The Siulver Mines of Potosi

This was my last trip with Richard and Anika as they wre leaving Bolivia directly to northern Argentina and I was off on an anoraks journey through Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay to get to Argy.

Thanks to the mines, Potosi was once the richest town in South America and amongst the richest in the world. The Spanish colonists had discovered silver there in the 1500s, although the idigenous population probably knew of its existance long before, and set about extracting the stuff to make coins for the whole of the Spanish world. In the late 1800s the silver bagan to run out and with it the prosperity of the town. Although Zinc is still mined today silver extraction is minimal but it is still possible to hit a rich seam and become very wealthy.

Potosi is now on the Gringo trail thanks to tours of mines. Richard and I visted one with our guide Luis, the space in the mine was rather reminiscent of that on Bolivian buses....great! We spent a couple of hours in the mine after touring the miners market and buying dynamite. This bit was rather scarey, I certainly havent held this stuff before and of course we did the whole "stick in the mouth to to look like a cigar" bit.

Is was a very humbling experience as children as young as 14 are working down the mines (illegally as the minimum working age is 16), their famliles cannot afford to keep them. The working conditions are primtive and there are no air filters, the miners all chewing coca leaves all day.

Still is was a great experience and one that will stay with me, pushing a wheel barrow of spoil was incredibly hard, the miners have my admiration.

The first picture is me pushing a wheel barrow of spoil, but I don't think its come out too well.