Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Potosi is the highest town of its size in the world at 4,000 metres above sea level and God did we ever know about it! The headaches from the altitude and general laziness started almost immediately once we arrived and then there was the cold and the rain to contend with too.
The town was built by the Spanish when they discovered silver in ´them there hills´ and it remains a mining town to this day however the silver dried up years ago and now its more a combination of zinc, tin and silver that they mine. It´s still a very active mine apparently with 15,000 miners working in the Cerro Rico (which literally means Rich Hill in Spanish). We overcame our fear of cave ins and took a trip into the mine to see first hand the conditions the miners work in and experience an active mine. Wow! It was amazing, definitely built for people smaller than Gareth and we spent a few hours crawling, climbing, sliding and generally stooped and stumbling through three of the nine levels in the mine. We even helped with shovelling still warm mineral rock and unloading 200 kg rubber backets of rock - the weight of the rocks is amazing and we didn´t offer to help with the pushing and pulling of 2 tonnes carts along the narrow passageways. Life expectancy for miners is about 45 years old due to the fumes they breathe and the dangers of working in the mine. Most get silicosis or black lung within a few years of working there. However some break the trend and we did see a 60 year old miner working outside but he only has one lung left that actually works! There´s a real tradition of working in the mines in the area and whole families of men work down there, grandfathers, fathers and sons with many starting from as young as ten.
There´s a lot of traditions and superstitions that go with the mine as well. No women are allowed into the mine as its deemed bad luck and also the miners pray to ´El Tio´ (the devil!) as he rules everything below ground but they believe in God when they´re above ground.
As you´ll see from some of the photos Gareth is a giant compared to the locals here who are mostly Quechua and descended from the Incas. Of course this meant that all of the tunnels in the mine were designed for people half Gareth´s size and even I was towering over a lot of the men! I never thought I´d see the day! Our guide liked to refer to Gareth as ´monkey boy´ in an affectionate kind of way :) due to his abundance of hair on his arms, chest and elsewhere (he was guessing!) as the Quechuas don´t have much or any body hair at all. As they´re Quechua Spanish is a second language for a lot of them with quechua being their mother tongue.
Gareth even got to play with dynamite for the first time and we both got to hold a ticking bomb!
Potosi itself was a very rich town during colonial years due to the money the mine provided and some of the architecture is gorgeous. We also experienced our first taste of Bolivia´s love for strikes and protests in general while we were there with a nationwide three day transport strike announced. This caused an exodus from the hostel we were staying at but I think we´ve both become too laid back and we just stayed where we were and sure enough it was called off at the last minute!
- comments