• 001 - the logo.jpg
  • 002 - Hiroshima sunset.jpg
  • 003 - Auschwitz-Birkenau ramp.jpg
  • 004 - Chernobyl contamination.jpg
  • 005 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 006 - Berlin Wall madness.jpg
  • 007 - Bulgaria - monument at the bottom of Buzludzhy park hill.jpg
  • 008 - Ijen crater.jpg
  • 009 - Aralsk, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 010 - Paris catacombs.jpg
  • 011 - Krakatoa.jpg
  • 012 - Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, Hanoi.jpg
  • 013 - Uyuni.jpg
  • 014 - DMZ Vietnam.jpg
  • 015 - Colditz Kopie.jpg
  • 016 - Glasgow Necropolis.jpg
  • 017 - Hashima ghost island.jpg
  • 018 - Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 019 - Arlington.jpg
  • 020 - Karosta prison.jpg
  • 021 - Kamikaze.jpg
  • 022 - Chacabuco ghost town.jpg
  • 023 - Eagle's Nest, Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden.jpg
  • 024 - Kursk.jpg
  • 025 - Bran castle, Carpathia, Romania.jpg
  • 026 - Bestattungsmuseum Wien.jpg
  • 027 - Pripyat near Chernobyl.jpg
  • 028 - Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 029 - Pyramida Lenin.jpg
  • 030 - Falklands.jpg
  • 031 - Majdanek.jpg
  • 032 - Soufriere volcano, Montserrat.jpg
  • 033 - moai on Easter Island.jpg
  • 034 - Sidoarjo.jpg
  • 035 - Hötensleben.jpg
  • 036 - Natzweiler.jpg
  • 037 - Polygon, Semipalatinsk test site, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 038 - Srebrenica.jpg
  • 039 - Liepaja, Latvia.jpg
  • 040 - Vemork hydroelectric power plant building, Norway.jpg
  • 041 - Enola Gay.jpg
  • 042 - Pentagon 9-11 memorial.jpg
  • 043 - Robben Island prison, South Africa.jpg
  • 044 - Tollund man.jpg
  • 045 - Marienthal tunnel.jpg
  • 046 - Aso, Japan.jpg
  • 047 - Labrador battery Singapore.jpg
  • 048 - Artyom island, Absheron, Azerbaijan.jpg
  • 049 - Treblinka.jpg
  • 050 - Titan II silo.jpg
  • 051 - dosemetering doll, Chernobyl.jpg
  • 052 - Holocaust memorial, Berlin.jpg
  • 053 - Komodo dragon.jpg
  • 054 - cemeterio general, Santiago de Chile.jpg
  • 055 - Tuol Sleng, Phnom Phen, Cambodia.jpg
  • 056 - West Virginia penitentiary.jpg
  • 057 - ovens, Dachau.jpg
  • 058 - Derry, Northern Ireland.jpg
  • 059 - Bulgaria - Buzludzha - workers of all countries unite.jpg
  • 060 - Sachsenhausen.jpg
  • 061 - Tiraspol dom sovietov.jpg
  • 062 - modern-day Pompeii - Plymouth, Montserrat.jpg
  • 063 - Pico de Fogo.jpg
  • 064 - Trinity Day.jpg
  • 065 - Zwentendorf control room.jpg
  • 066 - Wolfschanze.jpg
  • 067 - Hiroshima by night.jpg
  • 068 - mass games, North Korea.jpg
  • 069 - Harrisburg.jpg
  • 070 - Nuremberg.jpg
  • 071 - Mostar.jpg
  • 072 - Tu-22, Riga aviation museum.jpg
  • 073 - Gallipoli, Lone Pine.jpg
  • 074 - Auschwitz-Birkenau - fence.jpg
  • 075 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 076 - Atatürk Mausoleum, Ankara.jpg
  • 077 - Banda Aceh boats.jpg
  • 078 - AMARG.jpg
  • 079 - Chacabuco ruins.jpg
  • 080 - Bucharest.jpg
  • 081 - Bernauer Straße.jpg
  • 082 - Death Railway, Thailand.jpg
  • 083 - Mandor killing fields.jpg
  • 084 - Kozloduy.jpg
  • 085 - Jerusalem.jpg
  • 086 - Latin Bridge, Sarajevo.jpg
  • 087 - Panmunjom, DMZ, Korea.jpg
  • 088 - Ijen blue flames.jpg
  • 089 - Derry reconsilliation monument.jpg
  • 090 - Ebensee.jpg
  • 091 - Mödlareuth barbed wire.jpg
  • 092 - skull heaps in Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 093 - Nikel.jpg
