Rounding out Bolivia. Dark to Light

So, I haven´t had wifi in a few weeks- typical Bolivia, but I´ve had some amazing experiences recently.  First, when I was in Sucre, I watched a documentary about the silver mines in Potosi, called the Devil´s Miner. It was about a 14 year old boy that had to go to work in the mines at the age of 10 to support his family. It was very eye opening and very sad.  Since the documentary is over 7 years old, I just assumed he was either still working there or possibly dead. I was very happy to hear the next day that he studied hard, learned 4 different languages and is thriving as a tour guide.  Knowing more about the mines made my trip there the next day very real. I tried to ignore the little voice in my head telling me not to do it, but I went on a mine tour. It was very, very scary. We went straight in the tunnels with the miners working alongside. I could hear dynamite exploding in the background and I wedged myself into very small areas. I will never ever in my life do this again, but I learned alot about how necessary it is for people to work. The sad thing is that nowadays, there is very little silver to be found.

Next stop was in Uyuni to visit the salt flats. There are other salt flats in the world, but these are the largest. They were really, really amazing. I can´t describe them, so I´ll post pictures soon.  All you could see for miles and miles was white. The salt flats used to be a body of water 15,000 years ago, but all that is left is hard salt on the ground, cracked into some beautiful and interesting patterns.

Today for my last day in Bolivia, I´m in Tupiza. They have beautiful rainbow colored canyons. They compare themselves to the Grand Canyon. I went on a 5 hour horseback ride which was so relaxing, though I think my butt will really, really hurt tonight.

Off tomorrow to cross the border into Argentina. Hope it´s an easier time than it was to get here.