Blogs from Potosi, Potosí Department, Bolivia, South America - page 29

Finally arrived in Peru, after many changed flights, the sun was too good to leave in Brazil! and a few delayed flights. Stayed in Miraflores in Lima, not the greatest place in the world, but had a quick look around. I was surprised by the attention I got, although you expect it being a lone female gringo, every man I walked passed got me hissed or kissed at. Nice. Also every taxi assumes that you need them, so they all beep at you and pull over, but are never around when you need them I left Lima pretty quick as there isn't much there and would be returning after Xmas anyway, so I got the bus down to Hucachina, the tiniest and cute little village in the middle of huge sand dunes. I was surprised ... read more

Next stop Potosi. Still in Bolivia, Potosi is famous for their silver mines. Once the richest city in South America, mining silver for the making of money, but now struggling to find silver and not doing so well..... Here we spent 3 days wondering the small city, visiting museums, markets, football ceremonies and Rich visited the mines. Rich and our friend Andy spent the day in one of the mines. In the morning they went to the market and bought dynamite, coca cola and coca leaves for the miners. Then with an ex-miner and 2 other people they crawled into one of the mines. Rich said in the first 10 mins he wasn't sure if he was going to have to go back out. It was pitch black, extremely small tunnels and very dusty and cramped ... read more

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 ... read more

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 ... read more

Und schon habe ich die naechste Tour unternommen... Am Freitag gegen Abend fuhren wir mit dem Bus wieder nach Potosi. Da waren wir ja bereits letztes Wochenende. Dieses Mal hatten wir aber auch Zeit, uns die Stadt anzuschauen. Frueher war dies mal die maechtigste und groesste Stadt der Welt. Heute sieht man von dem Reichtum allerdings nicht mehr sehr viel. Potosi besitzt eine Silbermiene und damals stroemten Leute von ueberall her nach Potosi auf der Suche nach Silber. Die Spanier nahmen alles an sich und liessen die Indigos hier zu erbaermlichen Bedingungen fuer Sie arbeiten. Viel besser ist es heute zwar noch immer nicht. Die Bergarbeiter haben heute zwar einen Helm und eine Taschenlampe, arbeiten nun fuer sich, aber der Rest ist noch so wie es frueher war. Sicherheit gibt es hier eigentlich nicht. Ausser den ... read more