While we were heading South in Bolivia, we took the chance to take a quick stopover in the mining town of Potosí. Depending on who you ask, Potosí is the highest city in the world, at just over 4000m altitude. The city exists because it's the site of a massive hill full of silver and other minerals, which has been mined for hundreds of years. We went there solely to go on a tour of these mines.
When we arrived at Potosí we were welcomed by a large demonstration which had closed off most of the streets in the city centre, so we had to walk to our hostel. Apparently there's quite a bit of tension there at the moment between the local workers and an international Canadian mining company. We booked in a tour with our hostel, opting to pay a little more for an English guide (sometimes it's just too difficult to handle Spanish!).
In total we had about 14 people on the tour group, which was way too much for the little bus we had to cram into, but at least we split up into two groups at the mine, so it was manageable there. To start with, we all jammed into the van to get driven off to the miner's market. They took us first to a random house to get us all kitted up in mining gear - with boots, jacket, pants, helmet, and lamp. They also made us leave everything behind and just carry our cameras along in sacks.
From there we went to a small store, which was full of mining equipment, dynamite and other stuff like that. Our guide, Isaac, explained a bit about different types of dynamite and gear before getting us all stocked up with gifts (soft drink and dynamite sticks) for the mining groups we'd meet along the way. Thankfully he handled all this as we would've had no idea about it!
After our shopping, we took a really uncomfortable trip through the Potosí streets and started heading up the silver hill. Our tour was of one of the community run mines, where a bunch of mining teams all work the same mine, but independently. The whole way into the mine shaft we had to avoid the workers who were continually pushing out mine carts full of rocks and minerals, then running back into the mine with the empty carts. The tracks were pretty rough and the carts kept falling off the rails and into the mud, and each time that happened the workers would have to lift the cart (complete with a few tonnes of rock) back onto the track - it looked like really hard work.
Heading deeper into the mine, we descended a bunch of rickety ladders and across slippery beams to the bottom of the shaft. There, the workers were all busy repairing a rope ladder and some machinery. We hung around for a little while until they started everything up again - then they rode a bucket-on-a-winch down another shaft to start drilling and laying dynamite. About this time our guide took us back up through all the ladders to the main level. It was a lot more difficult to climb back up then to get down!
Next stop was a team of workers doing things more manually - raising buckets of minerals on a hand-driven pulley winch. They were really glad to take a break when we arrived. After chatting with them a bit we headed off, to see a few more little sites and a shrine to El Tio on the way.
I was so glad to get out of the mine in the end. While it wasn't as difficult or claustrophobic as I'd been expecting, it was getting really tiring to walk without continually bashing my head. Without my borrowed helmet I'd have cracked open my skull so many times...
Outside, the last thing we did on the tour was to light and explode our one remaining stick of dynamite. Isaac lit up the fuse and we all joked around, passing it amongst ourselves before Isaac finally took it to throw into a hole in the side of the mountain. It made a huge bang, but not much visible except a lot of smoke.
From there, it was back in the crowded bus to the house where we'd started, to get changed and return all the gear. Then, finally, back to our hostel for a much-needed hot shower.
I hope this doesn't sound insensitive, but the mines weren't at all what I'd been expecting. I had in mind that I'd be shocked and scared by the conditions, but after visiting it, I didn't feel like this at all. I actually got the impression that it was more of a boy's club - a place to drink, chew coca, and work with friends without women around. In fact, our guide (who used to be a miner before his father made him stop), kept telling us how much he missed working there. That said, there's obviously no health-and-safety rules or anything in the mines, and we were told the life expectancy for a miner is about 10 years after they start to work down there...
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