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Rush and Luge - Extreme Adventures
After a crazy fun couple of days in La Paz we headed to Potosi on a 12 hour night bus (as usual minus the toilet and any other standard comforts). In Potosi we went on a tour of the local mineral and gold mines which was awsome, and a but wierd, it started by putting on bight yellow mining gear and heading to the local miners street markets. This street sells all the stuff you need for the mines, lots of coca leaves to chew on, bottles of pop (alternativley a 90% alcohol drinks but as it looked like it could strip paint and also most of the skin in my throat I opted for the coca cola) and a bag full of dynamite. Yes there is a street in Potosi where you can legally buy dynamite, its pretty cool but a bit worrying when you have a bag full of it in your pocket!! Our group of 6 were ready and off to the mines in a truck that didn't look like it would make it up the mountain. First stop on the way was to test some of the dynamite we bought, our guide 'hobit' casually played around with a few sticks and made a pretty impressive bomb then headed off about 200m away with it already lit to blow it up. Then it was down the mines and indiana Jones style we headed down the tunnels dodging on coming mine carts full of rocks and being pushed by kids about 12. After giving gifts of coca leaves and dynamite to a few workers and pick axing some minerals into a wheel barrow we headed to the devil worshipping cave to offer our thanks for keeping us safe underground (the miners worship the devil underground and god above the ground). The very big and scary looking devil statue was made slightly worse by the small baby lama skeleton which had been sacraficed to it a few weeks earlier, nice!!
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