Day 26: 26/7/12
Had to get the bus this morning from Sucre to Potosi. We had a private bus for ourselves so that was grand cos we got a seat to ourselves! The bus was three hours long and we were told that we would stop for a toilet half way. We did stop but it was just on the side of the road, looking over the valley we had just driven up. We were told the toilet was in the bushes! Luckily I didn't need to go!!
Got to Potosi by 12 and checked into the hotel. I got to share a room this time with Janine from SWitzerland. Then we went for lunch. We are close to the main square and it seems that everything is nearby.
Potosi is a really important town in Bolivin history because there is a silver mine here that the Spanish discovered and exploited. Legend has it a local discovered the silver first when he was lookin for his llama. Due to the mine, it was one of the biggest cities in the world in the 1600s, apparently bigger than London or Rome. It looks small though. They also made the coins for most of America and some of Europe so definitely an important place that the Spanish made good use of.
After lunch 11 of us went for the tour of the mines. I was afraid it would be really narrow and claustrophobic, that we would have to crawl or sonething, but I thought I should go anyway as it is the most important thing about Potosi.
We stopped first at the miners market, which was just a street with houses. Some of them had a hole in the wall and everything the miners need is in there. They eat lots of coca leaves. They have alcohol (96%alcohol) and cigarettes that they give as offerings to the gods. There was also dynamite too! We had to buy some to give as gifts to the miners.
Then we were driven about 1min up the road where we were given a jacket and trousers to put over our own clothes, wellies (which I could barely walk in!), a helmet and a torch that fitted onto the helmet. We looked a right sight!!
Finally we were brought to the mine. The guide told us some information first. She said 15,000 people work there. They are mostly extracting a mixture of zinc and silver at the moment, most of the silver is gone. She said the miners are very superstitious. They believe in 3 gods- one is the Catholic God, then pacha mama (as she is mother earth she is the whole mountain), then Tio. There are statues inside of him. They believe that him and pacha mama are a couple. They have sex and that's what produces the minerals. In the statue you can see that he is ready for action! The miners don't like to see women coming because they think pacha mama gets jealous and doesn't produce minerals. They do like to see white people though as they think they bring more luck.
Inside we were walking on the tracks that the wagons come in. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. About a minute in there was a statue of Tio where we had to go through a ritual of putting coca leaves and alcohol on different parts of his body- something the miners do every Friday. Then we walked on another bit and there were people workin with barrows. There was a big hole in the ground then and you could go further in if you wanted. Only 4 people went further, the rest of us went back out. We were delighted with the sunlight and air!! It must be awful working there. We were only inside for twenty minutes at the most an it was plenty! The altitude at the mine is 4200m so there's already very little oxygen not to mind going deep inside a mountain! You could hear explosives going off now and again which was kind of cool!
Them it was time for dinner! The good thing about the group is you get to eat meals with people, although with 15 people you never get to talk to everyone! There was a stone soup on the menu, where they heated a stone and put it in the soup to keep it warm. I didn't eat it cos the lunch I had was like a soup aswell. It was called saice- like soup with mince, potatoes and rice!!
Everybody went to bed then cos we ae leaving at 12 tomorrow for Uyuni and most people want to see things in Potosi first.