Potosi

So since we only spent one day here, I cant really tell you much about the town itself. It has a huge silver mine here and it used to be the richest country in SOuth America but now the mine is almost barren and investors have left. They still mine copper and zinc and a bit of silver. We went and visited the mine which was really sad, but a really important thing to see. They picked us up and we got taken to a house where they dress us for the mine. I had hot blue track pants and a pink jacket, complete with rubber boots, a hard hat, and a headlamp that they tied around our waists. We looked so funny and YES I do have pictures of that as well.

We got to the mine and saw lots of other tourist groups all perfectly colour co-ordinated and we wondered why we looked like such a hodge-podge group? Then we went and bought gifts for the miners. 20 Bolivianos ($3) got us 2 boxes of crackers, a bag of coca leaves, and DYNAMITE with all its accessories. We never thought wed be the type of people who give dynamite as a gift, but I guess sometimes you surprise yourself?

We went into the mine and there was lots of ducking and accidentaly hitting our heads and crawling at one point. We watched the men do various mining things and sometimes got to try them out, like hauling up rocks and banging a hole into a rock for dynamite and stuff like that. We watched them light the dynamite and then heard the consequent 16 explosions. Then they tied us up one at a time to be lowered down a 30 meter shaft to the lower level of the mine, which was really freaky, I kept thinking I was going to get stuck, but never did. After an hour in there I was definatley ready to leave. OUr tour guide was rubbish, she didnt really tell us about the history of the mine, so it was a lot of watching the miners and watching them some more.

They start mining at the age of 12, and they work 12 hour days without food or water, because they arent allowed bathroom breaks. Thats why they chew the coca leaves, to numb them from feeling cold or hunger. It was realy sad. There was one 12 year old boy who was learning the trade from his dad, who was 45. In five years the dad woud retire and the son would take his place in the mine.

Left the mine way later than we were supposed to so I didnt go to the silver museum because it was too late. Had lunch with Chloe an English girl on the trip. Shes rellay nice. Did I mention Im the youngest on this trip as well? But its funny because pretty much everything that I did in Peru on my own, they all did in the group tour. Anyways, going to catch a bus to Sucre where we´ll be for a few days and Im going to try and go paragliding!