Dynamite, nitro glycerene and gringos

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After Uyuni, we drove up to Potosi, supposedly the highest city in the world. Yep, its pretty high. And cold.

Cerro Rico, the silver mountain, dominates the city of Potosi and has been its fortune and curse for 462 years. By some estimates 8 million people (mostly indigenous people and slaves from Africa) have died working in the mines, either from cave ins or through long term inhalation of the poisonous dust filling the tunnels. Even today, a miner can expect to live for only 10-20 years after starting work in the mines.

On the other hand Potosi was, at one time, the largest and most prosperous city in the world. The story goes that it was the useage of the letters P, S, I (for Potosi) superimposed on the locally minted coins that led to the creation of the american dollar sign $. An alternative explanation is that the use of the Pillars of Hercules at Gibraltar on the Potosi minted coins was the precursor to the dollar sign. Regardless of which story is true, Potosi was, for a time, the economic capital of the Americas. Having produced 45,000 tonnes of silver, Potosi is the worlds richest source of silver and some believe that there are so many tunnels under the mountain (it resembles something close to a block of swiss cheese), it will one day come crashing down.

Our first introduction to Potosi, (apart from struggling to breathe), was a terrifying moment in the night when we thought a madman was in our courtyard letting off gun shots. Our natural reaction was to dive of the bed and spend more than a few nervous minutes on the floor. We sheepishly discovered later that it was just a bunch of protesters letting off dynamite - albiet alarmingly close to our hostel. Apparently, the university hasnt been open for about 4 months now. The students are complaining that the teachers take all the funding for books and spend it on themselves. The management is also complaining of nepotism amongst the higher ranks. No one is happy, so everyone is letting off dynamite in the middle of the night. Weve got used to the bangs now and hardly even jump.

Ben seized the opportunity to go and do a tour of the mines and experience the terrible conditions that the miners work under. I am just a little too claustrophobic (and maybe not insane enough?) to even consider it.

He came back dusty, ashen faced and possibly with a few more grey hairs on his head. He described squeezing down and through holes, jumping into gaps to avoid being bowled by speeding carts full of rubble, chimneying up shafts, hitting his head on broken wooden support beams that had snapped under the weight of loose rocks above. He reckoned it was the most crazy situation he had been in since he thought he was going to be roasted alive in a bambo hall back in Fort Cochin, India.

By far, the most scary thing for him was watching a bunch of guys on his tour fiddling around with the dynamite they had just bought for the miners, while at the same time struggling to light a cigarette. Naturally Ben was going to take a photo when burning ash dropped from one guys cigarette onto his stick of dynamite - at that point all thoughts of a good photo opportunity went out the window and he ran away instead. Happily, the rest of the tour proceeded without incident, except for an alarming moment when a llama wandered a bit close to some dynamite with about 20 seconds left on the fuse. I think the tourists were more worried than the llama by the explosion. We have heard of people getting arrested for accidently blowing up the wildlife while playing with explosives.

After Potosi, we went to Sucre, which is still the official capital of Bolivia. However, most of the government functions operate from La Paz, where we are heading next.

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Photos

Streets of Potosi
Cerro Rico in the background

Comments

[John Edwards]

Hi Guys - great to follow your journey. Parts of it seem to be in my footsteps from 20 years ago - including a visit to the mines fo Potosi - its a shame to see that nothing has changed, and the people still ahve to try and eke out a living from that toxic hill of slag. I was very jealous to see your pics of Fitzroy, and especially a successful trip to the top of Villarica! Well done. All the best John E