Potosí

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After a grueling, yet effortless 4 days inside a landcruiser, we landed in the town of uyuni for a few hours to wait for our bus to potosí. Daniel, the swiss i met on the salar trip, and i were headed for potosí together, and had a few goodbye beers with marta and luca (our other salar partners) before we got on our bus.

but it was the wrong bus. we had tickets for ¨trans. 11 de julio,¨ and were on the bus for ¨turismo 11 de julio.¨ a little angry and confused, we got off and sure enough, there was another bus, labeled ¨trans. 11 de julio¨ waiting in the same street. we got on after having our bags strapped to the top of the bus only to see a bag in our seats. after asking around, people saw our tickets and told us that we had ¨the blue tickets, and this trans. 11 de julio uses the pink tickets.¨ what??! yes, there was yet another trans. 11 de julio that operates in uyuni. 3 fucking companies with the same name. and our correct bus had already taken off a minute before. livid, i grabbed our shit off the top of the bus, yelled some expletives at the secretary in the (correct) 11 de julio office and she got us a taxi and por suerte we caught our bus. my blood was boiling and i didn´t sleep a wink on the 8 hour bus.

potosi wasn´t the shithole that everyone had prepared me for. it was a huge mining town back in the day of the spanish when they found the world´s largest silver vein in the mountain behind the city, cerro rico. well, the spanish pretty well raped that and potosí was largely responsible for the fat years of the spanish monarchy. at one time potosí was the largest city in the western hemisphere, larger than london, paris or new york. now it is a dry, dusty mining town at 4000m (the world´s highest city), but it has a distinct character.

the highlight for travellers is the mine. you can take 10 dollar (and even less) tours to the mineral processing factories and go into the mine with miners, where you see them preparing dynamite and lugging out loads of rock. its pretty disgusting in there. you constantly breath in this thick dust of horrible things like arsenic and have to watch out for shit falling on your head and miners flying by on the rails you walk beside. these miners ride big metal carts full of rock that apparently weigh some 2000kg when full. as they blow by you at 20mph or so you get a scare. down lower in the mine there are no rails, but it is hot as hell because the arsenic in the ground and air is much thicker, and when it reacts with the oxygen in the air it creates heat. we sweat as we squeezed through tiny passages down rickety ladders watching the miners at work. it is a bit strange to be a tourist basically gawking at the horrid work conditions of people, but it is quite an educational experience. i personally didn´t feel the work looked as bad as others did, but considering that the lifespan of a miner is around 50, maybe i´m underestimating how shitty the work actually is.

anyway, after we emerged from the dark mine and breathed real air again, we got to light off a stick of dynamite, which was a huge explosion. i felt like such a gringo as i smiled and aimed my digital camera at the explosion.

the casa de monedas (the mint) in potosí is anotehr big tourist attraction in the city, but i felt it was pretty boring, and our guide hated me because i had the gall to ask for a tour in spanish instead of the pidgin english she would rather have subjected me to. her evil eye staring at me the entire tour detracted from the experience. after 1 day we had had enough of potosí and were off to sucre.

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Photos

Never ride Trans. 11 de Julio
There are 3 companies in Uyuni with the same name, all travelling to Potosí on the same schedule. You will want to kill someone.

Dynamite, accelerant, a fuse and some cigs
these were the gifts we bore unto the miners. they didn´t say thank you.

Gunk
The miners sell their rocks they mine to factories that process it and churn out this dirt looking stuff. The dirt stuff is later shipped to richer countries where it is smelted into pure metals, especially tin.

Effeminate stance in front of cerro rico
that big hill behind me used to be 1000m taller and chock full of silver. then the spanish came.

Miner standing in front of his entrance to the mine
there must be hundreds of these doors where miners go into the mine. anybody can just go in there and start mining. even gringos have done it in the past for fun.

Me in the Mine
Boca full of coca.

Shovelling rocks
I am such a gringo.

Dude hammering away
He was clearing out a hole to shove in some dynamite and blow it up. we felt the explosion later when we were 4 levels above inside the mine. Miners take about 2 hours to hammer a hole for dynamite and can hammer about 4 holes, for 4 explosions, in a day. It is hard work and it is hot down there.