Potosi

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Got to Potosi and stayed in a hostel called the Koala Den (nice). Booked the mine tour for the next morning. The South American Handbook said you should buy gifts for the miners like "beverages, coca leaves. or dynamite ." We went to the market and bought some.

The mine tour is an interesting form of tourism in that you are paying to see how awful someone´s life is. Of our group of 15, 5 quit. One girl almost had a panic attack. You go deep down in the mine and it's super claustrophobic. You can't breath very well. You are introduced to a man down on infernal level four who has been on that level every daylight hour of his life for the last 30 years. He is 47. He eats only coca leaves. I imagine his lungs look like matted hobbit feet. There is silica dust everywhere that burns your lungs. The miners don´t wear masks because it makes breathing harder. At several parts you are crawling through parts barely larger than your body. We were down there for three hours. It was awful. Couple people threw up when we got out. No way they would let you do that in America. Would definitely recommend it. Great experience. Be realistic about your claustrophia or asthma; the guides all have the same response once you get underground, "´Keep going, ladies. If you pass out, I´ll give you mouth-to-mouth." After we were up above ground again our guides lit a stick of dynamite with a 5-minute fuse and passed it around while the group took pictures with it. Once again thought about that CorpsCare insurance. Tiff burned her finger on fuse, unsmart thing number 1. Tiff has insurance. The term is "guided tour." Tiff thought we were buying dynamite to help the natives, but instead it was ignited for our amusement.


Stayed in Potosi with our friends for a couple of days having fun. Then they left for La Paz and we headed to Sucre. During brief stint with friends, we had adventurous market day. Bought atol-tasting purple corn liquid plus other, yellow corn ingredient; fried puffy bread like poori; black and green olives by the kilo; and whipped egg white foam with pepsi. Market food is debateably an unsmart thing.

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Photos

Potosi
We have lots of awesome outfits on this vacation