Jessie Goes….

Now that I’ve sobered up let me give you a few useful facts about where I am. Potosi is located in the southern part of Bolivia, still high in the Andes (at 13k feet, still twice as high as Denver). It was founded in 1546, directly after they found silver in them thar hills. By the early 1600s it was the greatest silver producer in the world and had a population that topped many European cities of the time including London and Paris, at 160,000. The mountain from which they dug up this silver “Cerro Rico” Rich Mountain, certainly was, culturally, architecturally, and actually. It was a magnet for all those things riches brings. It was the ‘sweetheart’ of colonialist Spain, whose ‘leaders’ used the Bolivians and the silver to make themselves enormously rich. Once the silver ran out, the city shrank more than 10 fold, but later demand for tin created a renewed interest in the town. The mines are still mined today, though not by colonialist efforts, or government efforts, but through a co-operative. And guess what? Today we are going into the mines!

First thing this morning we went to the miner’s market, where the miners can purchase all the things they might need for a day in the mines. This consists of: cigarettes, colas, alcohol, dynamite, sodium nitrate, charges, fuses, and coca leaves. The miners chew coca leaves non stop, and it allows them to basically work non stop, with no lunch, breaks, or anything else. Coca is the plant which cocaine is derived from, so you probably get the idea here. Anyhow, for our visit to the mines you are supposed to bring the miner’s gifts, I guess for basically getting the heck in their way.

So, the four of us bought our miner supplies and then some for ourselves. I mean, how often can you buy dynamite on the street? We ended up each getting a ‘blow up’ kit, plus some coca/alcohol/cigarettes. We bought an extra blow up kit for ourselves, the rest we would give to the miners. We discovered that they packaged all this stuff up, ie dynamite, sodium nitrate (the multiplier), a charge and the fuse all in these little blue grocery type bags. So basically we all were walking quite gingerly with our little blue baggies in hopes that none of us might actually drop the bags, ignite the charge and blow us all to kingdom come. Our guide to the mines mentioned that this would probably not happen. Probably?!

Next step, we suited up in little blue mine suits so we wouldn’t ruin our clothes, some boots, hardhats, and a lamp helmet setup, so we could see a few feet deep down in the earth.   And then we were set to go, with our bags of explosive and narcotic goodies.

Now to describe going into a working mine that is hundreds of years old… it is in a word, scary.  First it is dark, the air is not good, the rock all around you is swiss cheese like.   You can see ‘cave ins’ all over the place, where some poor sop most likely got clobbered for stepping in the wrong place too many times.   Some of the paths are very high, like caverns, many are simply small tunnels you drop or crawl through.  All is like a complex maze.  

Miners crawl/run and push wheelbarrels back and forth as we are moving around.    Though tourist are allowed in, this is no tourist example.   To further expound on that point our guide noted that a Brazilian tourist had fallen through some ground 2 days before, but fortunately her backpack had caught her from falling clear through to the pit several levels below, to a certain death.  Within the first 50 feet in we were asked to get around 2 holes in our pathway which opened up into the abyss.  Again, slip trip or fall into one of these, and it was the end of the road, I kid you not.  Remember we are doing this in complete darkness, with only the equivalent of a half lit flashlight on top of our heads. 

Our first stop in the mines is right after one of these holes, on the second “level”, where our guide points out veins of silver ore on a slim strip of rock above our heads.  He tapped on the walls and ceilings and pointed out that all the rock around us was basically ‘broken’ and could fall at any time.  The reason the miners had left this vein here was because they absolutely would cause a cave in if they tried to take it!     During this discussion, we heard a huge ‘boom’… somebody was setting off dynamite very nearby.   For some reason, after jumping back into my skin, the fact that the place hadn’t caved in on us actually calmed me down.   I was ready to go deeper.

Our next destination was a visit to the devil.   In the mines, according to the miner’s beliefs, the devil takes over as the primary supernatural force at the point where the last of the sun rays reach.  So, God is out and the Devil, Is IN!  El Tio, as they call him, is neither good, nor bad, but just is, in these mines.   Our group sat around the alter of El Tio, which was a pretty dang ugly statue with a noticably protruding penis.   There were coca leaves, alcohol and beer cans all over.   We made a few offerings to El Tio, so that we may get rich in the mines, stay healthy, get out. etc etc.  During our little ceremony, Mark’s headlamp went dark.  Not a good sign, since our guides had already flamed out.  We were down to 3 out of 5 headlamps, El Tio might not like us very much.  Mark’s face was pretty passive about the whole thing, but no doubt he was freaking out: no light and currently down about 75 feet and more than several hundred feet in.  Another boom went off in the distance rock. 

In the end we made it down to level 5, about 115 feet down, and 350 feet into the mountain.  Lots of hole dodging, crawling, scaling walls with dusty hand holds and in general dangerous activity.    When we finally emerge out of the darkness up a steep rock climb, the light was such a relief.   We had survived the mines.   

At current tally 8 million people have died in the mines.  70% of these are from lung related illness (the average miner lives to 40 years old).  There are children working here, and as a matter of fact most miners start when they are in their teens.

We celebrated the sunshine and our mine walking expedition by making and blowing up our own explosive device!   We simply asked one of the miners where we could set it off, then proceed to assembly the pieces and light the fuse.  I have a great picture of me hanging out with the bomb with the fuse lit.   I know, we had all gone momentarily insane.   The things that are legal in Bolivia!

Boom! Safe!  Just put a big hole in the mountainside, altering the life of some dirt.   Everything else made it out alive. Til next blog, anyhow.      

Tags: Bolivia, Cerro Rico, Explosive, Mines, Potosi, Tag Index

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