To pick up where I left off...
With the animal refuge behind us, Peter, Nick and I blasted off to Potosi, the highest city in the world. Potosi lies at 4200m and the altitude affected us in different ways. First up, at this altitude your nose starts to get very crusty and nose bleeds are common. (Unfortunately, this happened to me several times). Every few steps uphill left me gasping for breath, as if I had just run a school triathlon. My throat dried up and bowl movements were a whole other issue. We discovered to our dismay that it is nearly impossible for Kiwis to digest food properly at this altitude.
Potosi is famous for its silver mine, which has been in action for around 500 years (ever since the Spanish conquistadors first arrived in Bolivia). The safety standards in the mine are medieval, which we discovered on our second day in Potosi.
To our surprise, our bus pulled in at 4am, which was much earlier than we were told. Miraculously we managed to find a taxi at this god-forsaken hour and get to a youth hostel called ´The Koala Den.´ Not surprisingly we found many aussies at this humble abode.
The NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs described Potosi as ´high risk´ on its website, but we found it to be the most amiable and friendly city we have been to in Bolivia. The city is fringed with majestic stone buildings which are a product of the prosperous silver mine. In the evenings, the whole city came alive and the town square was lit of with thousands of Christmas lights and a nativity scene.
Looming above the city is the deathly silver mine. It´s a rusty brown colour and looks rugged and forboding. On our second day in Potosi we organised a mine tour, which was definitely not for the faint hearted.
In the morning we were shuttled to a slum area to change into grungy looking mining gear. We looked like crusty old miners when we donned our miner´s helmet with headlight, plastic pants and poncho top. We were then taken to the ´miners market´ to buy gifts for the miners working in the mine. Our guide told us to buy coca leaves, soft drinks, dynamite, gloves and alcohol. All essential items for Bolivian miners working in Potosi.
After a sacrifice to Pacha Mama (mother earth) to protect us in the mine, we entered to eerie black abyss. As soon as I walked inside the tunnel, my throat felt prickly because of the levels of arsenic and sulphur. None of the miners wear any sort of mask to protect themselves from the poison gases in the mine. It is thought that most miners only live for ten more years after working in the Potosi mine.
I covered my mouth with a bandana, and ducked to avoid the pressurised air tubing and sulphuric rocks inches above me. The light at the end of the tunnel disappeared. Our guide led us down several levels in the mine and after about 45 minutes half our group had called it quits. Tourists who were perky at the start were almost reduced to tears and had to be led back out. We had to crawl down narrow vertical shafts and down wobbly ladders. Some tunnels were so narrow we had to crawl on our stomachs, and still we had to really squeeze our bodies throught he hole. I struggled to breath, but pressed on. Suddenly, we heard the frightening sound of dynamite explosions above our heads. At that point I said a little prayer that I would get out alive!
At one point some hagged looking miners ran up to us shouting ´gloves, gloves!´We quickly handed over some gloves and some coca leaves for good measure. The miners do not eat for 24 hours, as their shifts are 24 hours long. The only thing they can do in the mines is chew coca leaves and get supplies from tourists on tour groups.
At the end of one particularly hairy tunnel, we were given the option of being winched up several levels, where we could walk easily to the exit. Peter and Nick wouldn´t have a bar of it - They chose to crawl up again through the suffocatingly claustrophobic gap. However, I chose to be brave and cautiously attached myself to the rope. A miner worked a winching system several stories above me, and gradually I escaped out of the narrow tunnel. My harness was so dodgy and basic that I slipped out of once and had to cling to the wall of the tunnel.
On our mission out of the mine, we came across several teams of miners who were pushing a 2 TON barrel. One miner pulled the massive cart with a rope, and 2 other miners pushed it through the scary labyrinth. There was no electric rail system or other automatic means of pushing these incredibly hefty mining carts. Pure man power makes this mine work.
As I surfaced back into daylight, I breathed a grateful breath of arsenic-free air. Then it was time for our own dynamite explosion. Our guide lit the dynamite we bought at the market, ran down to a canyon, laid it on a rock, and had 1 minute to run for his life. The explosion reverberated for miles, it sounded like a death knoll or the first explosion of a world war.
Bye for now,
Brittany
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