Yet another bus ride down and we had arrived in Potosi where
we started by wandering for 20 minutes (all uphill) trying to locate our
AirBnB. We eventually met the owners who showed us around a real American style
apartment equipped with a full kitchen! Woohoo!
In addition to being one of the highest cities in the world
at 13,420 ft (4090 m), Potosi is well-known for the nearby Cerro de Potosi (aka
Cerro Rico – Rich Mountain) – a mountain which has been mined (in atrocious
conditions) for silver and other precious metals since the mid-1500’s. An
astounding estimated 8 million slaves and workers have died throughout the
mine’s history. Although we had conflicting feelings about supporting tourism
in an active mine with continued deplorable conditions, curiosity got the
better of us and after settling in at the AirBnB we went out to attempt to book
a tour with an organization that supported miners and their families. Although
the first place we tried was owned by an ex-miner, we came into an awkward
situation when he aggressively told us to keep our minds open and not push our
beliefs of feminism on him or the people of Bolivia. Funny thing was that we
never said anything remotely touching on the subject of feminism, we were only
asking if he had a tour available the next day. Offended and more than a little downtrodden about my gender’s obvious inadequacies (it is taking everything I have not to get into a full blown rant here), we moved on and eventually settled
on a different tour company.
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| Pictures from around Potosi. |
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| Cerro de Potosi. |
We met our tour the next morning, got geared up, bought some
“gifts” for the miners, and drove to the opening of the mine. The options for
“gifts” included dynamite, detonators for said dynamite, 96% alcohol (the drink
of choice in the mine), tobacco/coca/orange cigarettes (the smoke of choice in
the mine), or coca leaves (the chew of choice in the mine). The mine tour
lasted a few shocking hours. It is hard to put into words the conditions - dark
confined spaces often too small to stand upright, very poor air quality, and
visible asbestos leaching out of the wet walls of the caverns. It is no wonder
that every corner is marked by shrines to Tio, the devil that rules the
mountain and the mines. Justifiably so, superstitions (including women
underground being bad luck) and drug/alcohol abuse seem to be the coping
mechanism used by the workers. Fair to say we were glad for the experience, but
even more glad to see the light of day again afterwards.
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| Preparing to go into the mine. |
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| Cerro de Potosi y Tio. |
Back at the apartment we set on a quest to cook black beans
at high elevation - It took over 6 hours. After relaxing, chatting with Anita
(the AirBnB owner who was nice enough to buy and drop off our bus tickets), and
eating mostly cooked black bean burritos, we turned in for the night. The next
morning, we departed on the bus to Sucre: our last stop in Bolivia.
