Yesterday I visited Potosi, a mining city about 3 hours outside Sucre with the Danish girls. It's also the highest city in the world at 4070m above sea level which is quite cool. We went on Saturday and had a tour of the mines in the evnening which was incredible. We had to climb, crawl and on occasions walk through hundreds of metres of tunnell , in boiler suits and helmets with just torches providing light. It was utterly incredible and we met a number of miners coming up from a day's work and gave them gifts (cigaretts, whisky, dynamite and coca leaves) and had a chat with them which was fascinating. They start working aged 12/14 and often work up to 15 hour days in crampted, often swelteringly hot conditions. They can only retire with a secure pension when silicosis has taken 50% of their lung capacity, and even then they continue on only 35 pounds a month to live on. So these guys are pretty hardcore, but what's interesting is that they are fiercely proud of the hardship of their work, which I suppose is good in many ways. Our tour guide was an ex-miner and was great fun, so we took him out for Llama steaks in the evening (which are delicious) and had some really interesting conversations which was great. At the end of our tour he even showed us a dynamite explosion, which was wicked, and like being hit in the chest by an invisible sledgehammer! We then had a great evening in the local cafe's and bars before returning to our 'ex-monastery' accomodation which was a perfect, cheap little spot in the centre of the city. We wandered around the City on Sunday and played some cards etc. which was great fun, then returned to Sucre for the Afternoon. All in all a fascinating and great fun trip which I may well repeat when I have time.
