Potosi - La Paz
Potosi is one of the highest cities in the world. Height above sea level - 4090m.
On the first day of my stay, I still did not know about its high-altitude essence and therefore was surprised: why do I get tired so quickly and shortness of breath appears?
Once it was the richest and most prosperous city in South America. Silver was mined here in the 16th-17th centuries.
In the vicinity of Potosi, there are still mines with completely inhuman working conditions that have not changed over many hundreds of years. The life of miners does not exceed 40-45 years. You can go on a tour there and personally be horrified by what is happening, but I didn’t want to, because I don’t like small enclosed spaces underground.
The extraction of the richest deposits of silver predetermined the prosperity of Potosi for several centuries, but this could not last forever. With the depletion of the silver mines at the beginning of the 19th century, a period of decline began for the city.
Many beautiful churches and colonial architecture are still preserved here, but Potosi has been battered by time.
Mini-buses run around the city with the exhaust pipe brought up. It's hard to breathe because exhaust gases are constantly flying into your face.
The city is hilly
It seems that almost the entire highland part of Bolivia consists of such grandmothers (I have not seen anything like this in the tropics).
It seems that absolutely all Bolivians, having reached a certain age, braid two braids, wear colorful clothes and put on a bowler hat.
The Potosi railway station has been converted into a bank.
However, there is an active Railway. From Potosi to Sucre three times a week there is a train that few people know about.
This miracle of technology is a bus cabin loaded on narrow gauge rails.
Look what a beauty:
This rail bus is very slow (seven hours on the road versus three by car), but it passes places of amazing beauty, high in the mountains, far from the tourist trails. I have no idea why guidebooks didn’t trumpet about this route - it’s so beautiful and unusual.
At the stops write the height above sea level.
Rural dogs constantly bark at the train.
Along the way, villages meet and locals slow down the train on the tracks, just like a taxi.
Meanwhile, I arrive in the capital of the country - La Paz.
La Paz is the highest located state capital in the world. This circumstance obliges other records: El Alto Airport is the highest international airport in the world, and the Rafael Mendoza Castellón stadium is the highest certified stadium.
Translated from Spanish, "La Paz" means "peace", but it is very difficult to call this city peaceful. Here, for the first time, I received a persistent warning to be careful in the evenings, not to wander unnecessarily through the streets and carefully choose which taxi to get into: cases of kidnapping and robbery of tourists are not rare here.
The city has a very beautiful landscape - the center is located in the crater of a volcano extinct several million years ago, and slums are spread around on the hills. To enjoy the panorama of the city, you should definitely take a ride on the cable car that runs through the whole of La Paz.
The density of slums is very high.
The city has many streets with steep uphills. La Paz resembles Potosi, although it is not as beautiful and much more dangerous.
At the Witches Market, you can buy all sorts of trinkets, dried llamas, as well as sweets and drinks with the addition of coca.
Not far from the city there is the famous Death Road - the most dangerous road in the world. It is very narrow, in poor condition and it often rains. People are still dying on it.
Riding a bike along the road is a special thrill, and therefore thousands of tourists every year make a descent along it.
I last time sat on a bicycle as much as 13 years ago and therefore considered it reckless to get behind the wheel again on the most dangerous road in the world.
Also in La Paz there is another amazing place. The city has the only cocaine bar in the world called Route 36. The bar is constantly changing location, so you need to ask taxi drivers, although the location seems to have not changed for the last two years (apparently they give it to someone who needs it).
On the way to Lima, I met the Swede Andreas, who had been there. He said that when you come to a bar, you need to pay and they will bring you a couple of strips of cocaine on the mirror. Naturally, the entire clientele is gringo, the locals hardly go there.
Andreas was sniffing cocaine for the first time, but his friend, after trying it, said that they serve a very high quality product.
- At first it was a lot of fun and I really liked it, and then it started to go downhill and it got really bad, - said Andreas.
The 33,000th stadium in Braga was built for Euro 2004. Obviously, the idea of the creators is based on the saying that only mountains can be better than mountains. The stadium does not just stand at the foot of the cliff, but joins with it. On the mountain there is a scoreboard, cameras, and a strong beat at the gate can turn into a small rockfall. This beauty cost $ 122 million - one of the most expensive Portuguese stadiums.
Marina Bay (Singapore)
Ball divers are real if you're playing soccer at the Marina Bay stadium in Singapore. The tribune is located on the shore, but the field itself is on a special floating platform. So in a storm it may well be carried away somewhere. But the breakthrough of the fans on the lawn is unlikely - it is surrounded by water on all sides and connected to the land by only a few narrow bridges. The capacity of the stands, by the way, is large - 30 thousand spectators.
