WEATHER: 20C and warm
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Surviving a grope from a drunk man in the mine
BUMMER OF THE DAY: The man was drunk…..
BUYS OF THE DAY: 96% proof alcohol for the miners, but we decided to keep a bottle
WORD OF THE DAY: That’s a tough life……
This morning we had booked and paid 18USD to enter one of the most dangerous mines in the world. . It's been in operation for more than 400 years, and once held the richest supply of silver in the Americas. Kate is claustrophic, so she is using her time to have a bit of a sleep in and we are going to meet for lunch once the tour finished around 12.30pm.
The tour begins by purchasing gifts for the miners from the miners market. It’s a custom to give presents to the miners. We bought coca leaves, hand-rolled cigarettes, soda, crackers, dynamite, and 96% alcohol, we got to try the alcohol which smelt and tasted like metho, apparently it tastes good mixed with coke, I am sure you would only need a few drops of the stuff to get you well on your way. Fridays are a celebration in the mines, so a few of us bought the 1L bottles to take in with us. Susannah then showed us the other items that the miners appreciate, the main item being the TNT/Dynamite which comes as a pack with the detonator and the fuse for a low price of 2.85AUD. They also sell fertilizer in the purest form as another explosive option, but we all went for the hard TNT. It was surreal holding a stick of dynamite in your hand; yes I’ll have 3 sticks of dynamite thanks. The miners will go through 27 sticks of dynamite a week, 10m of fuse, 40kg of fertilizer and 30 detonators and there are approximately 1000 explosions per day.
The mine was initially mined jus for silver, now it is mined for 96 kinds of minerals, silver still included. But back in its day there was 96% of sliver found; now that amount had dropped to 1%. It has been mined the hell out of the last few hundred years. The mine now has approximately 15,000 miners and there are more than 5000 entrances, which only 142 are currently in use. You could enter the mine on the east and exit on the west but it would take 4-5 hours to do this. Susannah’s dad was a miner, but because there are no female miners permitted, t would make the God of the Mountain, Pachcamama jealous, the closest she could get was to take the tours into the mines. She has been doing it for 9 years and loves her job. There are safe and unsafe parts of the mine, and according to Susannah we were going to be visiting the ‘safe’ part.
From the miners market we headed to a small court yard to get kitted up into our ‘miners’ outfits. As usual I was worried that they wouldn’t have anything to fit me, but low and behold they had a pair of pants that fit! It was a miracle, and thank goodness they did, as I didn’t think it would be as muddy as it was, so it is pretty important to have on the right gear. We were provided with a top, wellington boots and another telltale sign, plastic bags to put on our feet before putting on the willies. To top the outfit was the plastic helmets. As a group we looked like we were about to go and represent Australia in a competition with black pants, a canary yellow top and a green helmet. We looked very patriotic.
So only a 10 minute drive from town we found ourselves at the entrance that we were going to use today. At this time we got fitted with our miner lamp on our green helmets and the battery pack was tied around our waists. Paul and I decided to keep a bottle of the 96% proof alcohol and have that in a few drinks on Christmas day. We felt a little bad, as we had bought it for the miners and I am sure they need it more than us, but the lure of a bad hangover the next day was too much to pass up, so we kept my bottle and we were still going to give his away, so we weren’t totally selfish! We were also told to bring an alternative light source as back up, doesn’t sound too reassuring does it, so I had my torch packed into my pant pockets. So with our lights switched on it was time to enter the darkness of the mine. We saw straight up one of the trolleys coming out of the mine with 3 young men pushing it to the very end of the track, where they then tip the tocks into a waiting truck to be taken away and processed. The trolleys look like they are straight out of an Indiana Jones movie and when they are empty they weigh 400kg and when it is full of rock it weighs 1 tons, and only 3 men push this trolley back an forth all day, 1 tons, and on a dodgy track, it is need to some urgent repair and they sometimes have top heave they full trolley (1 tons) back onto the rails. It is back breaking work.
As you enter the mines you can clearly see the stains from the llama blood which are sacrificed once a year to keep Pacahmama happy and the llama is buried at the entrance to the mine to keep her happy for another 12 months they also have shrines, where miners ask a deity named ‘Uncle Jorge' for protection from accidents. They also leave gifts of cigarettes and alcohol, hoping ‘Uncle Jorge' will respond by leading them straight to the richest minerals in the mountain. These shrines are scattered throughout the mine as we walked in the tunnels.
