Oct 10-24, 2016: Bolivia

Oct. 17, 2016.  La Casona Hostal, Potosi, Bolivia.

• The mine tour was unbelievable.  The woman who led the three of us (myself and a young couple from Paris, Olivier and Agath) was all business:  Follow me!  Stop here!  Get on this bus!  Put on these boots!  She soon had us outfitted from head to foot, with headlamps and hard hats, and following her into one of the many entrances into "Cerro Rico" ("Rich Hill").  During the Spanish times the monarchy, mortgaged to the hilt by foreign bankers, came to rely on completely the yearly treasure fleets that brought the Potosi silver.  

• The work was dangerous, with many of the indigenous workers dying of accidents and silicosis pneumonia, so many that the Spanish imported millions of African slaves to augment the labor force.  It is estimated that over the three centuries of colonial rule (1545-1825) as many as eight million Africans and indigenous Bolivians died.

• Workers would remain underground for four months at a time, eating,sleeping, and working in the mines.  When they emerged  from a "shift", their eyes were covered to prevent damage from the bright sunlight.

• Eventually Potosi grew to nearly 200,000, making it one of the largest cities in the world.  Nowadays, with the price of silver much reduced, the town is much smaller, but zinc and lead, and still a little silver, are providing some income.

• Most of the operations in Cerro Rico are in the control of miner-owned cooperatives, with the miners sharing in the profits of what they find.  All work is done with primitive tools and underground temperatures vary from below freezing (the altitude is more than 4200m) to 46C on the 4th and 5th levels. Miners normally die of silicosis pneumonia within 10 to 15 years of entering the mines.

• We were in the mines for about three hours, ascending and descending ladders, crawling through passages, stepping over deep ravines on rickety wooden planks.  It was very tiring, and pretty dangerous.  This is the only place in the world that such tours are offered, and I can see why.  

• Everywhere there were veins of minerals visible, of silver, zinc, copper, and other minerals.  One more thing: the miners expect gifts from visitors, so we brought them what they want most: 96 percent drinking alcohol, and dynamite sticks.

• I returned to the surface exhausted.  Had something to eat, went back to the hostel, and crashed around 5.  It is now 8, and I have just enough energy to write up these notes.