Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
After another gruelling day on the truck that involved several hours of car bingo, (yes we were bored) because it can take that long to see another vehicle... (we had to change it to anything that had an engine!) we arrived in Potosi at our hole of a hotel. The hotel we had been meant to stay in had rung up the crew the day before we arrived and cancelled our booking! Therefore this was the only one left in the whole town. Our lovely room did have beds though, which is about all is had! However it was not until the night time that it really came to life. Postosi is an old Spanish city renowned for it´s mining. 8 million people have died in the mine since the 1500´s with 12,000 working miners today! The life expectancy of a miner is 8-15 years once they start work! The reason I am telling you this now is that a very ill miner was in the room below us suffering from Silicosis which is a very nasty disease. He choked coughed and sounded like he was going to die for the entire night which did not make for a good night´s sleep, and when he went quiet for a few minutes I feared the worst. This brought home the true horror of the mine and what these guys go through far more than the visit the following day when we went on down inside the mountain and our sleepless night paled into insignificance.
6am brought more fun and games as they started to build the next floor of the hotel with what seemed like a sledge hammer and was 6 foot from our door! No buildings here ever seem complete. Oh well all good experience.
We did visit the mine which was very interesting and involved buying presents for the miners before we went down. Presents included Dynamite, coca leaves (which they chew for energy) and cherryade! I am not sure that you would be allowed to walk into a shop and buy some dynamite, a fuse and detonator plus some coca leaves all for under 3 pounds at home! The dynamite was also hanging up in the sunshine which I am not sure is a good idea! We then dressed up in our mining outfits (see the album) to go down the mine. Unlike the Ali G sketch (a bit old I know) they were not all giant squirrals but very happy looking small, incredibly muscular men. I have not been made to feel so tall ever as our guide who was about 4 foot kept on telling me how tall I was as I hit another beam that she strolled underneath! We were suprised to find that all the miners seemed happy in their work, they are paid relatively well and that the conditions, that you could see, were not too bad. However we learnt that it is the hidden gasses are what causes the silicosis and the horrifying disease that so many of them die from. It was an experience that told us a lot about Bolivia and their main income stream.
We are now in La Paz and leave for Lake Titicaca tomorrow, we will update you on that next time.
Anyway I hope that you have enjoyed our update. Until next time- have a good day.
- comments