Scary silver mines in the highest city in the world

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Here we are in Potosi, once the richest city in the whole world and still the highest. Fortunes were made from the silver found in the Cerro Rico (hill overlooking the city). Now the silver deposits have all but run dry but the ancient mines are still up and running with much the same working practices and conditions and so some bright spark decided to tout it as a tourist attraction.

So we find ourselves 4070m above sea level in a town that no longer is crawling with wealthy people, literally gasping for air just walking down the street. My rubbish sea level haemoglobin just isn´t up to the task. Emma takes a bit of convincing that crawling into a working mine is a good day out but gamely plays along. The day starts by signing the sort of disclaimer you really shouldn´t read, outlining many ways that you may die in the mines and that it isn´t their fault if you do. First stop is at the miners markets where it is the done thing to buy the hardy miners things to brighten their day. Such gifts include fizzy pop, almost neat ethanol, coca leaves and dynamite. We skip the ethanol as it isn´t friday and they only get hammered while playing with explosives on fridays. We experiment with the Coca leaves which taste foul but really help with the altitude headaches. The miners literally exist on them.

Our guide is Pedro, a lovely guy and ex miner. We boldly follow him into a working shaft and the chlostraphobia starts to take hold. Some 30 minutes later and we´re crawling on our bellies going deeper into the mine while miners with hand truck loads of zinc ore whistle by. At this point things start to get a little shaky but we held it together and managed to stay down a further 2 hours. Slightly disconcerting hearing distant thuds of dynamite explosions while we´re in there. Finally emerge from the choking dust and thank my lucky stars I wasn´t born here! Finished the tour with a quick bomb making course and got to detonate our own creations- all good clean fun.

The average miner dies at the age of 45 of silicosis or other nasty disease, they get payed a pittance and the work is just undescribably awful. The mountain has been riddled with working mines since the 1500´s and by now must resemble a Swiss cheese. It can only be a matter of time before the whole thing crumbles, I´m just glad it wasn´t today. Next time I have a bad day at the office this whole experience will serve as a very potent reminder of how bad it could be. I was so proud of Emma as she didn´t back out of anything. It wasn´t for the feint hearted and many people don´t get very far in at all. That said she looked as if she wanted me dead for most of the trip. I don´t think either of us are in any great hurry to repeat the experience but it certainly was an experience! Next stop, salt flats in Uyuni.

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