Hi ho, Hi ho, Its down the mine we go!

  Potosi, Bolivia
Friday, June 19, 2009

So, we went to the bus station in La Paz and bought tickets to Potosi - the world´s highest city at 4100 meters, for 40 bolivianos each, which we thought was a bargain because everywhere else was askin for 80 bolivianos. However, we are not stupid and we know that you get what you pay for, which would inevitably mean no heating on the bus again. And we were right, it was blooooooooooooooooody freeeeeeeeeeezing!! even though we had put about 4 layers of clothes on we were still shivering to death, and when the bus driver stopped the bus for half an hour with the door open at 2.30am we were not happy!! But, we arrived in one piece with all of our belongings so we got an 11 hour journey for 4 quid, and couldnt complain!

After finding a hostel and having a quick nap (a good 4 hours, you know us!) we went to try and find a mine tour. Potosi used to be one of the wealthiest countries in the world and even more so than madrid at one point, due to the Cerro Rico or Rich Mountain that was discovered to contain silver and other precious materials.

Cerro Rico or Rich Mountain

But like most mines, the contents started to run out and the town soon became a ghost town as most of the miners and their families left town. The mine is still open today and thousands of local people, including some children, still work down there for up to 10 hours a day.

We knew that it was possible to go down the mines with local tour guides, usually ex-miners, but to begin with we were not keen on the idea. Firstly because of the dust, the claustrophobia and other dangers we had heard about, and secondly because we didnt want to be horrible tourists gauping at the poor old miners and the standard of life they have to endure everyday. But, we changed our minds! We heard that it was a real experience to see the working mine and we also found out that 10% of the tour price went towards improving conditions for the miners - although not sure how far that will help!

So first things first we had to get changed to our fetching mine safety gear, which i think we looked  fabulous in!

oh no its just corinne and luke!

And then it was off to the miners market to buy gifts for the miners - (some pčople might say bribes!) mainly dynamite to help them blow up the mountain, and fizzy drinks to quench their thirst down there. Our guide wanted us to buy coca leaves - he thought we were made of money, but we didnt and he made a bloody big deal of it then for the rest of the day saying to every miner we saw "sorry mate, not coca today, they didnt buy any, maybe tomorrow" - talk about laying the guilt trip!

So anyway, we then went to see how the process the silver and minerals from rocks in to the materials that are exported.

showing how they get the silver

Then it was time to go down the mine. When you first go in, you think "bloody hell this is small" but when you come back out again, the same space feels really spacious because of the tiny holes you have just crawled down inside!!

We spent about an hour and a half inside the mine, exploring the four levels that exist, sometimes able to stand and sometimes having to crawl through small holes.

crawling through the tunnels

The air was thick with dust and when we cam out I couldnt speak as it seems my voice box was clogged up! At the bottom level it was really stuffy, about 30 degrees and we were sweatting. We met several miners, pushing the trucks along full of rocks, digging holes in to the rock and filling baskets with heavy rocks etc. They told us that they are self employed so they work in the mine as long as they need to get the money they need to survive. Sometimes this can be for 10 hours a day and maybe for 6 days a week. The youngest guy we met was 15 years old, this isnt really allowed, but it is not monitored by anyone so it happens. There are younger boys working there too we were told. It certainly was eye opening and made us think twice about moaning about our cushy office jobs!

We handed over our gifts to the miners and they seemed grateful, even if we were horrible gawping gringos! And then after crawling back up to the top, we were finally out in the open air.  It was here that we got to blow up the spare stick of dynamite that our group had bought!

luke holding the lit dynamite!

I was expecting a small blast but when it actually went off, I jumped cos it was a massive blast!!  There were some serious power behind it thats for sure! I missed the actually blast cos i was too busy jumping! but i got a photo of the remains of some smoke! haha!

smoke from the blast!

Then it was back to the hostal for a much needed shower!