The Mines of Potosi

Trip Start Sep 04, 2007
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of Bolivia  ,
Thursday, October 11, 2007

Potosi is quite a nice little town, dominated by Cerro Rico, 'the rich mountain', which has been mined since 1546 when silver was first discovered. It is still beeing mined today, and the tour of the mines was very interesting, though I was glad to see daylight again.

We had to crawl through several narrow tunnels, at high altitude (4200m) and with very dusty air. General Life expectancy for these miners is 40 years, due to the harsh conditions and bad air in the mines. I was glad I only spent 2 hrs in there!

And after the tour,we blew up some dynamite, just for fun!
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