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Well after seeing one of the most beautiful natural wonders in the world at the salt planes we were now in for one of our worst experiences in the Potosi mines. I thought Bungee jumping was the worst experience I`d ever had but the thought of throwing myself off a tall building with a bit of string tied to my legs is much more appealing than going down that mine again, and we didn`t have to work down it every day.
We started off the trip by getting kitted out in our miners outfits (lovely pics to come) and then we headed off to the miners market. At the market we bought presents for the miners including dynamite, drinks and coca leaves. We also bought a couple of extra sticks of dynamite for us to blow up at the end of our visit. The miners market is also the place where the following day, as part of a annual celerbration, they stuffed llamas into their car boots or the local bus and drove tham up to the entrance of the mines where thay sacrificed them, buried their hearts and ate the rest. Thakfully I didn`t get to watch this part of the Bolivian culture.
Once we had our gifts we headed to the mine entrance which was splated with Llama blood from the previous year. Our guide spoke really good English and was an ex-miner although his brothers still worked there. We waited outside the mine for some of the carts to come out while our guide talked to us. Suddenly there was a rumbble as two young boys no older than 16 came running out of the tunnel pushing a massive cart full of rocks. I felt like we`d just stepped back 200 years. In fact the only difference between this mine and one you might see in a museum in England is that these guys occasionally used car batteries to run the carts!!
It was then our turn to enter the mine and as we gradually got further in the ceiling got lower and lower and the temperature got hotter. We came across many more miners working or pushing carts, sweating and coughing due to the heat and dust. They worked in teams of 7-10 but all seemed very young. It was a co-operative mine so they made money on what they found and it was up to them how long they worked for usually between 8-10 hours. Most of them worked in the hope that one day they would be the lucky team who found a lump of silver, the last groupt o do this was in 1993! Most of them would work for up to 30 years but if they worked longer then they would be dead before they were 50. Even then there are many accidents in the mines and funerals are often held every week.
As we got deeper into the mine everyone in our group found it very difficult to breath due to the dust. It also didn`t help that the moutain was 4800 meters above sea level. Our guide then took us suddenly off to the right where the tunel got smaller and smaller until you were crawling along on your hands and knees, carefully climbing around huge great holes that fell to the level below. We crawled for what seemed like forever and the dust generated made it even more difficult to see and breath. Most of the group were on the verge of loosing it but we knew if we did it would have made it so much worse. Eventually at the end we came out into a larger space but were told that we had to climb back up the same tunel to get out.
We carried on for a bit but I began to feel feint from the heat and lack of oxygen and the thought of having to climb back through the tunnel. We spent about 10 more minutes down there before making our exit. The exit was much quicker than we thought but I think that was due to the fact that most of us were running back out to the fresh air. I have never been so thankful to see the sunlight and to breath cool air. After we had all recovered our guide set off the dynamite we had saved letting us all have a hold of it while the fuse burned down before chucking it in a field as it exploded, love the health and safety regulations.
On the way home we were all very quiet, now only from our experience but also the thought of having to work down there every day. It was a very scary place.
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