Underground in Potosí

After Uyuni, we made our way up to the city of Potosí. As well as having the status as being (allegedly) the highest city in the world (4070m above sea level), it was also at one stage the wealthiest and largest city in the Americas. The reason being, that it sits at the base of the Cerro Rico Mountain (“Rich Hill”), which over the years has produced an unbelievable amount of silver. The Spanish first discovered silver here in 1545 and continued to mine it for the next few centuries. It is said that they extracted so much silver that they could have built a silver bridge to Spain and still have some silver left to carry across it. The silver did eventually run out but thankfully the past wealth left a legacy of beautiful architecture throughout the city. Unfortunately a lot of it has now fallen into disrepair since they just don’t have the money to maintain it.

One of the buildings that is preserved is the old mint, which is now a museum with some of the original minting equipment from the 16th century. The building itself is very impressive and takes up a whole city block – the walls are a metre thick. We found it very interesting.

Woman going home from work in Potosí

The mines are actually still active today, only it is mainly Zinc and Lead that is extracted now. Almost all of the mining is carried out by “Mining Cooperatives” - groups of individual miners working for themselves and whatever they can extract they keep and sell for themselves (no tax). We did a half day tour of the mines which was very interesting....

The tour started off with a stop at the local “miners market”. Here, we were encouraged to buy gifts for the miners (since they were letting us into their mines). The gifts included: cigarettes, drinks, coca leaves, 96% alcohol (rocket fuel!) and dynamite! Did you know that you can buy a stick of dynamite (including detonator and fuse) for just €2! Our guide had us prepare ourselves for the mines in the same way that the miners would....by chewing the coca leaves and drinking the 96% alcohol (bear in mind that it was only 10am!) Next we started into the mines.

(Left) A typical miner with a cheek full of Coca, and (right) our guide pretending to smoke some dynamite.

We were only underground for 2½ hours (and didn’t even do any mining) but were absolutely exhausted afterwards the conditions were so tough. We can’t imagine how it must be to work down there....it is a job from Hell. The working conditions have hardly changed much since they started mining there. It would definitely be closed down in a normal country. The ceilings were so low that we were constantly walking in a crouch (and still hitting our heads off the ceiling occasionally). The air was very damp and dusty making it difficult to breath (apparently there was asbestos and arsenic down there.....not encouraging for asthmatics but ok for a few hours if you have healthy lungs). The temperatures ranged from 25 degrees to 45 degrees C depending on how far down you went. Many of the passageways had wooden supports to prevent the ceiling from caving in but they were obviously strained (and in many cases the wooden supports had completely broken....offering no support at all). There are over 90 km of mines in the mountain which is now said to resemble Swiss cheese. Naturally, this doesn’t do much good for the structural integrity of the mountain and there is talk that it may collapse in on itself at any time within the next 5-10 years. As you might expect, the life expectancy of the miners is not good. Miners, exposed to all sorts of noxious chemicals and gases, normally die of silicosis pneumonia within 10 – 15 years of entering the mines. Nowadays the life expectancy is slightly longer because they only work a four day week, although at times, they will work a full 24 hours straight! We spoke to some of the workers and they are extremely proud of their work (it is considered a very good job in Potosí) although they did say that they wouldn’t want their children working down there. The economy in Potosí is so bad that there are apparently some professionals (doctors and lawyers) working down there. Interestingly, the miners were quite superstitious and would regularly pay respects and make offerings to the Devil (since underground was his turf) they call him “Tio” (Uncle in Spanish). There were thousands of statues of the Tio throughout the mine and every Friday they would gather and make offerings to it and then drink themselves unconscious. If ever there was an accident, and somebody died, they said that the Tio had taken him, and would reward those remaining by putting more minerals into the mountain. There were more than 30 people killed in mining accidents in the Cerro Rico last year alone.

So what did we do when we were deep underground in this stressed, almost collapsing mountain? We set off some dynamite – YEAH! It was quite an experience indeed. Our guide assembled all the bits, lit the 2 minute fuse on two sticks of dynamite, gave them to us allowing us to pose for photos, then he planted the dynamite into the rock and hurried off (to give the lighter back to some other miners) leaving us alone - a little excited and afraid. The explosion was quite powerful, with a loud bang, a strong air blast and even the rock around us shook but thankfully nobody died :)

However, we did actually get sick here and ended up spending a few extra days in a hotel recovering. We don’t know if it was the pasta or the mines. Perhaps we didn’t have enough Coca leaves and 96% alcohol! The miners also commented that it was bad luck for Kadi to wear an engagement ring underground as the Tio would get jealous.