  • 094 - Fukushima-Daiichi NPP.jpg
  • 095 - Tital launch control centre.jpg
  • 096 - Dallas Dealy Plaza and Sixth Floor Museum.jpg
  • 097 - Auschwitz I.jpg
  • 098 - Stalin and Lenin, Tirana, Albania.jpg
  • 099 - Malta, Fort St Elmo.jpg
  • 100 - Peenemünde.jpg
  • 101 - Tarrafal.jpg
  • 102 - Kilmainham prison, Dublin.jpg
  • 103 - North Korea.jpg
  • 104 - Mittelbau-Dora.jpg
  • 105 - St Helena.jpg
  • 106 - Stutthof, Poland.jpg
  • 107 - Merapi destruction.jpg
  • 108 - Chueung Ek killing fields, Cambodia.jpg
  • 109 - Marienborn former GDR border.jpg
  • 110 - Mig and star, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 111 - Nagasaki WWII tunnels.jpg
  • 112 - Hellfire Pass, Thailand.jpg
  • 113 - Kiev.jpg
  • 114 - Grutas Park, Lithuania.jpg
  • 115 - Zwentendorf reactor core.jpg
  • 116 - two occupations, Tallinn.jpg
  • 117 - Trunyan burial site.jpg
  • 118 - Ushuaia prison.jpg
  • 119 - Buchenwald.jpg
  • 120 - Marienthal with ghost.jpg
  • 121 - Murmansk harbour - with an aircraft carrier.jpg
  • 122 - Berlin Olympiastadion.JPG
  • 123 - Bastille Day, Paris.jpg
  • 124 - Spassk.jpg
  • 125 - Theresienstadt.jpg
  • 126 - B-52s.jpg
  • 127 - Bledug Kuwu.jpg
  • 128 - Friedhof der Namenlosen, Vienna.jpg
  • 129 - Auschwitz-Birkenau barracks.jpg
  • 130 - mummies, Bolivia.jpg
  • 131 - Barringer meteor crater.jpg
  • 132 - Murambi, Rwanda.jpg
  • 133 - NTS.jpg
  • 134 - Mauthausen Soviet monument.jpg
  • 135 - pullution, Kazakhstan.JPG
  • 136 - palm oil madness.jpg
  • 137 - Berlin socialist realism.jpg
  • 138 - Okawa school building ruin.jpg
  • 139 - Pawiak, Warsaw.jpg
  • 140 - flying death, military museum Dresden.JPG
  • 141 - KGB gear.JPG
  • 142 - KZ jacket.JPG
  • 143 - ex-USSR.JPG
  • 144 - Indonesia fruit bats.JPG
  • 145 - Alcatraz.JPG
  • 146 - Chernobyl Museum, Kiev, Ukraine.JPG
  • 147 - Halemaumau lava lake glow, Hawaii.JPG
  • 148 - Rosinenbomber at Tempelhof, Berlin.jpg
  • 149 - Verdun, France.JPG
  • 150 - hospital, Vukovar, Croatia.JPG
  • 151 - the original tomb of Napoleon, St Helena.JPG
  • 152 - Buchenwald, Germany.JPG
  • 153 - Bhopal.JPG
  • 154 - Groß-Rosen, Poland.jpg
  • 155 - at Monino, Russia.jpg
  • 156 - blinking Komodo.jpg
  • 157 - inside Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 158 - Mount St Helens, USA.JPG
  • 159 - Maly Trostenec, Minsk, Belarus.jpg
  • 160 - Vucedol skulls, Croatia.JPG
  • 161 - colourful WW1 shells.JPG
  • 162 - Zeljava airbase in Croatia.JPG
  • 163 - rusting wrecks, Chernobyl.JPG
  • 164 - San Bernadine alle Ossa, Milan, Italy.jpg
  • 165 - USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.JPG
  • 166 - Brest Fortress, Belarus.JPG
  • 167 - thousands of bats, Dom Rep.JPG
  • 168 - Hohenschönhausen, Berlin.JPG
  • 169 - Perm-36 gulag site.JPG
  • 170 - Jasenovac, Croatia.JPG
  • 171 - Beelitz Heilstätten.JPG
  • 172 - Kremlin, Moscow.jpg
  • 173 - old arms factory, Dubnica.JPG
  • 174 - Pervomaisc ICBM base, more  missiles, including an SS-18 Satan.jpg
  • 175 - Cellular Jail, Port Blair.jpg
  • 177 - control room, Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 178 - Podgorica, Montenegro, small arms and light weapons sculpture.jpg
  • 179 - Vught.jpg
  • 180 - Japanese cave East Timor.jpg
  • 181 - Ani.jpg
  • 182 - Indonesia wildfire.jpg
  • 183 - Chacabuco big sky.jpg
  • 184 - Bunker Valentin, Germany.JPG
  • 185 - Lest we Forget, Ypres.JPG
  • 186 - the logo again.jpg

