job after a fall down a 25 meter mine shaft made him unable to continue working in the mines - we had a firsthand experience of what the mines are really like, including horrific and heart-breaking stories of miners felled by cave-ins, the effects of noxious gases and falls, as well as the effects of long-term mine exposure on the lungs of the miners (silicosis), many of whom began working in the mines at the age of 15 (or even younger).  The life expectancy of Cerro Rico miners today is only 40-45 years.  I’ll certainly never again say that I had a hard job….

The release that we signed before entering (but didn’t actually read until after we left) captured key elements of the experience quite well.  Here are just a couple of the dangers cited, along with videos of our visit.  We could also hear, smell and feel the dynamite explosions set off by the miners.

• During the tour you will be visiting working mines.  In some places you will have to go fast and run because there are many mine-carts (trollies) running in the mines, and sometimes they won’t stop.  Please remember you are going to see a real mine, not a tourist park. 

• There are some dangers beyond the control of your guide.  For example, in the case of a cave-in in the mine, you will be in as much danger as the workers in the mine (more miners die from cave-ins than any other cause of death).

 Finally, perhaps the most fascinating (and a bit eerie) aspect of our visit has to do with the syncretism that I described in my last post.  Outside the mines, the miners are practicing Catholics - though like most Bolivians they make routine offerings to Pachamama (Mother Earth), slaughtering llamas twice a year and smearing llama blood on the mine entrances in hopes that Pachamama will protect them.  But inside the mines it gets even more interesting.  Here they make frequent offerings to El Tio, believed to be the “Lord of the Underworld”.  They frequently shower statues of El Tio with coca leaves, alcohol and cigarettes in the hopes of winning his favor.

Our experience visiting the mines of Cerro Rico will be a hard one to beat!

Next stop - Medellin, Colombia!