Potosi Mine Tour

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Today was such a treat for all of us on the truck, not only did we stay in a hotel...granted it wasn´t the best but it was a bed nonetheless but mainly because we could sleep in until 8am...yes on tour that is considered a lay in and we all made the most of it!
After breafkast Sol and Johnny came to our hotel to pick us up for our morning excursiom which was a visit to an actual mine just on the out skirts of Potosi. The first thing we did was get changed into our overalls which where less than appealing to wear or on the eye but when you are mining I guess clothes isn´t the issue...and also it was really mucky so overalls are good! (See photo´s of how good we look)
When we arrived to the mine Sol gave us a talk about the mine and told us the important stats which was good, Johnny them demonstrated how the dinamite was put together with detonator etc and set some off for us, the bang was enormous and echoed around us.
You can actually buy dinamite in shops as you would buy a bottole of beer...we also got to hold the dinamite when was lite.....exciting stuff!!!
In case you are interested the mines are government owned however the government consent certain companies to mine in them. When mining the miners are looking for the following substances...Silver, Zinc, tin and lead. Approx 5 yrs ago there where 20,000 people working in the mines but today due to the price of the above named substance declining there are now approx only 5,000 people working in the mines. The youngest worker we saw was 14yrs old and the oldest worker was 63yrs old. The average working life for the miners is 30 yrs and according to our guide the workers lose approx 10 yrs off there life expectacy because of the conditions down there.
The tour inside the mines lasted approx 2 hrs and for tall people like me it was tough on your back as the tunnels where very low...if however you are below average height (Stefano) then you where just fine and all you had to worry about was the mud on your shoes!!!
Anyway this morning was fantastic to visit and can´t beleive people still work in these conditions!

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