Giangito Mulacelli (Brazil)
The stadium in Curitiba is positioned as the first ecological one. The stands are located right on the mountainside, without the use of artificial structures - only the ground and seats. Under-tribune rooms are wooden. Actually, almost all stadiums looked like this 100 years ago.
Sapporo Dome (Japan)
From ecology to hi-tech. The unique stadium in Sapporo was built for the World Cup. It looks futuristic with its streamlined roof and unnatural shape. The arena is equipped with a unique retractable design that allows you to change the football field to a baseball field in just half an hour. By the way, competitions in winter sports are also held here. In general, Dome is a house for all occasions.
Gospik Dolak (Croatia)
If in Braga the stadium rests on the rock on one side, then in Croatia it literally stands in the mountains. The top view of the arena is simply amazing - stones, water, picturesque old buildings. Here and on the field it is not necessary to look - you can just enjoy the scenery.
Kokodrilos Park (Venezuela)
Crocodile and coconuts have nothing to do with the name of the stadium in Venezuela. The arena is notable for its position. Maybe a piece of land in this place was given away for next to nothing? On one side there is a mountain, on the other a valley, on the third an expressway. Maybe car exhausts are compensated by mountain air, but the surroundings of the arena are, frankly, strange.
Estadio Hernando (Bolivia)
Infill development is a scourge not only in Moscow, but also in Bolivia, as it turns out. Not only is this the highest stadium in the world where the local team plays, but it is also so tightly integrated into the urban landscape that residents of an entire microdistrict can watch matches on it.
Victoria Stadium (Gibraltar)
There is not much space in the dwarf state, so there is only one stadium and all matches local championship are played on it. national team official games can not conduct here because of the small capacity. And championship meetings can be interrupted for the duration of takeoff and landing of aircraft - the runway of the local airport is right behind the arena wall. . The central street, the famous rock and the sea are also in the neighborhood.
Hernando Siles (Spanish: Estadio Hernando Siles) - the largest in terms of capacity and national stadium Bolivia, located in La Paz and accommodating over 41 thousand spectators. It is named after the President of Bolivia, Hernando Siles Reyes, who led the country from 1926 to 1930. The stadium is located in the Miraflores area at an altitude of 3601 meters above sea level, being one of the highest located stadiums in the world that host matches professional teams. The stadium hosts two of Bolivia's most popular clubs, Bolivar and Strongest, as well as a number of smaller teams, mostly from the lower divisions. The Hernando Siles hosted the 1997 Copa America Final.
The Hernando Siles stadium was founded in 1927, built in three years, and the first match took place on it in 1931 - Strongest beat the local team Universitario with a score of 4: 1. Largely due to the specific natural and climatic conditions, the Bolivian national team and club teams, playing at Hernando Siles, have won sensational victories more than once over strong rivals from more developed countries in terms of football. In 1963, Hernando Siles became one of the two venues for the South American Championship, along with Felix Capriles. The Bolivian national team alternated home matches in La Paz and Cochabamba, and achieved a decisive victory in the penultimate fifth round over Argentina at Hernando Siles, becoming the champion of the continent for the first time. The stadium underwent significant renovations during the reign of President Hugo Banzer Suarez for the 1977 Bolivarian Games, which were held in La Paz. After this reconstruction, the Bolivian national team played for the first time at Hernando Siles on November 30, 1977 in the return butt intercontinental match for the right to play in the 1978 World Cup against Hungary. The guests won with a score of 3:2 (in Budapest, the Hungarians defeated the opponent with a score of 6:0). In July 1993, in a 1994 World Cup qualifying match at this stadium, Bolivia scored a historic 2-0 victory over Brazil, inflicting the Brazilians' first defeat in qualifying tournaments over the previous 40 years. In 1997, Bolivia again hosted the America's Cup. The hosts played all home matches at Hernando Siles - three games group stage, quarter- and semi-finals, as well as the final game against Brazil. The Brazilians, at that time the reigning world champions, turned out to be stronger, 3:1, and for Bolivia it was the best performance in the South American Championship (America's Cup) since the victorious 1963. The next historic match for Bolivian football took place at Hernando Siles in December 2004, when, for the first time in history, a Bolivian team reached the final of an official international club tournament. The most titled club of the country "Bolivar" in the first final match of the South American Cup 2004 managed to defeat the most powerful Argentine "Boca Juniors" (winner of the Intercontinental Cup 2003, finalist of the Libertadores Cup 2004) with a score of 1:0. However, in the return home game, Boca turned out to be stronger 2:0 ...
