Potosi

So after the amazing salt flats we headed to the highest city in the world, Potosi standing at 4070m. Potosi is an old colonial mining town, in its hey day it was an extremely rich town, in fact the name Potosi in Spanish means something very, very rich. Silver was its claim to fame.

It is still an active mining town - although now tin, lead, copper and lead are mined. It is a great town of narrow bustling streets perched on the side of a huge mountain.

I love Bolivia, each place has a real atmosphere and the people are really friendly. Most of all I love the female traditional outfits, the huge flared skirts and bowler hat combinations give off an essence of their culture. What I don't understand is their dislike of monopolies; it seems they thrive on competition. You wander through town and will hit jeans shop street, next road- plumbers tools street, next road - photocopy street. One road, 10 shops trying to sell the same thing- when was the last time you photocopied anything? I need to know, what are they photocopying?? That evening we visited restaurant street and karaoke bar street!

It was the last Friday of the month when we were their so local schools had majorette parades and the locals blessed 'Pachamama' (mother earth).

Although we had heard the horrible shocking stories of mine tours, mostly poor working conditions and child labour, we felt the need to see it for ourselves. Setting off mid afternoon we learned the mountain had been mined since 1545 and now had over 5000 separate entrances. It was a cooperative, each family owned a little bit of Mountain and the mining occupation passed down the family line. 12 was the youngest age legally allowed to work in the mine. Due to poor conditions, poisonous gases and dust, life expectancy is 15yrs from when they start mining. Extremely upsetting if you do the maths. This year, mining’s in a recession - so the families are struggling.

They work sunrise - sunset in the mines, often climbing several hundred metres down into small crevices, chewing cocoa leaves (the natural plant that is used to make cocaine) to stop them needing food and giving them energy to work. No machines, no power, no scaffolding to support the tunnels, this is basic mining. Ropes and pulley, wheelbarrow and man power gets the ore out. Hand made holes for dynamite creates new tunnels. They average 3 deaths a month and one accident a day from tunnels collapsing.

We visited miners street before heading into the mine, to stock up on gifts for them. Dynamite is really expensive at the moment for them to buy due to the recession but they can't work without it. We also bought cocoa leaves and 96% alcohol that they drink all day and use to bless Pachamama. Yes, we did just buy the dynamite off the street and the alcohol takes hairs 'off' your chest. Cocoa leaves are dried, you put a few in your mouth and chew them into a ball, a catalyst is added in the centre and they can last an hour - before you spit them out and start again. Imagine chewing raw green tea with gone-off bitter fish and your getting there. Dunno how it’s meant to make you feel, sick and hungry, looking like a hamster with a cheek pouch is the affect I got!

Hard hat on, torch in situ we head off in the mine. Hard, hard work trying to get to even the first miners, altitude, dust and pure western figures made scuttling down the tiny holes and avoiding the sheer drops difficult. A father and two teenage sons, working hard, greeted us, mining zinc, they were extremely grateful for their gifts. Further down, similar stories of families working hard. The tunnels got wetter and smaller, the climbs harder and the air more difficult to breathe. We were all glad to get out, a harsh insight into the world of Potosi miners.

How did the day end?- dynamite! We blew up a raw chicken and pumpkin outside the mine. Everyone was shocked at the thud in the chest the explosion gave and the enormity of the noise. Most people in the group suddenly became bilingual, offering French expletives, eg, fu@@ing hell!