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Published: August 5th 2010
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I only spent an afternoon in Potosi, so if you´re looking for reviews of mine tours or the museum, look elsewhere. The museum was closed when I was there, and after talking to a number of people, breathing in toxic substances including asbestos in intense heat at a 4,800 meter altitude for an hour is not worth the greater empathy I might develop for all miners. Clearly, working in a mine of this kind would absolutely suck, and it´s true that this city is home to a forgotten holocaust, but obviously one of the many benefits of being middle class and white is not having to ever enter a place like this. In Bolivia, it seems like much of the tourism is driven by the idea that since we can ride bikes down a deadly road, enter dangerous mines, pet crocodiles, and illegally enter a prison, that we should.
Check out the superb documentary, ¨The Devil´s Miners¨ for a glimpse inside that won´t give you a sore throat for a week: http://www.thedevilsminer.com/index_new.html It plays weekly at the Joy Ride Cafe in Sucre and in some hostels in Potosi.
Regardless, the town is worth visiting even without going to the
mines. The poorest city in Bolivia, Potosi is an extreme version of old US and European towns centered around mining or industry that lost their main source of revenue and yet continued to support a population. In the 1600s, due to the silver mines in Cerro Rico that basically funded the Spanish empire, Potosi was the richest city in the world and bigger than London or Paris. An estimated 8 million indios died in the mines (Cerro Rico is referred to as ¨the mountain that eats men¨). After all the silver was exploited, all that was left is the highest city in the world (at over 4,000 meters) in an inhospitable place where no one would otherwise live. Now locally-run companies try to extract the few minerals that remain. The average life expectancy of these miners is 35-40.
Running out of time in my trip, all I wanted was a glimpse of the mountain and a walk around the town. Unfortunately, a blockade (made by miners angry at the department for trying to change the borders of their voting district and isolate their poverty) made it difficult to travel the three hours from Sucre to Potosi. Three friends and
I heard it is possible to walk through it, so in the morning we found a willing taxi and headed up. When we arrived, we found big rocks blocking the road and hundreds of people walking through the no-man´s land. The driver wouldn't go any closer because the protesters threatened to smash his windows with rocks. We walked about a half a mile and found a colectivo on the other side to take us the remaining 5 kilometers to the city.
The town is vibrant and colorful, but also dirty and destitute. This makes it pretty authentic, but it´s seems like a tough place to be comfortable. One night would do.
It quickly became clear that we could be stuck there for at least a night. While we walked around the city, the blockade grew, as protesters tried to seal off alternate routes (trails, train tracks) that vehicles could take in and out of the city. By the time we returned in the evening, there was broken glass covering the roads and groups of kids throwing rocks at anyone in a vehicle. They threw stones at a guy on a motorcycle and we thought they were coming for
us as well, but they ignored us, except for a few ´gringo´comments and laughter. We had to walk, run, and take taxis for a few miles to reach the new end of the blockade, and then found someone to take us back to Sucre just before dark.
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