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Published: April 5th 2008
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the Cathedral
every city has a central square with a Cathedral, this is the one in Potosi Potosi lays claim to being the highest city in the world at an altitude of around 4000m, but in itself is not an overly impressive town, although at one stage in history (when the mining industry was booming) it was larger than both Paris and New York. Which brings me to the reason for going to Potosi, to enter a still active mine. A tour of the mine is not really for the faint hearted as the conditions down there are quite extreme and the life expectancy of a local mine worker is decidedly less than your average local.
The mining industry in Potosi does not have a great track record they have been mining the same mountain Cerro Rico for around 500 years and have lost something like 8 million indigenous indian lives in that period (not to mention various slaves (and tourists?) that have also lost their lives in this mountain). The mine itself doesn´t really have much structural integrity as it´s simply a series of hundreds of shafts and tunnels that have been blasted out in various directions at the whim of whichever miner was in charge at that moment.
Before hitting the actual mine we
me, in my miner´s attire
all ready for a tour of the mines first headed for the miners market where you buy gifts for the miners which are typically dynamite and soft drink and maybe some 94% strength alcohol if you go near the weekend. Our guide was actually quite funny as an active miner himself he really knew his stuff. He explained that the miners appreciate gifts from the gringo tourists and the best gifts are dynamite, soda pop and coca. I´ll have a stick of dynamite, a bag of ammonium nitrate, a three minute fuse and a 2 litre bottle of fanta please. Si, senor, that´ll be 26 bolivianos (About $3.25). Our group also chipped in and bought an extra stick of dynamite and accessories.
Next stop was the processing plants where they separate the metals from the ore, conditions here are not much better than the actual mines, they use all sorts of nasty chemicals to separate out the metals. True to Bolivia they don't actually recirculate any of the nasty refining chemicals but rather pump them straight into the river which results in a wasteland for hundreds if not thousands of km's.
Next stop was the actual mine, we spent two very long hours crawling through tiny
dynamite
would you like a yellow stick of dynamite, or a white one? little tunnels to the 3rd level. On the first level was a sort-of miners museum which was quite strange. The miners have a tradition of giving offerings to the image of a diablo and we sat around and drank some 94% alcohol to show our respect ... smooth.
The air got progressively worse as we went from the 1st to the 2nd level. It was really difficult to get enough air into my lungs to the point where I was very hesitant about carrying on to level 3. Thankfully, the 3rd level had oxygen pumped in so the air was better. At this level we encountered many miners who were sweating it out hauling ore in antiquated rail cars, then dumping the ore and shovelling it into containers to be hauled to the surface.
Getting back into the fresh air was an immense relief. It isn´t something I would do again but I´m still glad I went, however, I think I might have lowered my life expectancy a bit just being down there for two hours. If I ever get to the point where I complain about my job, someone please remind me that I´m not a miner
in Potosi. As a bonus we got to blow up our additional stash of dynamite at the end. Check out the video clip (if I can upload it properly).
After the tour I managed to find a fantastic place for lunch where I got a 4 course meal for about $2. The rest of my day was mostly occupied by a 7 hour bus ride to Uyuni for another adventure.
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