Alter a hellish bus ride on rapidly degrading roads we arrived safe and sound in Potosí. Overlooking the mining town is Cerro Rico. This is a huge mountain which has been used to mine silver from around the invasión of the Spanish to this day and gave Potosí its reason for being. Potosí was at one point the richest city in the World with more inhabitants than London and Paris put together. During these times the first Bolivian mint was opened there and this produced silver coins and bullion for export to many different countries around the world. Now the population of Potosí remains around the same figure as then and the production of bulion and coins has ceased. Bolivia actually has it's own money produced in many different countries rather than at home as it is apparently cheaper.

After taking a day or so to orientate ourselves with another new town and looking around the place we decided to take a trip down into the working silver mines in amongst the asbestos, dynamite, blood and sweat to visit the miners at work. During the tour we would be taken down to the various levels by Willy our guide. Willy started work in the mine at the age of 12 and finished when he was 18 when his father died in a colapse. These days he makes his living dragging groups of Gringos through ridiculously tight spaces and introducing them to the miners.

Before we got kitted out in the very attractive overalls, boots, helmet etc, we were taken to the miners market. Here we were told that it is customary to buy gifts for the miners as they have to provide everything themselves. From tools, to dymnamite for extracting the ore.

During their working day (in some case as long as 18 hours unofficially) the miners chew coca leaves. This allows them to work without needing food or breaks and can work a lot harder due to the fact that they are charged up on a cocaine buzz. In addition to the half kilo of coca leaves we bought them we also provided them with a 95% rubbing alcohol which they mix with bottles of soft drink, and ready rolled fílterless cigarettes. Then off to another section of the market where we could purchase the dynamite for them also. I started to wonder if it was wise to climb into a mine with these workers coked up, drunk and in charge of dynamite but apparently this is how its done!

As our group entered the mine we passed a statue of the devil. We stopped here to take part in one of the miners daily rituals. Our guide chanted some incantations in Quechua (the language most widely spoken in the mines) as he sprinkled coca leaves and alcohol over the devil. This ritual is carried out daily but all the miners that enter as they ask Pachamama (Mother Earth) for safety in the mine and luck and prosperity for them and their familias. Twice a year an additional ceremony is carried out where the owner of the mine brings a Llama to the entrance and then after much drinking and coca leaf chewing the Llama is slaughtered in a sacrifice and its blood is spattered over the devil statue. Traces of the blood could still be seen by us during our visit.

Pressing on down into the bowels of the mines where we were introduced to the miners. Officially the minimum age for entering the mine is 18 but there are kids of 12 working there "helping" out their fathers, brothers etc. The average amount of time spent working in the mine is around 6 years. This is ended usually due to illness from asbestosis or other respiritory diseases or injury and or death in a mining accident. We watched as the miners prepared holes in the rock by hand with long metal chisels approx 2m long so they could insert the dynamite charges to bring down another section of rocks. They would then search this material by hand looking for ore. If they strike it lucky they get paid. If they find nothing they get no money. As you can imagine competition is fierce and arguments and fights have broken out over the discovery of a new seam between each alloted area of the mine.

After distributing our gifts of coca leaves and alcohol to the weary miners we carried on with our tour passing seems containing fools gold, lead, silver and worryingly lots of asbestos. Climbing down increasingly narrower and narrower holes whilst dodging passing wagons with 1 tonne of ore in them we got deeper to the bowels of the mine.

In total we only spent 2 hours actually underground. We emerged tired and filthy. That was enough for the both of us. All that was left was to stockpile the additional dynamite and blow some craters in the ground outside. This was most enjoyable!

We left the mine with nothing but upmost respect for the people who place thier lives on the line everyday to make a very meagre living. If the miners strike it rich everyday on their arduously long shifts then they make only on average 150 US dollars a month. It really made me feel quite humble when you compare that wage to what we get paid for sitting behind a desk for 7.5hrs a day and the most dangerous thing you do is probably boiling the kettle for your free cup of tea.