Bolivia

  
A landlocked South American country which during its modern history has had its share of dark chapters too.
  
There was the struggle for independence (the country is named after revolutionary Simon Bolivar!), for instance, and later wars with neighbouring countries too, e.g. with Chile, to which Bolivia lost its access to the sea (still a sore point to this day), hence the conflict is known as the War of the Pacific (1879-1883).
 
And in the second half of the 20th century there was a socialist revolution that was overthrown and followed by, in true Latin American style, a military junta. More coups and counter-coups ensued, including the concomitant human rights abuses, torture, and "disappearing" of people, as in so many Latin American countries in that era (cf. Chile, Argentina). But since then things have improved.
  
  
Bolivia is still South America's poorest country, despite great natural riches, including, in particular, silver ore and various other minerals. But these have traditionally been exploited by outsiders with little benefit for the vast majority of the population. The discovery of vast lithium reserves in the Salar de Uyuni provides the chance to change that "tradition", and make Bolivia a more affluent country, if it's handled right ….
 
Current President Evo Morales, the first indigenous leader of a Latin American country (first elected in 2005), joined ranks with Venezuela's recently deceased president Hugo Chaves in an effort of re-nationalization and "Latino-socialism" – thus angering the USA, or rather: the US-owned corporations whose "interests" in the country are at stake, e.g. in silver mining. Hence US state propaganda tends to paint Bolivia under Morales as a kind of "pariah".
 
But if it's one revolutionary name in connection with Bolivia that has been standing out in international consciousness and popular culture for decades it has to be Che Guevara – whose famous portrait photograph must be one of the most reproduced of all time and one of the most immediately recognized, having adorned millions of T-shirts, badges and posters on the bedroom walls of rebellious teenagers.
 
And this is where dark tourism comes in: Bolivia's tourist industry includes a so-called Ruta del Che, or Che Guevara Trail!
 
Whether any other sites related to the darker chapters of Bolivia's history (esp. the junta years) have been developed or are being developed for tourism is something I still have to find out. It's not unlikely, though, that Bolivia will follow Chile's example in that respect …
 
Che and politics in general aside, Bolivia also offers stunning scenery such as the Andean plateau of the Altiplano with the Uyuni salt flat, flamingo-filled colourful lagoons, volcanoes and eerie moonscapes, which also have a kind-of dark twist to them.  
 
