I have learnt not to plan much on a sunday in South America as everything shuts!! All the shops, alot of cafes, laundrettes etc and also museums. So unfortunately alot was shut in Sucre but we still enjoyed looking around as its a very beautifful city. We looked around the markets and various plazas and parks. We also tried a local dish called "cazuela de mani "which is baiscially a peanut soup which was very nice. In the evening we went out to a restuarant and I had a really good spicy meat dish. There is no spicy food in Argentina so it was nice to have some spice again!

The next morning we checked out early and got an 8.30am bus to Potosi which we had actually already passed through on the bus on the way to Sucre. Potosi is famous for its silver mines which is the main employer in the city. It is also the worlds highest town at 4090m! When we arrived we booked a tour of the mines with Koala Tours for that afternoon. We left at 1.30pm and started the 1000m ascent to the top of the mountain where the mines were. On the way we stopped off to get our equipment which consisted of overalls, wellies, hard hat and a head torch. We also stopped on the way to buy some gifts for the miners - fixxy drinks, cocoa leaves (everyone chews them here to help with the altitiude) and some dynamite! We also brought some extra for our group to blow up afterwards!

There are 55 mines in the mountains with 5000 miners working in there at any one time. They work 6 days a week and normally for 10 hours straight. They dont eat when in the mine, only chew cocoa (hence our gift). Only men are allowed in but boys as young as 13 work in the mines even though the legal limit is 16. They earn about 1200 bolivianos per month (ábout 100 pounds) and they work in appauling conditions. The mine we went into had 100 miners in it and as soon as you entered it you could smell fumes and dust. They had given us a neck scarf to cover out faces which we all immediately did! We followed our guide further in and were passed by a miner pushing an empty cart to be filled with rock which weighed about 1/2 tonn! We started descending down a passage and it was at this point that Sarah and another girl decided to turn back as they found it too much. It was quite scary decending into a tiny passage but the rest of us carried on.

We went all the way down to level 4 via a combination of ladders, passages and tunnels where we had to crawl. The air was so dusty and combined with the altitude it was very difficult to breathe at times despite the O2 which they pump down through the mines. We went to several areas of the mine and saw some miners hitting rocks with hammers to break out the silver. The miners work in "families" of about 10 people and they rotate jobs each day. Some break the rock, others push the carts up and down the mines, others shovel it into baskets which are then hauled up to top and unloaded by other miners. The miners then sell the rock to the silver company they are working for who then process it and export it to other countries.

The conditions they work in were very hard, no daylight for 10 hours and it is very hot in the mines, especially at the lower levels. Anyone who complains about their office working conditions should take a trip down there!

After about 1.5hours we came out of the mine and set up the dynamite we had brought earlier on. Out guide ran about 200m away and planted them in amoungst the rock and ran back. The suspense was awful but the bang was so load! Its not as loud in the mines as the miners create a 6inch cyclindrical hole in the rock where they insert the dynamite before lighting it. This enables them to access more rock and hopefully more silver.

After our tour we went out for dinner with 3 girls from our group. We each sampled our first taste of llama which was actually very nice! Similar to beef. We then got on a bus for La Paz. Weleft at 9.15pm and were arriving at 6am so we tried to get some sleep!