Not for the claustrophobic!

Making bomobs
see all photos »

After a 6 hour bus journey from Uyuni we arrived in Potosi - the highest city in the world. The city of Potosi is centred around the working mine in the mountain overlooking it. 15,000 men from the city and surrounding areas work there.

The city is quite run down but definitely still has character. We spent an hour or so wandering around and then booked a tour of the mines for the following day.

The tour began by taking us the a warehouse where we donned our mining gear: trousers, jacket and helmet with a light on. We then set off for the miners market to buy some presents for the miners. The presents consisted of coca leaves (lots of them), soft drinks and dynamite (complete with fuse and ammonium nitrate to increase the intensity of the explosion!). The group also bought some extra dynamite for our own explosions later on.

The fuse is lit!
see all photos »

We then went to the plant where they process the "completo" which involves separating the minerals, lead, zinc and silver, from the remaining rubbish. Quite interesting to watch. Our guide, Efra who still works in the mine, explained how everything worked. After giving some coca leaves to the workers there we headed to the mine itself.

Walking into the mine was itself pretty daunting. It was very dark. All the way through the tour we had to watch out for the Indiana Jones style trolleys that come racing along being pushed by the miners - they weigh upto 3 tonnes when full. We descended down 4 floors, taking us around 100m underground. Very scary. We had to crawl through tiny tunnels on our hands and knees. As we got lower it got very hot and the dust got more intense too - very glad we bought the face masks even through the were really flimsy they definitely helped. We stopped to talk to some of the miners and watch them working. It is very physically demanding, especially with the altitude (4,500m), the heat and all the dust. The miners can choose what hours they work but they get paid for the quantity that they mine so most spend at least 10 hours a day 7 days a week down the mine.

Dig it
see all photos »

The previous week there had been a miners carnival so the miners had all been drinking down the mine so there were lots of empty beers cans down there. Quite bizarre.

After an hour and a half down the mine we climbed back up to the top and were very relieved to see daylight again! Then it was time to light our own dynamite (at least Ben did as I was too chicken!). We were shown how to prepare it properly, it was raining pretty hard so we were all sat in a small wooded shed. Once prepared (4 in total) the guides lit the dynamite in the shed while Ben and the other guys held it!! We were not expecting that! The fuse burns down inside a plastic tube so you cannot tell how long there is left! Even posed for some photos before the guides grabbed the dynamite sticks and ran to throw them far enough away. Huge explosions followed!

We're not claustrophobic, I hope
see all photos »

This tour was a fascinating but very humbling experience. Not one for the claustrophobic!