Day 25: Potosí

Leaving early from Sucre to head to Potosí that morning I had just enough time to pick up snacks in the market before departing - there'd be no time for lunch on arrival as we'd be heading straight for the mining tour.

We arrived into Potosí about 2pm. This is a small mining town of 200,000 people and is short of air, not just because of the altitude(4,060m above sea level) but also because of the pollution. Buses and cars fill the town full of exhaust fumes.

Although we were going to have all of the next day in Potosí as well, we had arrived on the eve of the Andean New Year, and thought everything would be closed the next day, so we went pretty much straight off the bus to the mining tour.

In Potosí they mine for silver and other raw materials. We were met by our chirpy mining guide Pedro, an ex miner and now full time tour guide, who also happens to be hilarious.

A short bus ride up through the town and we stopped at the miners market to buy gifts for the miners: coca leaves, fizzy drinks and explosives. We bought actual dynamite! Who says romance is dead...

Next we were filed into a dark room were we were given really fetching outfits: over clothes, hats with lamps and rubber boots.

From there we were taken to a refinery, were zinc and silver were separated from the raw mined material. Health and safety clearly not a consideration, we climbed over, ducked under and squeezed through moving parts of machinery that spun around and spat out water, sludge and minerals.

Back on the bus, now chewing on coca leaves, we climbed the rocky, dirt roads to the mines. Passing through this dry landscape devoid of greenery, it became apparent that the life of a miner wasn't an easy one. Off the bus, Pedro led us into a tunnel. Bent over and virtually crawling, the space lit only by our head torches it felt horribly claustrophobic - I nearly had to turn back. But we kept going and thankfully, a short while later there was standing room.

This is an active mine, so we came across working miners and at one point we had to pause to wait to allow them carry out explosions. The distant boom was unnerving.

As part of their traditions the miners had a statue of "el tío", who the miners make offerings too, like with Pachamama, except this is most definitively a male object... not least denoted by what Pedro described as "this big situation" between his legs - a symbol of machismo and fertility.

Wrecked and dirty after the tour I could only muster the energy to shower and go for dinner. We all met in the lobby and Vale arrived draped in hundreds of beaded necklaces. She started passing handfuls around to each of us - it was the Andean New Year, and we needed to look the part!

We went for dinner in El Fogón - they had gluten free pasta made of quinoa, VERY exciting! Poor Vale though, so excited for a New Years Eve party, but no one was fit for anything after dinner! So a few of us went for a drink. You wouldn't know there was anything going on though to be fair... it was dead! And there I thought South Americans knew how to party.

Accommodation: Hotel Libertador
Weather: Cool all day and evening. Wrapping up necessary.