From the mines we eat and the mines eat us

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La Paz (3rd of June) and Potosi (4th to the 6th of June, 2009)

We arrived in La Paz around 3pm and quickly arranged another nightbus to Potosi - two night buses in a row. We both didn't want to stay in La Paz again but were glad of the opportunity to get some nice food. We went to our favourite Thai restuarant and followed it with ice-cream sundaes from Brosso. We also stopped off at the tourist police to finally report my iPod stolen. By 7pm, we were back on a bus again. After the luxury of the buses in Argentina, it was hard being on a Bolivian bus again!

Once we got to Potosi around 5am, we got a taxi to Koala Den - a lovely warm hostel where we got ourselves an ensuite room with TV for 120 Bolivianas. After a nap and a shower, we explored Potosi.

Potosi has a really interesting history. It's the highest city in the world, at 4,090 m (13,420 feet), and sits below the Cerro Rico. The Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain) was rich with silver ore, making Potosi one of the biggest mining towns in South America and even one of the biggest towns in the world when it was first founded. The mines of Potosi provided most of the silver shipped through the Spanish mainland. According to official records, 45,000 tons of pure silver were mined from Cerro Rico from 1556 to 1783. Indigenous people were forced by the Spanish crown to work 18 or 20 hour days in the mines, even those from as far away as Cusco. They didn't even get a break from food and chewed coca leaves to wade off the hungry. Thousands died, both in the mines and from exhaustion, hungry or mercury poisoning. It is estimated that roughly 8 million Indians died, "eaten" by the Cerro Rico. The miners have a saying - "from the mines we eat and the mines eat us".

By the 1800s, the silver in the mines had depleted and an economic downturn followed. But the workers still work the mines as a co-operative today, even though the silver is mostly gone. Due to poor worker conditions (lack of protective equipment from the constant inhalation of dust), the miners still have a short life expectancy with most of them contracting silicosis and dying around 40 years of age. These mines are a scary and unbelievable place and its the mines that bring most tourists to Potosi.

We booked a tour of the mines for the next day and wandered around the city, stopping for really nice food in a restaurant near the main plazas.

The next morning, after a great breakfast, we set off for the mine tour. After donning our mining gear, complete with overalls, hardhats and mining head lamps, we went to the miners´ market. Our purchases included dynamite, 96 per cent alcohol and coca leaves. Yes, anyone can buy dynamite. Most our purchases were for the miners, but one stick of dynamite was for us!

From the market, we made our way to the processing plant where we gave away some coca leaves and had an interesting tour. Our next stop was the the mines themselves. The mines are so surreal and the tour was frighteningly amazing. I can't believe men work in these conditions. We crawled, climbed and stooped through four levels of mines (three of them underground). It was really difficult to breath and at times it was stiflingly hot. On level four underground, we even crawled on our bellies to where a man was chiseling away at the mountain to make some space for dynamite (which we heard go off later).

To exit the mines (where I even opted for the difficult way at one stage), we had to go back the way we came, stumbling and dragging ourselves along. We even got trapped at one stage, when a cart came off the tracks. They weren't able to clear it fast enough so we all had to climb out over it. It sure was an experience. After we safely left the mines, the guide lit a stick of dynamite and ran with it towards the hills. It exploded with a massive bang and left a huge hole in the ground.

Once back in the town, we went for food in local cafe and then wandered back to our hostel and washed the dirt and smell of minerals off ourselves.

The next day, after convincing the lady to let us have breakfast (we were late), we packed up our things and got a shared taxi to Sucre with two guys from the hostel

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