April, 2005
April 15-16, 2005
This was a very cool and weird experience. We took a 5 hour bus to Potosi for 1 night so that we could tour the Cerro Rico Mine the next morning. The bus ride was fine, and we slept pretty much most of the way, while still getting enough glimpses of the gorgeous desert and mountain landscsapes between Sucre and Potosi.
We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived in town. Potosi has a lot of charachter. Most of the streets are built on hills, which make for difficult walking at times, especially at approximately 13,500 feet, but it makes those windy, shop crowded streets really fun and interesting. The clothing stores alone are worth an import-export trip.
It turns out that the reason the city is so prosperous is because 70,000 metric tons of silver were hauled out of the mines in a 400 year period between the 16th and 19th centuries. In fact, at one point, Potosi was bigger than London and Paris in terms of population. Unfortunately, today the mines have been generally stripped of all precious material, and the miners have to subsist on the copper and tin ore they can extract. Moreover, almost all of the wealth generated over that 400 year silver boom period was exported, so the area remains very poor, and gererally uneducated.
However, one new source of income is tours of the mines, which of course are still active. For 10$, a former miner (or part time miner) will give you a guided tour into the mine during operational hours. We were pretty sure this would be a quick walk through the roomy and safe areas of the mine, with a few views of the "workers" for the tourists. It was not.
The tour started with us suiting up in full miners gear, complete wth battery back industrial head lamps, rubber suits, and goloshes. Next was a trip to the Miners Market where we purchased Coca leaves, dynamite, explosive charges, and amonium nitrate powder to give as gifts to the miners. We definitely never thought we would get the chance to purchase complete bombs for about 3$. It was also a bit disconcerting putting all of this stuff together in our packs.
After a quick tour of a facility where ore was chemically sorted, we met up with the miners outside of the mine before they started work. Essentially, the hour leading up to work is spent chewing coca leaves. All of these men (only men) would just chew and chew. It was essentially like coffee hour, not coffee break, for us desk jockey types. Ruthie almost got sick upon her first taste (they are definitely very organic tasting) but Mike kind of liked the taste. So, he sat around with the miners for an hour and learned how to properly de stem, chew and suck on coca leaves. Still not sure what the huge attraction is though. Your mouth gets a little numb for about 5 minutes, and you lungs definitely seem to absorb oxygen better, which is good for the altitude. However, there didn't seem to be any large energy boost, or anything. Maybe like a Coke or cup of tea or coffee. At any rate, these guys live on the stuff, and go through a big bag every day.
Then the fun started. We entered into level 1 of the mine and were promptly in a foot of water on ore cart tracks. At this point, our guide gave us the sage advice not to touch the exposed electrical wires providing light inside the mine. Thanks! In was kind of funny working our way through this first series of tunnels, because they are made for people about 5-5 at most. Mike got really good at crouching really fast. Thank God for the hard hats.
After a quick stop at a make shift Mine Museum they have set up, with some very interesting information on the way the mine works, as well as the way the locals have been exploited for 500 years by foreign interests, we descended to level two. At this level the crawl spaces got smaller, and we ran into several miners working their way down into level three, where the miners run the ore carts back and forth to pick up and empty out the product.
Level three was yet smaller, and required a bit of army crawling to get around. That, plus jamming yourself up against the walls to avoid the ore carts which were flying by made the experience feel pretty authentic.
Finally, our guide said he would take us to level 4 is we wanted, which is generally not toured. Of course we said yes, though with some apprehension. After crawling down a rickity makeshift ladder down a 20 foot hole no bigger than out shoulders we arrived in a little hole just big enough for us and the 4 miners who were literally chipping at, and siffting through ore by hand. After watching this process, and being pretty clausterphoboic, we slid through another tiny hole to another room where a 25 year veretan was setting dynamite charges. We gave him the ones we bough which he set about 4 feet into hole in a wall which had taken him 8 hours by hand to "drill" with a piece of rebar and a hammer. Wow! At this point, they lit the 10 minute fuse and said we better get back up to level 3 pretty fast, which obviousy we did. It was pretty cool hearing two quick booms from above, but that cool part wore after the guide then told us that 27 people died last year from cave-ins after charges were set off.
Back on level four, we joined up with the miners with the 2 ton ore cart who were putting everything they had into tipping it over so that they could then load it in a huge basket which was then hauled up to the surface. At this point, the must have been a little understaffed because they handed Mike a shovel and told him to get to work. Turns out he wasn't too bad at it. If nothing else, the miners seemed to be really enjoying the Gringo do an honest days work. Obviously an unforgettable experience, but probably not for everyone.
