Author: Joel Griffett
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The Lone Miner of the Mountains
One lone Cornishman, however, refused to leave Peru let alone the Andes, and stayed up in the clouds as all his compatriots drifted back down the hill to Lima. No one would ever find out why he stayed here, all alone, in the inhospitable reaches of the province of Pasco.
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Blocked at the Peruvian border
In La Paz I met a man from Spain, ironically named Pedro, who told me he’d just arrived from Cusco by land. He proudly declared that he bribed his way through the roadblocks and hitched a ride all the way from Cusco to La Paz. This gave me some hope, but when I woke up…
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Losing the plot in Oruro
Once the taxi dropped me off in front of the first museum, named after Simon Patiño ‘The Tin Baron’ I walked in and was quickly ushered out again. It was closed and didn’t reopen again for another 3 and a half hours – an acceptable length of lunch break in Bolivia
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Sucre: Bolivia’s own Granada
Pre-order ‘Long Road to Nowhere: The Lost Years of Richard Trevithick (Part One)’ now, HERE. My refusal to catch a local bus will get me killed a some point, but I made my excuses as I hiked from one side of Potosi to the new terminal on the other carrying everything I own on my…
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El Tio: God in a Godless place (Potosi Part 2)
Pre-order ‘Long Road to Nowhere: The Lost Years of Richard Trevithick (Part One)’ now, HERE. Cerro Rico is a godless place. The indigenous Andeans knew, so did the Spanish. What happens when God won’t set foot in the mine? You invent a new deity for the miners to worship. His name is Uncle George, and…
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Potosi: Plunder and Poison
Even after I got back to the hotel and scrubbed myself furiously in the shower, I could still smell the dust. It was in my nose, ears and all over my glasses. I was only down the mine for 3 hours at most. I couldn’t begin to imagine a shortened lifetime of this
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The Ghost Town of Pulacayo and John Penberthy
At least he wasn’t down the mine right now. The shafts that lurk beneath are up to 1000m deep, with temperatures hitting nearly 50 degrees. Hotter than hell, the workers had to drill naked and only for 15 minutes at a time otherwise they would drop dead.
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Uyuni: where trains (and dreams) come to die
Pre-order ‘Long Road to Nowhere: The Lost Years of Richard Trevithick (Part One)’ now, HERE. During my trip so far I’ve visited abandoned train stations, hiked along both active and disused railways and even been woken up by them rumbling through Antofagasta in the middle of the night, but so far on the trail of…
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THE ZIGZAG METHOD
What might not be clear, probably because I didn’t explain it properly is that Trevithick is unlikely to have gone to Chile, at least this is what I think right now. If I find any leads when I reach Peru this may change, as it was from Lima he may have ventured south when he…
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Ciao Chile, Bolivia Beckons
Those luxury salon cama buses are long gone; I’d be lucky if the bus had windows now, let alone reclining seats.
JOEL GRIFFETT 