Most Dangerous Job on Earth?
You probably do not know about Cerro Rico or the “Rich Hill”, but you certainly know what it did for the European World. The Spaniards using Incan slaves pulled 45,000 tons of pure silver out of the hill between the mid-1500s and mid-1700s which financed their lead act on stage 1. I believe this single hill produced half of the world’s silver! Pure silver was first discovered on the surface. After the surface layer was stripped, they started to bore horizontally into the hill. Potosi had so much silver that it was the largest city in the New World with 150,000 people and was actually about the same size as or larger than London, Venice and Seville. When the silver ran out, so did Potosi and this is why you don’t hear it mentioned in the same breath as any of the other great cities. In fact, this is one very impoverished city. Since the 1980s the mines have been turned over to cooperatives which are still mining some silver, but mostly tin, zinc and lead. The same practices used three hundred years ago are still employed thus making this one of if not the most dangerous jobs in the world. In fact, Cerro Rico has killed eight million workers since the mining started!
I started reading about Cerro Rico a month ago and for the past month I knew I would need to see it and it scared me. I’m not a big fan of tight and dark places and that’s all Cerro Rico’s tunnels are about. We started the tour by getting dressed up in yellow overalls, rubber boots and helmets with lights. We then visited the miners’ market to buy gifts for the miners that would show us what they do. I bought dynamite, fuse, ammonium nitrate mixed with petrol (Oklahoma bombing material), blasting cap and coca leaves!!! Now that’s something you have never done! The market also sold pure alcohol (nothing but the finest for the miners), handrolled cigarettes and food and drink. We spent a few minutes walking around looking like the biggest idiot tourists on earth in our yellow overalls (and loving every minute of it) and the highlight was watching a woman skin the head of a goat (dead and detached from body) while the buyer waited patiently. Goat head soup anyone?
We then went up the mountain for fun with dynamite. Our guide, Jose from Andes Salt Expeditions, made a bomb using the dynamite, ammonium nitrate mix, fuse and blasting cap. The fuse was a long one so we took turns putting the thing around our necks after lighting it for photos!!! And you have never done that one either! Jose ran the contraption down the hill and ran away from it before it went kaboom. We then entered the mine which is called San Jose and has been used for hundreds of years. I soon learned that the least of my worries in the dark would be the tight quarters because there are open shafts everywhere that drop anywhere from three meters to unknown depths. Some of these shafts are crossed over on boards no more than a half meter in width. Looking down with your headlamp while over the bottomless pits can make anyone feel a bit dizzy. I stopped looking. If there is a more dangerous tour out there, I’d like to hear about it. The idea that this place would be open for working in most of the world is a joke and the thought of it being open for tourism is even funnier… kind of.
While walking through the shafts which are often barely wider than your shoulders and often required us to almost crawl (a stooped walk like training to be a duck is a common position even for us short people and tall people are really hurting), we also had to watch out for miners pushing wheelbarrows who are taking out 50-100 kilos of ore per load. We would hear a warning and then plaster ourselves against the closest wall until the wheelbarrow or barrows passed. We were in the mine for about two hours and by the end we were filthy and could feel the particulate matter in our lungs. After viewing the miners working and giving them gifts that we bought in the market as well as learning about what they are doing and more history of the mine, we visited Tio. Tio is a God created by the indigenous miners (slaves) when the mine opened. Tio looks like the Devil and he controls the mineral deposits in conjunction with Pachamama (Mother Earth). Literally in conjunction because each of the Tio statues in the mine are extremely well-endowed and the story is that when he and Pachamama are well-fertile they produce a lot of minerals. Pachamama statues near Tio seemed to have smiles on their faces. The miners visit these statues weekly and offer coca leaves, cigarettes and sprinkle some pure alcohol before drinking the alcohol themselves. When Jillian and I were on the boat in Galapagos a guy had some of this alcohol from Bolivia with him and it smelled like rubbing alcohol to me.
The rubbing alcohol is the least of the miners’ health worries. After twenty years maximum in the mines, they get silicosis from breathing in silica found in volcanic rock. A little aside… The real name for silicosis is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis which at forty-five letters is the longest word in English. Probably just an average word in German… I did not share this tidbit with the miners. So silica may be what really kills them, but they are also breathing in lead and other heavy metals and they are pushing those 50-100 kilo wheelbarrows as well as using picks. One miner we met was working as his own team and he was in the middle of a motherlode of pure minerals. He was filling bags. I could barely pick up one of the bags which was well over 50 kilos. They die gasping for air in their forties while bent over with arthritis. We met another miner who has been there for thirty years. He is the oldest. He only works part-time now as a master leading a team to the goods. Our guide said the guy will be dead in a couple of years. He looked like he was in his seventies at least yet he was not fifty. Is this starting to sound like the most dangerous job to you? Eight million dead! And almost no one survives twenty years. Retirement benefits… not needed.
OK, so you’re not convinced. Well, the mining gig actually is not the most dangerous job at Potosi. The guys who work in the refinery have it worse. Things may be more modern than in the past, but in the past the indians who worked in the refinery walked on a paste of silver and MERCURY. And then the mercury was boiled off! I was told they only lived a few days. I do not know if mercury will kill you that quickly, but I’m sure death was soon. All I could wonder is how much mercury (and lead) is still floating around Potosi. Jose confirmed that it is an issue. More than an issue I am sure.
Tags: bolivia, south america, Travel
vagabondrick
Wow!! What an experience. This one has to be right at the top of all you have done.
Yikes…this sounds just horrible for these people. I will never complain about my job again. It’s so hard to imagine people working in these environments but obviously they do. I hope your breathing ok. Love, Julie
I just realize how lucky I am….