24th Sept
Potosi
Uyuni to Potosi is a six hour drive. We could have taken a public bus but this one would stop for the loo or if anyone was sick. It only cost another US$2 each.
For 6 hours we drove, and in all that time we never went on a road. I thought the desert crossing was bad but this was unbelievable. The dust was so bad that you had to cover your mouth and nose. It was like sitting on a pneumatic drill - have never been bounced about so much.
Potosi stands at over 4200 metres. It was the richest city in the world at one time due to the silver, zinc, lead and tin deposits. All this is still mined today but the city is no longer rich. The city has many old buildings and churches. It’s so colourful with all the bright clothes the women wear. The whole place comes to life at night. Lots of stores selling food and other goods.
Today I went down a working silver mine. We had to wear special clothes and a hard hat with a light on it. I was so glad of the hat as I don’t know how many times I hit my head. We had to crawl though small tunnels and climb up tiny holes. We had bought presents for the miners. Those consist of biscuit, cocoa leaf and dynamite. This is the first time I had bought this kind of stuff. I was glad when we had to give it over to the miners. It was very dark, dusty, hot and at times up to our ankles in water. As this was a working mine there were trucks going backwards and forwards all the time so we had to move fast to get to a place where they could pass us as they would not stop. If they are lucky they will earn about £5 a day and that’s working for at least 12 hours.