After our near death driving experience we arrived safely in Potossi ready to head down some mines and blow up some dynamite. After a day of sorting stuff out and discovering there really is no where you can eat during Siesta we got picked up for our trip.

Firstly we headed to the kitting out place and were dressed in incredibly sexy baggy bright yellow trousers and jacket, not to forget the hard hat. Looking the part we headed to the miners market to buy gifts for the miners and their families. We got a selection of biscuits and juice and a big bag of coca leaves for them to try. Gave a leaf a go myself but was to scared to chew properly so not much to report there! Then we headed off to the mines where we met one of the woman who sorts all the minerals. The woman who work there are mainly forced into it as their husbands have died and they have no sons who can support them, apparently us girls aren't much help! They live in hut like buildings on the mining hill and sort the minerals from sunrise to sunset. We were each given a small piece of silver the lady had sorted. Then we scrambled up the edge of the hill to where the entrance of the mine was. Heading inside was pretty yucky as the walls were smeared with lama blood from the miners good luck sacrifices. Once inside the tunnel was large enough to walk comfortably in at first! We looked around a small museum built into the mine which was mainly photos of miners and then the guide decided to give us an experience by turning all our head torches out! Plus making us walk - safe to say I was not impressed hating the dark and being scared of being underground!! Especially when he refused to turn it back on - may have been a few incredibly girly tears - ops! Don't think i'll make it as a miner. Dodging the massive hole on the way out of the more touristy bit of the mine we were given the option of continuing down to the third level or heading back. Lisa sensibly checked if it was safe to proceed and given the answer 'You're down a working mine of course it's not safe' we continued down! This was definately more of a mining experience having to crawl and climb down steep inclines and a not overly secure ladder at one point. At one point I pointed to a pieve of rock and asked why it was hairy - the guide simply said 'oh that's asbestos' and carried on! Safe to say that¿s not going to help the life expectancy of the miners! Despite being a Sunday we did see one miner down on the third level and the cool pully and truck systems which they remove the minerals with. The best bit of going deeper was being able to clearly see the veins of minerals which the miner's follow through the mountain. You can literally see stripes of minerals in the rockface.

Once back above ground (which was an interesting scramble) it was time to blow up some dynamite! A little dissapointed when the guide broke some of our stick saying it was too big we watched him place it about a 100m away and light it before running down the rock face and straight past us behind a shelter with a massive grin on his face. Not sure whether to follow we stayed put and were rewarded by being nearly deafened by the bang and getting a good shake! The explosion was awesome!!!

That evening following a well needed shower we hopped in a taxi for a ridiculously cheap 2 hour ride to Sucre.