Main sensation game day qualifying round for the 2010 World Cup did not take place in full matches and events in Europe, and in the South American Andes. The national team of Bolivia at an altitude of 3600 meters defeated the national team of Argentina - 6:1. "Every goal against us was like a stab in my heart," said the legendary Diego Maradona, who now heads the Argentine national team. But six stab wounds have not yet interrupted coaching career scandalous football star.
The Bolivian national team has not been considered a team of even an average level in South America for a long time. Despite the fact that even the President of the country, Evo Morales, is officially listed in the application of one of the semi-professional football clubs, the national team of Bolivia in the qualifying round of the last World Cup took South American group last place. The only major success of the national team dates back to 1963 - Bolivia won the America's Cup. But even then only because the tournament was held at her home in the highlands.
The home stadium in the de facto capital of the country, La Paz, is the main advantage of football in Bolivia. Here, at an altitude of 3600 meters, all the rivals of the Bolivians, without exception, left points, including the Brazilian national team. It got to the point that FIFA, looking at the local successes of Bolivia, a couple of years ago tried to ban matches at stadiums located higher than 2500 meters. In response, President Morales issued a tough statement in which he advised FIFA officials to at least study geography a little and find a place on the map of his country where you can play football. Having taken Ecuador and Peru as allies, Bolivia, in addition, threatened to withdraw from all international tournaments, including the America's Cup, and FIFA was forced to retreat.
Talk of a ban on playing in the highlands subsided as Bolivia continued to scalp its mountain sick opponents at the 42,000-seat Hernando Siles Arena. In this qualifying round, Paraguay (4:2) and Peru (3:0) have already fallen under the hot hand, and only the Chileans managed to go down with the victory from La Paz. And for them, this victory was the first in Bolivia.
But the rout inflicted on the Argentines on Wednesday will go down in history not only for the hosts of the matches, but also for the guests. The last time the “white-and-blues” lost so big was in 1993 to Colombia (0:5), and before that there were defeats from the long-time and irreconcilable rival Uruguay (the same 0:5) and from the Czechoslovak national team (1:6) in the distant 1958.
The current defeat is a blow not so much to tournament prospects the Argentine national team (it is impossible to imagine that they will be below the line of the first four, falling directly into South Africa, or at worst will not take fifth place, giving the right to play-offs). This is more of a serious attack on Diego Maradona. Appointment of him, who does not have serious work experience, immediately to the post of head coach national team caused a mixed reaction, and a lot of non-football conversations. The latest scandal was associated with the refusal to come to the national team of Juan Roman Riquelme. “I can't work with Maradona. We have completely different views on the game, and I do not share his ideas about ethics, ”said one of the best Argentine players of our time. But while the Argentina national team won, Maradona could feel comfortable. And at the beginning of the year she won regularly, collecting the enthusiasm of the audience.
However, the last victories of the "white-blue" should not deceive - almost all of them were friendly. The Argentine national team under the leadership of Maradona held only two official meetings. In the first, three days ago, Venezuela was defeated (4:0). In the second, the Bolivians brought the Argentines back to earth. Let it happen at an altitude of 3600 meters.
SOUTH AMERICA. Bolivia - Argentina - 6:1, Venezuela - Colombia - 2:0, Brazil - Peru - 3:0, Chile - Uruguay - 0:0, Ecuador - Paraguay - 1:1.
EUROPE. Group 1. Hungary - Malta - 3:0, Denmark - Albania - 3:0. Group 2 Latvia - Luxembourg - 2:0, Greece - Israel - 2:1, Switzerland - Moldova - 2:0. Group 3. Czech Republic - Slovakia - 1:2, Poland - San Marino - 10:0, Northern Ireland- Slovenia - 1:0. Group 5. Estonia - Armenia - 1:0, Turkey - Spain - 1:2, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Belgium - 2:1. Group 6. Kazakhstan - Belarus - 1:5, Andorra - Croatia - 0:2, England - Ukraine - 2:1. Group 7. Austria - Romania - 2:1, France - Lithuania - 1:0. Group 8. Bulgaria - Cyprus - 2:0, Georgia - Montenegro - 0:0, Italy - Ireland - 1:1. Group 9. Holland - Macedonia - 4:0, Scotland - Iceland - 2:1.