So once inside the mine and walking the mines passage ways you do need to have your wits about you, there are pretty large holes on both sides which our guide kindly alerted us to, low hanging rock, beams and pipes and it is still a working mine, so you also have the trolleys coming in and out that you need to stay clear of as well so as for them not to lose their momentum, if they stop, can you imagine trying to push start 1 ton with 3 men.
The miners work with a big wad of coca leaves between their cheek and teeth. The coca helps energize them and suppresses their hunger; stopping to go to the toilet is out of the question due to loss of time, so is eating and drinking during your shift. This is why the coco leaves are so important to the older men, after years of chewing this stuff their teeth have rotted so the younger generation of miners use baking soda instead so as to save the life of their teeth. It is back breaking work and the first section that we went to there were 3 men pulling up buckets (made of tire), via a hose winder, from the lower levels to the ground level to tip it into the trolley to move it out of the mine. Once the rail cart is full, they will push and pull it back through the narrow tunnel leading to the outside world. The rocks are then shoveled out of the cart, to be picked up by a truck. It is part of a tough cycle he will repeat throughout the day. The work is unrelenting. There were 2 x15 year old boys and a 20 year old working this section. They are so young and it is sad to think the average age that these miners live to is 45. Depending on the size of the tunnel that is being mined differentiates how many miners work in that section but a team of up to 8 will move approximately 8 tons of rock per DAY. 8 TONNES!!!!!!!! This is where our gifts come into play, for letting us watch and take photos we say thanks with a pack of ciggies or a bottle of the flammable drinking stuff. They know we come with gifts and Susannah said you can’t help them all, so we had to save our gifts for the miners we see and photograph.
I am not a claustrophobic person and after visiting another section that required us to scale down a 4m drop to get to and then crawl back up it, I had had enough. We had been in the tunnels for over an hour and I had seen enough. Susannah wanted to take us to one more section, which 4 of us decided would be too much, so we went and found a part of the tunnel we could stand out of the way of trolleys that were coming and going. It was a pretty intense part of the tunnel, being where the trolley track was, it was also the place where the track disconnected, so each crew that we saw go through had problems getting through that section every time. You try pushing a ton of rock on a piece of wood they had substituted as the rail, I didn’t seem to be working too well for them and it was a mission for each team. I am sure all that would need to be spent would be a few hundred dollars, not even that, to fix it and then they wouldn’t have that problem. At one stage there were 2 trolleys coming together, one empty and one full, so we were told via hand language we had to move, and the empty trolley was taken off the rails and flipped on its side for the full one to pass and then they flipped it back on the track and continued deeper into the mine. The rest of the group ventured in to the deeper and narrower passages that dated back to the colonial times for 20 minutes as we waited for them at the ‘traffic’ post.
After about 10 minutes a drink miner emerged from the tunnel. He was plastered, he was so drunk and as the 4 of us hoped and prayed that he wouldn’t stop, he stopped and asked us in Quechan if we had any gifts as he reached for malar and planted a kiss on her cheek. It came out of nowhere and freaked her out, so we got her behind us and then he made a grab for Lizzie’s bag as it had a water bottle sticking out of the zip and he thought it had that 96% alcohol In it, so that was also left field and freaked her out, so I stood in front of her and between Sharon and I we tried to tell him in our broken Spanish, um I mean nonexistent Spanish, which consisted of Nada, Feliz Navidad (merry Christmas) and adios amigos…… We are pretty sure he didn’t understand us; besides him being blind drunk he didn’t speak Spanish. So after a few Bernie boobie grabs, an arse slap and a few lunges at the girls to freak them more, a trolley was on its way back, so we asked if they could help and get rid of him, to which they just looked at us and kept pushing the empty trolley. He was obviously wasn’t one of their team and like anywhere in the world time is money and at the end of the day, we gringo’s were in their territory. At this point the rest of the group emerged from the darkness and we were saved. I wasn’t scared, he was harmless and not at all aggressive, but trying to keep the other 2 calm was our main objective. I could see how it could have been scary for them, but thank goodness it all ended up okay, a little shook up, but all in one piece. It is scary to think how many of the men are that drunk in the mine as we left. Possibly Fridays may not be a good day to visit if this is their drinking day in there.
