Potosi and the Mine Tour

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This is my first contribution to our collection of blogs. Amy has finally relinquished control and let me have a go!

We arrived in Potosi after a 6 hour bus journey from Uyuni that only cost 15 BS each. Straight away we noticed the impressive colonial architecture in the city and there are plenty of churches that are well worth a visit. My favourite was the Iglesia San Francisco where you can view the city from the roof of the church. The altitude in Potosi is 4070m above sea level and we did feel it walking up to the centre of the city with all of our belongings. We had decided to find Hostal La Casona as it looked good online and when we arrived it did look really nice. It is a large colonial style building, but the front is painted yellow rather than the traditional white and there is a spacious central courtyard. However after our first night in the room we had changed our minds about the place. The room was very musty and Amy was convinced that it contained asbestos, I´m sure that it didn´t though. We also had a nasty experience when we discovered that another guest in the hostal had managed to get that which is supposed to go into the toilet, all over the toilet instead. It really was not pleasant and not what you want to find in a shared bathroom. Despite these things we were excited because we had booked our mine tour for the following morning!

We booked our tour with an agency called Greengo Tours, which we found amusing and we were picked up from our hostal not too long after 9am. I say not too long because it took our mini-mini bus (about 8 seats) a while to get to us and our guide had to walk us a few blocks in order to meet the bus. It wasn´t surpising that the bus struggled to get any closer because as we walked we saw a street that had been barricaded by large rocks. As we got closer we saw a sign written by the residents of the street that explained that they had blocked the road because the exhaust fumes of the buses and cars were ruining their clothes, food and utensils and damaging their health. It seemed fair enough to me.

The first stop on the tour was to get kitted up in overalls, wellies, hard hats with head torches and battery packs which were carried around our waists. We were also given bags, which we later filled with presents for the miners. We looked like an odd bunch, the six of us dressed in extremely baggy overalls, we looked like characters from a history book! Next our guide took us to the miners´ shops where we were encouraged to buy things for the miners that we would meet later in the day. We bought the four essentials that the miners need every day; sticks of dynamite, fuse wire, detonators and ammonium nitrate. The latter not essential to create an explosion, but necessary to increase the potency of the explosion. Our guide also seemed very keen for us to take photos of ourselves "smoking" the sticks of dynamite. In the second shop we purchased the other things that the miners would say are every day necessities; cigarettes, fruit juice, 96% alcohol and, of course, coca leaves. The coca leaves give the miners energy, they help them to avoid needing the toilet and they stave off hunger. One of the other tourists in our group tried the 96% alcohol and got a bit of a shock I think. In general the miners do mix the alcohol with fruit juice but it is still extremely strong!

After this we piled back into the bus and headed for the entrance to the mines. On the way we stopped to view the city from a mirador and our guide showed us a couple of the mineral processing plants. In Cerro Rico, Potosi they mine lead, zinc, silver, tin, and wolfram and each processing plant is optimised to extract one important mineral. This means that the miners really need to know what they have extracted during their day´s work so that they can sell it to an appropriate processing plant.

Making our way into the mine entrance was daunting to say the least. Apparently Cerro Rico contains 500 separate mines and on our tour we would see 3 of them. This fact is astonishing and it makes you wonder how much longer they can continue to mine at this site. I´ve never done caving or pot-holing before and I thought that in general the mine tunnels would be a reasonable size with rails down the middle for the carts. But after only a few minutes walking we turned off the main tunnel and climbed down a narrow hole that just did not look large enough. At this point our guide checked that everyone was OK and gave us the option of turning back. I think that if someone else had wanted to turn back I may have joined them. However, in hindsight I am glad that I didn´t!

For approximately half an hour we descended, we had to go down 100m to get to the base of the hill. Below this they were mining for about another 20m. This involved crawling through some tight tunnels and the worst part was breathing. The air in the mines is so dusty and Amy and I are both asthmatic so were we very thankful that are guide had given us the opportunity to buy masks beforehand. That said, our guide and the majority of the miners that we saw didn´t use masks and so it´s not surprising that they die so young of "black lung". It´s terrible but in general most miners don´t live beyond about 50 years of age. The blackness in the mines was all-encompassing and we only had our head torches to alleviate it. Every now and again we would see lights in the distance growing larger as miners approached with bags of stones on their backs. The bags can weigh up to 40kg and the miners have to make the tough ascent up to the surface! If we saw a red light or a flashing torch we knew that we had to press ourselves against the side of the tunnel and wait as there would be a cart approaching. Full carts were mostly handled by 3 workers; 2 at the back pushing and 1 pulling at the front. Often they would grind to a stop as the cart derailled due to the poor quality of the rails and the carts themselves. Nevertheless the workers would fly past us, their faces focussed on the path ahead and their mouths black from chewing coca leaves. The full carts generally weigh around 2 tons!

