Potty

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Firstly, i would like to say, travelling is not always fun. Even when you have the magical company of Mr. Webb.


Yesterday we finally completed the monstrous journey to Buenos Aires. We suffered 50 hours in the worst squashed seats at the back, with Rich sitting next to a baby, we endured flat tyres, running out of petrol, a 6 hour wait for a new gearbox, and endless bag searches. And all this a day after a previous 30 hour bus trip. nightmare. In fact in the last 8 nights we have spent 3 sleeping in a cold tent, 4 nights on a bus a one, yes ONE in a bed.


But here we are in Buenos Aires, safe and sound and so nearly nearly back in the holy land of cider and caramel slices, but I digress....


Anyhows, before said journey, we stopped overnight in a town called Potosi. In its 17th century heyday it was one of the biggest cities in the world. The Spanish, god bless em, discovered the little town in 1544 and learned it had a huuuuuuuuuuge abundance of silver. In true Conquistador stylee, they then spent the next 300 years extracting more than 62,000 metric tonnes of silver. Mind you, us Brits arent innocent, after the Spanish paid off debts with the silver, we used a load of it to pay China for our new found tea addcition!


As with so many things Colonial, the new found wealth so loved by the Spanish, had a horrible horrible cost. The African and native Indian slaves ordered into the mines are said to have survived, on average, six months. Six months! And having being down there for a mere 2 hours myself, I can tell you they would have been a thoroughly miserable 6 months. In all, they reckon that around 8 million people died from mining accidents, lung diseases caused by the mineral dust, and contamination by the mercury used in processing the silver.


The thing is, we went down the mines a few days ago, and I really cant see how things have improved. I´m no mine expert but conditions looked pretty dangerous and Victorian to me. Loads of the supporting shafts were almost broken through, nobody wears masks cos of the temperatures soaring to 40 degrees and the cost of them. In fact, there is so little money to be made that they dont even have engines to move the trucks any more. Ton after ton of rocks are pushed in trucks by hand. Its the zinc they are after now, but lack of investment in local smeleting and stuff means even the zinc sheets used to roof the basic housing around the mountain are imported from Europe. Just crazy.


They work now in co-operatives to get what little minerals are left. Even an estimated 1,000 children between eight and twelve years-old are trudging away in there, leaving life expectancy at a miserable 40 years before their lungs give way to silicosis. To get any help at all from the government you have to have 80 or 90% silicosis of the lungs, which basically means you have a month or so left to cough through.


For us, it was a really weird visit. It was definitely one of my most memorable. The, hot, dusty primitve conditions were frankly appaling. Even after two hours in the mines wearing a dust mask I was coughing and spluttering all day, its impossible to imagine how it must be when that is the only future open to you. The only two good things to come from this visit were, 1. getting to use dynamite, and 2. handing gifts to the miners before getting the hell out of there. Yes, leaving the mine behind was definitley a luxury we had, not open to the miners.


photos to come later

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