Finally, two of dark tourism's rather more dubious attractions that are located in Bolivia will probably have to be mentioned here as well:
 
One is the infamous Yungas Road, considered to be the "most dangerous road in the world" (or even "Death Road"). It's featured in the Lonely Planet Bluelist 2007 chapter on Dark Tourism, rather tongue-in-cheek, though it is also pointed out that this road is indeed extremely dangerous, claiming hundreds of lives every year. So those thrill seekers' mountain bike tours on this road that are offered by some operators are rather a form of extreme adventure tourism, if not downright danger tourism. Sure, the scenery is breathtaking, and the drive is certainly good for some extreme thrills – and I can also just about see the attraction – but it's not, I claim, dark tourism proper (see the concept of dark tourism and beyond dark tourism).
 
The other extreme tourist attraction that I find somewhat dubious – although again I can also see some parts of the attraction – is the silver mines of Cerro Rico, Potosi. Here you can go on guided tours of the mines and witness the extremely harsh working conditions – dirt, sweat and health-and-safety risks all part of the adventure, even if for tourists it's just a couple of hours of voluntary adventure. For the miners it's real life – and death: their lungs typically pack it in after a few years due to silicosis. The average life expectancy for the miners is as low as 40. Here, mining is still done in true 18th century style: all by hand, and (and dynamite), without any health and safety concerns to speak of … unless you count the rituals of appeasing the mountain's devil-god (this typically involves sacrificing cigarettes and sprinkling hard liquor and/or sometimes the blood of an on-the-spot slaughtered goat or other animal). Oh, and there's child labour to behold too.
 
At the local market, dynamite is freely on sale – but don't even think about taking any home as a souvenir (at best you'll make yourself extremely unpopular with your airline).
 
To alleviate the element of voyeurism inherent in such tours you can leave a generous donation – as the poor miners need these donations to help make ends meet. The mountain is nearly depleted, so it's unclear how long they can carry on at all …
 
Visiting the Potosi mines is certainly one of the most extreme tourist offerings in Bolivia – and I can't help but having very mixed feelings about it. You have to decide for yourself, I suppose … (cf. ethical questions)
 
So far, then, only the following two separate chapters are provided for Bolivia here:
 
 
- Uyuni  
 
  
 
  • Bolivia 01Bolivia 01
  • Bolivia 02 - in the vast empty AltiplanoBolivia 02 - in the vast empty Altiplano
  • Bolivia 03 - broad Altiplano vistasBolivia 03 - broad Altiplano vistas
  • Bolivia 04 - Laguna VerdeBolivia 04 - Laguna Verde
  • Bolivia 05 - early Bolivian winter rainBolivia 05 - early Bolivian winter rain
  • Bolivia 06 - Laguna ColoradoBolivia 06 - Laguna Colorado
  • Bolivia 07 - with lots of flamingosBolivia 07 - with lots of flamingos
  • Bolivia 08 - vicunas are a common sightBolivia 08 - vicunas are a common sight
  • Bolivia 09 - llamasBolivia 09 - llamas
  • Bolivia 10 - geothermal fieldBolivia 10 - geothermal field
  • Bolivia 11 - bursting bubbleBolivia 11 - bursting bubble
  • Bolivia 12 - Salvador Dali RocksBolivia 12 - Salvador Dali Rocks
  • Bolivia 13 - more surreal rocksBolivia 13 - more surreal rocks
  • Bolivia 14 - not much traffic in the AltiplanoBolivia 14 - not much traffic in the Altiplano
  • Bolivia 15 - remote villages in the AndesBolivia 15 - remote villages in the Andes
  • Bolivia 16 - potatoes - the gold of the AndesBolivia 16 - potatoes - the gold of the Andes
  • Bolivia 17 - making Evo Morales proudBolivia 17 - making Evo Morales proud
  • Bolivia 18 - another abandoned train at the Ollague border with ChileBolivia 18 - another abandoned train at the Ollague border with Chile

  

  

  

  

© dark-tourism.com, Peter Hohenhaus 2009-2023

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