When we got down to the base it was easier to walk without bending over and we were shown the god of the mines, called "Tio". It has been given this name because there is no letter "D" in the Quechua alphabet and so they couldn´t name it Dios, meaning God. Tio is a figure that the miners have fabricated and decorated using anything available to them. Every mine has a Tio and it is always held in the highest of respects by the miners. Offerings of cigarettes and coca leaves are given daily in order to ensure good fortune for the miners. Our guide told us that very occasionally young or inexperienced miners die in the mines and you can never be certain whether it was an accident or whether another miner from the group pushed the unfortunate miner. If someone dies it is like the Tio is feeding and when the Tio is well fed the mine will give back generously to the miners in the form of rich minerals and good fortune. This is apparently more likely to be the case when a miner is new to a group or not really integrated into the group.

It was amazing seeing the winch room. We learned that the huge winch motor had been assembled by miners in 1985 and last year was the first time that the cables had been changed. There was a plaque on the wall with the names of all the workers who helped to assemble it. As an engineer this fascinated me and I couldn´t believe how they had managed to get something so large so far beneath the ground! The room only just seemed large enough for the machinery. The winch controls the lifts to all 12 levels of the mine. When we arrived to the winch room we saw the workers eating a meal and they were happy to chat to us and one was especially keen to have his photo taken with us! Also while down on this level we saw the tug vehicles that the miners use to haul 10 full carts to the surface of the mine. This meant that they were pulling 20 tons at a time to the top! It was powered in a similar way to a city tram but there was only one power cable running along the roof of the tunnel and the operator had to manually move the connecting rod up to the cable in order to get power. Also, this cable was live! Our guide cleverly warned us not to touch the cable for this reason! Sparks so bright that they were dangerous to look at directly would light the tunnel when the operator connected up and pulled away.

Our guide kept ducking into tunnels trying to find us some miners that we could chat to. Eventually he called us down one tunnel with a deep shaft at its end. Down this tunnel our guide had found some miners that he used to work with. When we arrived they were briskly climbing up the shaft springing lithely up the sheer walls. When we asked what was going on one of the miners told us that he had just lit the fuses for two charges and they were due to go off any second! Waiting in the tunnel for the explosions was one of the scariest things that I´ve ever done and when they did come, the shock through my body was immense! Talking to the miners was fascinating though and they showed us some of their more prized rock samples containing pure "plata", silver. These miners told us that they had worked with two 16 year old brothers but that they didn´t know any younger workers!

We spent about 3 and a half hours in the mines altogether and by the end we were quite tired. The climb back up to the surface was particularly tough and it is important to remember that even when in the mines we were still at about 4000m above sea level! This added to walking crouched down for so long made it so tough. I would definitely recommend going with Greengo Tours as our guide was brilliant. He was an ex-miner who had quit after a rock fall broke his wrist. Many other miners have accidents but aren´t as lucky when it comes to finding work outside of the mine. He said that he had to look after us like his own and he was constantly searching the tunnels for signs of danger. This said, even with a group of only 6 tourists (Many tour companies take up to 20 with 1 guide) we would naturally spread out as we made our way through the mines. This meant that if something had happened to one of the people at the back of our group the guide probably would have been powerless. But we always felt safe and I felt very lucky to have the opportunity to experience the mines in Potosi.

It is common knowledge that there are even children as young as 13 or 14 working in the mines and I would encourage anyone who wants to find out more about this to watch a film called "The Devil´s Miner". Our mine tour was such an eye-opening experience for me, one that I will never forget and even as I write this blog the miners are continuing their life threatening job in order to provide for their families.

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Photos

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The view from the roof of Iglesia San Francisco.

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Ready for action!

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Smoking dynamite in the miners´shop.

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Amy in front of one of the mineral processing plants.

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Cerro Rico.

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Tio the god of the mine!

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The cart tug vehicle, ready to pull 20 tons up to the surface.

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"Quick...I´ve just lit the fuses!"

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Our group waiting for the 2 charges to explode.

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"I´m OK but looking forward to getting some fresh air"