So we had been sensible booked ahead a hostel, so feeling confident we jumped into a taxi, showed them the address and we were off. Little did we know that our driver had as much clue as we did on where to go. In the end he pulled up, pointed down a street and shouted for us to get out. Hope/ thinking he meant the hostel was just down the road we reluctantly got out and walked to where he had pointed. The time was about 1.30 am and the streets where dark only lit my groups of youth playing on their phones or smoking cigarettes. We both looked at each other and we knew what the other was thinking... where are hell are we??? we walked around and couldn't find any hostels when Becki remembered she saw a hostel where we were dropped off, so we walked back to ask for directions and a taxi. As luck would have it our taxi driver without realising manged to drop us outside our hostel, so we checked in and fell asleep.

The next day we explored the town to find the best deal for a miners tour. When we left Uynai we met the New Zealand girls who we had met in Copacabana and they said they had been socked in Potosi by locals. At the time we didn't really know what they meant, as soon as we stepped out the hostel we found out first hand. It was miners week in Potosi and for some reason they celebrate it by children and youths throwing water bomb and shooting super soakers at anyone and everyone! Unfortunately being a tourist ment you had a huge target on your back and I was wearing white trousers. So we had a few near missed and found a few tour companies which we liked the sound of. We finally went into one which took our fancy and the owner just sold the tor within seconds. He spoke perfect English, we was a miner himself for 20 years and a tour guide for another 20. He had just set up his own business selling the tours and gave us so many guarantees and had so much confidences it was too hard to say no, so we booked it and wondered off.

That night in our hostel they were showing the famous film the "Devilers mine." The film was about a young bout and his family and how him and his brother both worked the mines from the age of ten. The film was more like a documentary and gave us a great insight in what to expect tomorrow. If you were wondering the mines wasn't exactly like Snow White and the seven dwarfs however there were a few similarities.

We woke up bright and early the next morning and ran down to met our tour group dressed in our best miners gear. Luckily for us they gave us trousers, jacket and a hard hat with a light, so we were set. Before we were allowed to enter the mines we had to stop off at the miners market to buy the miners presents. Our group was small, there was only us two and another English guy as everyone else spoken Spanish, so for once speaking English paid off! As a group we brought two big drinks, a packet of pure tobacco cigarettes, some 95% alcohol and two sticks of dynamite! To help Becki with closure we wrote "SLM" on our stick of dynamite, which had her in hysterics for ages!

Our tour guide claimed he had worked in the mines for the past three years, however he had perfect English and had done a lot of other things so we didn't really believe him! On our way to the mines we made a few stops at view points of the city, mines and mining factories. After about half an hour we arrived at the entrance, where the tour began.

The first few minuets all three of us walked causally in silence as we took everything in. The mines were fairly dark and we only had our head lights for light, which mine kept breaking and slipping off. The smell was like damp mud and sweaty men. Our vision was restricted to about 5 meters in front and behind as there where lots of bends and low level rocks sticking out of every corner. The walls were damp with a light layer of water sliding over the top with the occasional line of algae.

I am sure we have explained the height difference between English and South American people before, well the mines were of no exception. Most of the miners could walk thought without too much trouble however we had to constantly bend down the whole way! The mines weren't as scarey as we both thought and you soon forgot you were meters into a mountain, that was being chipped away and could collapse on top of you at any minute.

While we walked our guide explained about how work was done, roles and responsibilities and wages of miners. He was really interesting and we were all hocked on every word. Mining was all about demand and supply and the wages of the workers depended on this. When things were at their best miners could earn the same as lawyers and doctors but when things were bad your basis miner would make minimum wage which was about £65 a month. I did my usual thing and asked random but I think what everyone really wanted to hear questions like child labour. The film showed it happening a lot however it was a few years old so I hoped it would be over, this really wasn't the case! Our guide said there were a few children that worked the mines and the latest stats reported that 14% were under 18! by looking around we could see this wasn't the case and there were at least 20% of not more young children from about 14 and up. Although this was illegal in Bolivia there are no authorities that enforce the laws so it happen along with accidents. We know this as a few days ago a 15 year old boy died in the mine we were visiting and his dad who was the manger of that section was being questioned. The law says he should go to prison but we heard he would just bribe the police and it will all go away!

We saw the "Tio" which means the Devil in Spanish but because there is no D in their alphabet they call it 'Tio' however he is worshiped like the underworld God who controls the caves. The miners still believe this today and regularly give offerings to the statue to ask for protection and good minerals. The Tio was a really scarey looking beast that was half human and half devil looking with a mean facial expression.

We continued to where the mine dived and we climbed over some fallen debris to find a group of miners and their vain. The vain is a line that runs east to west through the mine which contains all the minerals. To get the minerals the miners dig north to south, depths of about 30 meters or so. It was really cool to see however we didn't see any of them actually doing any work! We went the wrong way I then got really scared and refused to go any further and luckily I did as there had been a cave in so all the floor was loose and we would have fallen through. We were going to see the diggers but again I wasn't keen and again our guide was wrong and we weren't allowed as it was too dangerous! We met up with the Spanish group, saw a few other miners and their veins then headed out of the mines. The tour was really informative and interesting but by the end both Becki and myself were glad to be out and breath normal air!

As our group was only made up of three of us we managed to do the tour quicker than the Spanish group so we had time to blow up the dynamite! We followed our guide with baited breath up on top of the mines where we were out of sight. We all excitedly got out our supplies and watched eagerly while it was prepared. From the film we all knew that the most dangerous part was putting the fuse in as one mistake could "only blow your hand off!." Luckily our guide knew what he was doing and we all kept our fingers and toes! As we brought a large dynamite, it was split in half so the explosion wouldn't disrupt the mountain. Inside the dynamite was green play dough stuff, which our guide squished around the fuse to stop it falling out. We were all set, only one thing to do...light it!

We all took a step back and a big breath in and then within seconds we were standing around lit dynamite with our hands out ready to hold it! We didn't need to rush too much as the fuse was really long, so once we had all our tourist photos we hid behind a small mound while our guide planted our bomb! We had our cameras ready and the count down began, 5,4,3,2,1....BANG, BOOM, POW! And just like that we had mad a meter deep whole in the ground. The sound wasn't at all as loud as you would expect and it didn't do as much damage as the movies portray but it was very exciting!

We headed back to our bus all very excited after what we had witnessed and safely survived. Our next stop was Scure for a day stop over then onto Santa Cruz for a few days rest before we cross the boarder to Brazil for carnival!