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Hi Again Folks!
The Devil's Miner
So after our crazy 3 days in Uyuni, we headed to Potosi- 7 hours on a bumpy bus to the highest city in the world at 4060 metres above sea level! Just in case you need a little too much information I am dealing pretty well with the altitude but Ryan's been sick occasionally and had heaps of nosebleeds! The body reacts strangely to being this high! The story of Potosi is that in the 1550s a huge amount of silver was found in the Cerro Rico mountain next to the town. In fact, the myth went that if you had have taken all the silver from Cerro Rico at that time you could have built a bridge from Potosi to Madrid! In the next years Potosi became the most affluent city in all of Latin America. Unfortunately that silver was mined by a combination of Indigenous Bolivian people and slaves from Africa, millions of whom died due to terrible working conditions. But the silver can only last so long and today there are very few mineable veins of minerals left. The legacy of this silver rush however is a town centre filled with opulent colonial buildings. On our first full day in town we took a walk around and got to see some of these including the huge cathedral and former national mint. There is also some beautiful plazas in Potosi and just the setting itself is wonderful- all the narrow roads and houses seem to crawl up the sides of a huge valley. At lunch time we enjoyed a delicious Bolivian snack of Saltenas- meat, potatoes, olives, egg etc all wrapped in sweetish baked pastry. Yum!! We returned our hostel for some down time which was the most beautiful yellow building with a lovely inner courtyard but the most terrible staff! So unfriendly! Don't stay in La Casona if you ever go to Potosi! Anyways the next day we had scheduled the big tourist attraction of coming to Potosi- a tour of the mines! We were picked up by a mini van and our awesome guides from Green-Go Tours at 10.00 am and were on our way! First stop was to get suited up- we were given protective jackets and pants, gumboots and helmets with head lamps- sexy! Then we headed to the miners market, where our guide explained to us how they use different types of dynamite to make holes in the rock (Argentinian made is best- has more bang!) and then given the opportunity to buy some- both as gifts for the miners and if we wanted to see an explosion, some for ourselves! We also bought some soft drink as gifts for the guys in the mines. Then off to purchase some coca leaves. Yes these are the leaves that are used as the base of cocaine but they are more commonly used in the high altiplano of Bolivia and Peru to offset the effects of altitude sickness and working in the mines with little oxygen for many hours. Its effects are attained by chewing many (even hundreds) of leaves into a ball with a little alkaline or bi carb soda. Of course this only produces small effects like supression of headaches and hunger and a numb mouth! So we bought some for ourselves and some as gifts as well as trying a tiny, tiny drop of the 96 percent alcohol the miners favour. Yuck! After this we returned to the van and began ascending towards the Cerro Rico. We stopped briefly to take a peek at one of the refineries where miners bring their minerals for processing. There we learnt that as well as silver, veins of zinc are also mined in the Cerro. We also discussed the fact that so many of these minerals are no longer found anywhere else except Bolivia which hopefully will give this third world country quite a global advantage if handled correctly! Soon we arrived at the mines themselves. These mines are now "co operative" so many of the miners pay for the upkeep of the mines and then split the subsequent earnings. Others still work solo, paying no fees and only earning from their own minerals. We entered the mines a little apprehensively and walked mostly hunched over for about 10 minutes. Then we reached a cut in where we met our first miners. They were mining for zinc, one guy had been working the mines for 10 years the other 30. Both were happy to chat and glad for the gifts. Soon we moved on to the section where we would be descending. Yes via a series of somewhat rickety ladders and a bridge over a vertical shaft which made Ryan a bit nervous we descended 30 metres into the heart of the mines. There we set up camp for a while listening to one of the older miners and giving thanks to the pachamama (mother nature) with alcohol. Splash on the ground for pachamama, splash on the ground for God and one splash for you. It was pretty hot and stifling down there but not unbearable. After about half an hour, in which we all had about three rounds of the disgusting (yet watered down) aforementioned alcohol, we left some more gifts with miners, and made our way back up to the first level. Once back up in the cooler air of the first level, we set off down a large branch, where we met with the last group of miners. Here, we did more of the same as before but with one very notable exception - we got to explode some of the dynamite we bought! Even more crazy was that we got to pose for some pics holding the dynamite while the fuse was lit (it was a very long fuse!) Despite the excitement of going out with a very literal bang, we left the mines a little depressed after learning some pretty grizzly statistics. The life expectancy for miners is 55 years old, with many falling ill with 'the black lung' at a very early age (work can start as early as 14 years old). There is a free service for miners to have their lungs checked, however the ones we spoke to said they would rather not know that they were ill, and did not want to endanger their income. If more than 50% of their lungs are affected, miners receive a pension; however our guide claimed that due to the omnipresence of corruption in Bolivia, doctors often lie about test results, denying potentially sick workers any welfare. The 'lucky ones' that do receive benefits often continue to work in the mines anyway as the pension is not enough to survive on (a little over 300 Bolvianos a month or 40 to 50 US dollars), literally working themselves to death. On a positive note though, we have decided that we will never complain about our jobs ever again! (If anyone is interested in finding out more about Potosi's mines, there is an award winning 2005 movie called 'The Devil's Miner' which apparently gives a very good account of life in the mines.)
White and Wealthy
Later that day we jumped on another bus and headed to a town 4 hours north called Sucre - also known as La Ciudad Blanca or The White City. One of the most beautiful cities we have encountered yet, Sucre has hundreds of white buildings with red terracotta roof tiles as far as the eye can see, giving it a very colonial feel. One thing very notable about Sucre is the very obvious signs of wealth there, especially in contrast with the rest of Bolivia. Lots of very nice houses, parks and restaurants abound - also noticeable here is that the population is a great deal whiter than in the south. Here we mostly spent time relaxing, walking around a lot, going to the FABULOUS food market (one of the best yet!) and even partying! We randomly met up one night with our French friends Clementine and Bastien from our Salt Plains tour, and proceeded to party together at a random night club near our hostel. It turned out to be a very good night to go out, as it was San Juan's day (for John the Baptist) and also the birthday of the street our hostel was in. This involved lots of music, generally revelry and a hell of a lot of fire crackers - all day and night! However after a few very fun days in Sucre, we decided it was again time to move on, and after three very nice days in Sucre we boarded a long night bus to Bolivia's capital and the highest in the world - La Paz!
Til next time
Hayley and Ryan
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