Beware of Mines

Saturday 26th April

Potosi was for years one of the richest towns in South America due to its vast silver mines. As such it has a rich heritage of colonial buildings, and the downtown is UNESCO listed for this reason. There is only one thing, this was built on the back of 8 million dead in the mines.

I'll just say it again, because it is pretty shocking, 8 million people have died in these mines in the 400 years they have been open. Most of them were natives or african slaves. But even until recently the deaths were still around 1 a week.

So with the most dangerous mines in the world on your doorstep, what else could we do except go down them. Only 7 of the 17 went, I think a few were expecting to see pretty horrific conditions. And while they were bad, nothing a westerner would put up with, they weren't as bad as I had been excpecting. But then we were going to be in the safe levels which are near the top, at 4250 metres, the new high point for the trip.

The trip to the mine actually starts with a trip to the market. This is so you can buy presents for the miners you meet on the trip, biscuts, cigarettes, coca leaf (to suppress hunger and allow them to work longer), and dynamite. Yep we bought dynamite, and ammonia nitrate , because dynamite on its own is not powerful enough. It was all pretty cheap too. And we bought a great big pumpkin, which wasn't that cheap. And I think we can guess what happened next to the pumpkin.

Yep it was blown up on some wasteland before we went down the mine. It was cool, but unforunately the shockwave seemed to jam my camera, so I wasn't able to take it on the mine (the seond time my camera has failed me on important occasions).

Being in the mine itself was pretty much what I expected, really like being in a cave with some climbing, crawling, watching out for holes, and so on. And our guide did give us a history, although she didn't really deal with the 8 million dead. There didn't seem to be a shrine or anything for them (or at least none that we were taken to). Which I think is a bit wrong, when 8 million people (or even 8000) die in any other place, they get memorials.

After the mine tour I just went back to the hotel, showered (it was very dirty in the mine, even with coveralls on) and then had a quick look around the buildings of Potosi. I didn't really think much of them, and if thats what it takes to get a UNESCO listing, you have to wonder how more places don't have them.