Round the World with Ann and Katie

The bus from Uyuni to Potosi took most of the day, its not very far but I am yet to see a proper road in Bolivia.  So I arrived in Potosi late in the afternoon and found another really nice hostel to stay in, which for some reason was called the Koala Den even though I can´t imagine many places where koalas are less likely to live than Potosi.  Despite Potosi being even higher than Uyuni, it wasn´t actually anywhere near as cold and the hostel even had heating in the evening, so it was a very comfortable place to stay. 

The next day I went on a tour of the mines.  After getting all the clothes, helmet and torch we went to the market to buy gifts for the miners.  This included drinks, coca leaves and dynamite, so it was a bit strange being able to buy dynamite on the street for just over one pound.  Then we drove up to the mine just outside of the city.  We spent a couple of hours in the mine and that was enough for me, can´t imagine what its like to work there for 10 hours a day.  The first part of the mine was OK, but the deeper we went the narrower and hotter the passages got so at times we were having to lie down and crawl through small gaps.  At over 4000m and with all the dust in the air at times it was difficult to breath.

We stopped and chatted to one miner for a bit who had been working in the dark for 3 hours alone, they turn off their tourches to save money on batteries.  Although it actually seemed to be a relativly well paid job the working conditions are really bad, but there aren¨t many other kinds of jobs in the area.  We were told that about 40 miners die in the tunnels each year and they also have a shorter life expectancy than normal because of lung disease caused by working in the mines.
After visiting the mine we went outside and made a few explosives of our own to see the size of the explosion they made.

In the evening I went with a few people from the hostel to see a Pink Floyd tribute band playing in the citys theatre.  It seemed to be a big event for the locals and the band werfe actually quite good.

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