After the salt flats and the 3 day jeep journey we moved on to potosi, bolivia. A world unesco heritage site. Potosi is important because it has been a mining town since the 1500s. Spain brought over africans and used indigenous bolivians and forced them into the mine, which has all sorts of minerals, but the most valuable being silver. The city is also the highest city in the world, at 4040 meters, uhh like 18,000 feet. The city itself is pretty grimy, what else would you expect a mining town to be. But once on you get a good high lookout its very beautiful from above.
So since me and martin were pushed for time, we went on the mining tour the first day. This is not a tourist tour persay. The mine is still very primitive. No machines hardly at all, only hammer and chisel. Miners don´t wear masks or you really any safety measure. The mine is quite unique in that noone actually owns it. The miners all in it all for themselves, no regulation, only loose agreements between varying groups of miners. So we paid 10usd and we got overalls, lights, and a guide.
Local legend in the potosi is that god is the master of everything above the earth and the devil everything below. So for good luck they give coca leaves, gifts, and alcohol salutations to the devil for good luck and protection. So before we went into the mine we were advised to buy gifts for the miners, including coca leaves, 96 percent liquour, cigarretes, and soda, ohhh ya and dynamite!!
Me and martin went half in on the whole bit, a super stick of dynamite cost 3 usd! So we bought our dynamite, coca leaves, and boos and then we all started in.
Man this is not for the faint of heart. This is a real old primitve mine. No safety ropes, anything. We went down 3 levels, the mine has 8. Hardly ever could is stand straight up. Sometimes we all had to climb on our bellies, it was an eye-opening exeperience to say the least. This was amaing difficult, and to think that we werent even doing any work, just moving around in the mine. Once we got to the 3rd level it was probably 85 degrees, and the air that you breathe is toxic, everybody knows this but for us it will just be hard to breathe for the next day. A miner has about 15-20 years of working in the mines. And some of the miners we saw in the mine were 12 and 14 years old. So if they were to work in the mines continually they would probably be dead by 35.
We encountered several little miner groups. It was friday so a lot of them were drinking. Ya a pretty unusual friday afternoon hobby while thousands of feet underground in a mine, but whatever. We gave some boos to a guy whose bithday it was and met another old man, probably 55, who was absolutely smashed out of his mind. The miners never eat, only chew coca leaves, which curbs hunger, so when these guys drink they get smashed.
Once we finally exit the mine we get to finally experience the climax, DYNAMITE!! So we all are huddled around and we make one regular stick and one super stick of dynamite.
All of a sudden the guide says Ok time to take pictures and hands you a lit stick of dynamite, first instinct is holy crap, ok get the camera, so everyone is trying to get there cameras out and take pics before the fuse runs out. So we all take our pics and then our guide takes the dynamite and starts running to the open field where he lays them under some rocks and about a minute later the explosion actually hits you. You feel the explosion, and then you hear little rocks fall everywhere around you. Another amazing experience in Bolivia!
