Quick stop in Potosi

After an unbelievable stay in Sucre and meeting the incredible Javier, we head to Potosi, known for its silver mining.

Potosi is only a 3 hour drive from Sucre. Javier, once again, went out of his way to help us by driving us to the bus terminal and helping us purchase our bus tickets. We say goodbye to Javier before boarding the bus, we will never forget him and our few days in Sucre.

Early afternoon we arrive in Potosi, Potosi is the highest city in the world with over 100,000 inhabitants, at 13,320 ft above sea level.

The city is mainly known for its silver mining. The Spanish conquistadors discovered silver in the Cerro Rico mountain nearby (Cerro Rico meaning “rich mountain”), in 1545 and started extracting it for many years, causing many deaths because of the poor safety conditions. The mine is still the city’s main business, but nowadays they collect mostly iron, zinc and tin.

After dropping our bags off at the hostel, we went for a walk around the city.

We wandered in the small streets of this old colonial city.

Different than Sucre, we didn’t find it as full of charm as Sucre, the city is nonetheless very welcoming. There are very pretty colonial houses and a long pedestrian street.

Its main plaza, la Plaza 10 de Noviembre, is surrounded by beautiful buildings like the Cathedral.

By the way, the city is a world heritage site.

The next morning we were going to visit the mines using our hostel’s travel agency. But Matt will have to go alone… Once again Maider is in bed with diarrhea (let’s hope this is the last time). Having to be underground for 3 hours without being able to go to the bathroom was too much, and Maider decided to stay at the hostel.

Visit of an active mine

The tour starts at 8:45 am from the hostel with the guide and a gentleman from Switzerland who is also doing the tour. We stop first at the travel agency to change and put on over-pants, a jacket, rubber boots and a helmet with a head lamp. Dressed as perfect little miners we head to the miner’s market.

After a few minutes in the bus, we stopped at the miner’s district in Potosi. It is here that the miners buy what they need for work : drinks, coca leaves, dynamite, 95% alcohol, anti-dust mask etc… The guide, first explains that the miners spend the day chewing coca leaves, this gives them more energy and acts as an appetite and thirst suppressant.

He then goes on to explain how the dynamite works and then leaves us about 10 minutes to buy gifts that we will give to the miners that we will see once at the mine. I went ahead and bought a bottle of soda and a bag of coca leaves.

The 10 minutes transformed rapidly into over half an hour, as we lost our guides… Apparently one of the guides forgot his credentials that allowed him to bring us in the mines. Once he came back we continued waiting in the bus… this time we were waiting for some mine workers, friends with our guide, so they could take advantage of the bus to go to work! We finally left for the mine around 10:30 am… we learn to be patient in South America.

As we arrive to the mines, the guide explains that this morning very few miners will be working. Indeed, we are Friday morning and Wednesday was the Final of the annual miner soccer tournament so they partied and drank a lot. On Thursday, the miners were celebrating this section of the mine’s anniversary. They killed a couple llamas, buried their heads and intestines near the mine for good luck, and had a big barbecue with the rest. Of course A LOT of drinking was involved, so in this Friday morning many workers stayed home, while the others had massive headaches. We even saw one at the entrance of the mine who explained he had been drinking for 3 days straight. So he asked us if he could get a bottle of soda to help him through the day!

After giving all our gifts to the miners in front of the entrance, we stepped inside the mine. And the first thing you notice is all the dust in the air. The guide actually told us that all miners have a chronic lung disease because of breathing this air everyday.

We first stopped by Satan. Indeed, Satan protects the mine, and miners, when underground, believe in Satan. Every first and last Friday of the month, the workers come and commune with Satan and give him offerings. They do that in order to ask for safety and be sure the mountain will be full of minerals. Custom dictates that one should drop off coca leaves on the head, and both hands of Satan, and also on his erect penis for fertility. Then the miners drink shots of the 95% alcohol, without forgetting to pour some of the contents of the shot on the ground to thank Pachamama. Indeed, without mother earth, there would be no minerals in this mountain! Of course the guide didn’t forget us, he had brought his own bottle of 95% alcohol, we all had to pour some for Pachamama, make 3 wishes and drink the shot.

After that we continued to walk inside the mine, always having to watch our heads. I spent half the tour completely bent over and still knocked my head many times, thank God I had a helmet. The guide explains that we are currently walking on the first level, it’s the only level where there are rails for the carts the miners use to transport the minerals. The mineral lines being vertical, the miners are obligated to either climb up to follow it and continue mining, or dig downwards. So we had to climb and crawl through small cavities to get to miners who were working. They explained that earlier in the morning they dynamited the area and are now extracting the minerals, mostly zinc and a little silver.

Overall the working conditions of these miners are terrible. They spend 8 hours per day, 6 days a week, in the mines without ever coming out. Today the miners are organized in cooperatives, at the time when the Bolivian government was exploiting these mines, the working conditions were a lot better. They worked only 5 days a week and it was a lot safer since the government worked with professionals. Today 60% of the men’s population of Potosi works in the mines. The first reason being that this work still pays very well for Bolivia, between 1,000 and 3,000 bolivianos per week. The second is that miners need no education, even worse, they refuse to have professionals come and help them in the mines. For them, these professionals only know the theory, and have no practical knowledge or experience. The result is that  there are now more accidents then when the government exploited the mines and brought in professionals to help with safety measures. Every month 10 miners die because of accidents inside the mine, and 4 die because of chronic lung disease.

Finally the guide explains that the miners never eat inside the mines. The first reason is because of all the dust in the air. The dust would land on the food, and if the miners ate this food full of dust they would get diarrhea. The second reason is that they are not allowed to go for number 2 in the mines. Indeed, because of the heat, the faeces liberate methane, which is an explosive gas. So during 8 hours all they do is chew on coca leaves, smoke cigarettes and drink 95% alcohol mixed with soda or water.

After 2 and a half hours in the mine, we finally get out and get some fresh air. Very happy to finally breath some air without dust, we head back to Potosi. In the end an interesting experience that offers a good glimpse on the mine workers’s lives.

Visit of the Casa de la Moneda

After going back to the hostel to grab lunch with Maider, I go back in the city to visit the Casa de la Mondea. This museum explains the history of money making in Potosi. Indeed, once the Spanish discovered that there was so much silver in Potosi, they decided to manufacture their coins directly there.

The museum shows how these coins were made, but also how the manufacturing process evolved over time. At the beginning the coins were simple made by hammer. Then Spain sent huge machines to flatten the silver slabs, and cut them into perfect round coins, these first machines were powered by mules. Then came the first steam machines from the US, and finally electric powered machines. The manufacturing of coins in Potosi completely stopped in 1950, today the Bolivian coins are made in Chili, except for the 5 BOB coin that is made in Canada. And all the bills are made in France. The guide tells us that around 1650 to 1750, Potosi is one of the most important city in the world. By comparison, at that time Paris had about 45,000 inhabitants, London about 65,000 and Potosi had over 160,000! I have to acknowledge that I was very skeptical when hearing those numbers. So I couldn’t write this article without verifying them! And it just happens that the guide was completely bullshitting. Indeed in 1700 Potosi had 200,000 inhabitants, but at the same time Paris and London had about half a million inhabitants each.

Our last night in Potosi we stayed quiet at the hostel, the next day we had a bus at 8am to go to Tupiza. Tupiza is about a 5 hour drive from Potosi and is one of the city that serves as a starting point to tours to the famous Salar de Uyuni.