According to official records, 45,000 tons of pure silver were mined from Cerro Rico between 1556 and 1783. During this period Potosi was an extremely wealthy place, (there is still a saying, valer un Potosi, “to be worth a Potosi” (that is, “a fortune”). At one point, the city of Potosi was more populous than both London and Paris. Originally the Spanish lead by Francisco de Toledo forced Indians through the Spaniards used the Inca mita (mandatory public service) system; they died by the thousands, from the brutal labor and mercury poisoning. As more and more of the indigenous labour died the in 1608 the Spanish requested the importation of 1500 to 2000 African slaves per year. An estimated total of 30,000 African slaves were taken to Potosí throughout the colonial era. African slaves were also forced to work in the Mint as human mules. The mules would die after couple of months pushing the mills, so they replaced the four mules with twenty African slaves.
After 1800 the silver in the mines ran out, making tin the main product leading to a slow economic decline. Even so the mountain continues to be mined for silver to this day. The poor worker conditions (lack of protective equipment from the constant inhalation of dust), mean the miners have a very short life expectancy, most of them dying of silicosis pneumonia around 40 years of age. It is estimated that, in the past years of indigenous labour, roughly 8 million Indians died and whilst there still potential to earn much more money mining than at other available jobs the supply of people willing to work in the mines will continue. A joint study by UNICEF, the National Institute of Statistics and the International Labour Organization in 2005 found there were approximately 7,000 children working in gold and silver mines in the Bolivian cities of Potosí, Oruro and La Paz.
What an amazing experience, even if it ended on a dour note. It is heart breaking how long the men, and boys work, the manual labour involved and it also being a dangerous job in the world dangerous mine. If I ever complain about anything ever again remind me of the faces we saw in our lamp light as they pushed 1 ton of rock past us and that will make me wake up and get a grip. What a tough life.
After returning the clothes and boots, the lunch time traffic was a nightmare getting back to the hotel. It would have been quicker for us to walk once we were back in the city streets, but after 30 minutes we got back to the hotel just before 1pm. Well you can imagine my surprise when I knocked on the door of our hotel room and sleepy head Kate was still in BED, at 1pm!!! Maybe I was just jealous that she got to sleep the day away while we were trudging around in mud and getting felt up by drunk miners. Either way, it didn’t take her long to shower and change and we were soon back out in the streets with Seamus and Julia looking for somewhere to eat for lunch. As most Spanish settled towns, siestas are still big in this part of the world. So it was quite difficult to find somewhere that was open at 1.30pm in the afternoon, but we walked back up to the tourist section and found an Italian place that was open and I have to say the piece of meat I had was amazing. This is what I am looking forward to in Argentina. Meat, meat and more meat!!!
On the way back we stopped at the local market (general household stuff) for a looksee and then to another set of markets, but they were selling Christmas decorations, jewelry, toys, books etc….. We were looking for presents to take to the orphanage tomorrow night, but were told to not go too crazy, as they have been collecting presents all year, so Kate and I stuck with the 40 pencils that we had bought in Puno and had never given out. We were looking for a ream of paper to go with them but we were unable to find one, which was a shame.
So late afternoon we had free time and I made use of actually chillaxing and getting 3 blogs completed while watching old re-runs of Dawson’s Creek, I used to love that show, but to see it now it is pretty daggy, and who remembered Dawson and Joey using such large words back then, and not to forget poor Pacey as well.
Dinner was some street food as Kate and I couldn’t be bothered heading out again. So it was a hamburger with a slice of cheese that was sitting on a hot plate and some chips on the side all served in butch paper ready to walk with. Well see if it agrees with us in a few hours, but it tasted good at the time, so that is always a good sign. Omar has been eating from the street sellers for the last couple of days and hasn’t had any problems, so let’s just see how it affects us.
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and after being in Potosi for 2 nights it is now starting to feel a little like Christmas. We are just hoping that Uyuni will be in the same spirit, being away from family and friends can be difficult, especially over the holiday season. I am certainly missing my god-daughters little faces, but Shelly sent me their Christmas photo with Santa this year and that bought a smile to my dial. Man they are looking so grown up, it is amazing how they can change in just 9 months.
Happy Christmas eve eve – this time last year we were out on the turps at Fridays (a nightclub in Brisbane) having a girls night out and it was the worst hangover the next day and Shelly said she would never be doing that ever again. But it was a good gal’s night with Sandy A, Shelly, Dayna and myself.
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