Travelogue

After being in Potosi for a couple of days visiting the lovely architecture, I decided to book on a tour to the mines, and where better than Potosi, where the number one attraction is the mine. I have never been to a mine before, so for me this was something really exciting. And after strolling around town I soon found the company that suited me and booked the tour for the afternoon.

When our tour began at 14:00 I was joined by two Bolivian girls, we took a short taxi ride to the “miners market” in town, together with our Spanish speaking guide. There was a selection of gifts that we could have chosen from, this is customary for tour groups to bring for the miners. This included dynamite and Coca Leaves. No worries there, we went for the safest option. Just in case we blew ourselves up before we got there! So we each bought a bag of coca leaves and large bottles of soft drinks for gifts. After buying our gifts and slipping into our finest mining gear of rubber boots, rain suits, helmets and a head-lamp we continued our tour to the Co-Operativa mine. This started with a walk through a tunnel that looked more like going into a black abyss. There were rail tracks below our feet, these were being used for the trolley’s to dump their loads outside, along with mud and puddles, there was also some wooden supports around us, some air compressor lines loosely strung above our head, and the air was thick and humid and there were drops of water/acid coming from everywhere. The actual tunnel was so low and cramped with cables, wooden gates that I had to keep a crouched walk for the entire tour as I kept bagging my head most of the time, not that I am that tall but these mines are built for Bolivians and they are not the tallest of people!

To be perfectly honest I wasn’t sure of what I got myself into, and was thinking Lionel had made the right decision! But at this point it was too late to end the tour, so I decided to put a brave face and carry on with it. Our guide took us up one of the 4 levels so that we could see the miners digging and collection of the minerals. We took a ladder one level up, at this point I was really frightened of getting up, the ladder looked very unstable, it was a wooden ladder which did not have much support on the ground and the next floor was very high up. Our guide just kept saying: “It’s OK, just come up!” So up we went! We then went on a really narrow passage to meet some workers on this level. In this area there were 3 miners who were collecting minerals. They had a very good system going on: one worker was about 60m below breaking and collecting the minerals then placing them in a big leather basket while another one on the top level was managing a very archaic winch and a third one would grab the basket and empty it and send it back down for more. This was such a dynamic team to watch, it was absolutely mind blowing, specially because we were so close to the action, amazing to watch but yet so dangerous. We could have had an accident easily! At one point the tour guide told us to take photos which I was a bit reluctant but I then joined the group. I only realised of the danger after seeing one of the photos where I had my neck almost hanging in one of the cables.

The mountain of Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain) currently has 15,000 miners working in 400 mines, this is a huge operation. This mine is filled with silver, lead, zinc and copper - over 5.5 million metric tons of ore. On that particular day the mine that we visited was pretty empty, which I thought:” Great!” This is after seeing the precarious conditions the miners work under. Some miners are on a pittance daily rate of 50 Bolivianos (4.50 GBP Appx) for a 9 hour shift but the vast majority work for themselves or as part of one of the co-operatives, they have to buy everything that they need themselves (including dynamite); and instead of earning a salary, they make money solely by personally selling the materials that they dig out of the ground. These men and women work down here for 8 hours straight, without any food or water, and without much decent air. Apparently chewing coca leaves alleviates the harsh conditions and gives them strength

It is unbelievable that people are still working under such medieval conditions, the mine was so dark, very cramped, the heavy smell of arsenic was very asphyxiating, very disturbing. I was there for only 1.5 hours but I found it extremely difficult to breath.

Before making our way back we crouch-walked to where the ´Tio´ (Uncle/Devil) was. The ´Tio´ is a very respected guardian or God of the mine. This is where all miners come and pray to get more minerals in the mine and pay their promise. And because of the indigenous beliefs that the mountain is where the Devil lives, so men who remove the minerals from his domain should pay homage. This Devil that they have set up is life size, he has a hand open for coca leaves a hand open for 98% alcohol which the miners drink, he also presents a huge manhood between his legs (this symbolizes fertility). His mouth is slightly open and a burning cigarette is placed in his mouth and if this doesn’t burn it means that the day isn’t going to be very productive. The miners usually gather on Fridays to have a bit of a party and drink with this idol. The legend as it goes is that if they pay homage to the devil he will keep them safe in the mine and also show them new ´veins´ of minerals (zinc, tin, lead and silver).

But there it is, a city which helped maintain the splendour of Europe from the 16th to the 18th century, fueled the European Renaissance and helped fund the “Invincible Armada” but it is now impoverished and struggling to survive.

At the end of the tour I placed some coca leaves that I had saved in my bag and paid homage to the “Tio” for bringing me to the end of the tour safe. So we finally said goodbye to the miners, and made our ascent back up through the levels of the mine, toward the surface and to fresh air.
!Yes, we made it!