Silver Mines in Potosi

Cris:
Crawling in very narrow tracks, breathing tons of dust, working with the instruments dating from the colonial times, "enjoying" life for only 48 years and now suffering from the economical crisis, as well - that is what most of the Potosi-silver-miners have to endure in order to earn something for the wife and the 6 children who are taking care of their small hut at the bottom of the moutain.

Famous for their silver resources, the "Rich Mountain" above the city of Potosi, Bolivia has been explored since the 16th century. More than 8 million miners died since then. The mines are being worked 24 hours a day, everyday.

Knowing that it would be sad visiting one of the 500 mines, but, as well, fun for the opportunity to explode dynamites, we decided to put miners cloths and helmets on, and experience for a couple of hours the disastreous life of the local miners.

Before begining the tours, "the guests" are usually advised to buy some presents for the miners: coca leaves (that keep the miners awake, improve their breathing, and help them fight against hunger; no miner would ever go down without his coca leaves), alcohol (96%), some dynamite (in the miners market, there are more than 2000 tones of dynamite being sold; no one needs a permission), cookies for the children who work in the mines (starting at 13 or 14 years) or for the miners´children and some water.

No miner starts the day without visiting the "God" of the miners - a figure of a devil, whom the miners call "el Tio" - the uncle, because they couldn´t pronounce /d/ in their native language Quechua, impeeding them from saying "dios". They offer him some coca leaves, drink some pure alchool in his name, asking him to offer pure minerals in exchange. After lighting a cigarette and sticking it into the mouth of the devil, the miners can start their day.

The mountain is considered female, so if any woman goes down in the pit, it means that some disaster might happen - out of jealousy. Only males should enter the female mountain. The miners sacrifice llamas, water the walls of the mines with blood and hope for good luck.

It was an amazing experience, sometimes hard work, but it was extremely interesting seeing this combination of local believes, religion and hard work for little money. The financial crisis caused more than 90% of the miners to loose their jobs. Around 1500 miners work at the moment.

Because of the lack of regulations, we were alloud to blow our own dynamite after having heard several explosions inside the mine. Of course, we didn´t blow up the inside, as this might cause the blowing of the whole mountain, but outside the mines. That was some explosion, I must say. Martin enjoyed seeing and being part of the team who set the dynamite.