We arrived in Potosi around 2am, getting a taxi (which felt really dodgy) to our hostel. Lawrie woke early with stomach troubles so we spent the entire day watching tv! When we did venture out, it was like being in a ghost town, with people at home for Good Friday.
Saturday morning Lawrie got up early with the intention of getting a mine tour, after a mad rush we made it to our tour agency, who, while giving us a discount, recouped their Bs with a bus booking fee (but it made it easy).
Our first stop was to get geared up (which included LED headlamps) before cramming in a micro (think suzuki carry) and heading to the miners markets, where you can buy everything, including dynamite, as presents for the miners. Our group (consisting of a Swiss couple and a Dutch guy) decided on things like coca leaves, soft drinks, alcohol (96%) & cigarettes.
The mines are worked as co-operatives, however from discussions with our guide they are anything but. Women and children sort the ore once outside, with the junior miners (down to 15) pushing laden mine carts out to the surface. Apparently the mine we visited had a geologist & a mine plan, but had no reference of the location of other mines. To determine proximity to other mines they listened to the sound of adjacent shotfiring (12pm & 5pm)...extremely sketchy.
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| Roof support... |
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| Pretty easy to see the ore here. |
There were two forms of ventilation; natural and that of leaky compressed air lines or air tools (including lovely oil mist)...None of the miners wore any sort of dust mask while we were there and visibilty around the airleg was around 50cm, one of the others nearly getting collected by a retracting leg. Conditions were absolutely horrible. Essentially everyone dies of silicosis. Working lifetime was around 10-15years however (apparently) they have a death rate of around 0.14%, which we don´t believe.
(Fellow travellers have since told us that their guide got hit by a roof fall & broke his leg on their tour! They had to get a worker to escort them out, eventually!)
We had to climb 15 (80m) ladders to get back out, with very little in the way of secure attachment. The mine is around 4000m above sea level so this was serious exercise given the conditions.
Lawrie didn´t want to look at the roof.
Our final stop was to visit Tio Jorge, where we layed gifts of coca, alcohol & lit cigarettes. It was obvious that he´d lit up a few times due to the combination of alcohol and flames...again very sketchy. We partook in an offering of alcohol to Pachamama (mother earth) before trying some of the Ciebo.
That afternoon we found an internet cafe with very fast internet and caught up with the world. We caught a taxi to the bus station (thankfully not dodgy this time) to catch our night bus to La Paz, arriving Sunday, Lawries Birthday & Easter.
Sunday morning we arrived in La Paz just as the sun was rising. We waited around the bus station until their was enough light to walk to our hostel (Bash & Crash - not recommended!)...unfortunately we completely missed out street (two blocks from the station!) and went on a bit of a morning tour just as La Paz was waking up. We eventually checked in and met a guy who´d just completed Huayna Potosí (6088m) & who recommended Travel Tracks for the climb.
We spent the rest of the day organising tours and getting (re)acquinted with La Paz and the tourist areas. Later on we caught up with Josie & Luke and headed to dinner at a mexican restaurant, it was a very relaxing birthday for Lawrie.
Monday we planned to organise the Huayna Potosi climb with Josie & Luke but Luke had taken ill with a stomach bug. Lawrie booked a three day tour starting Tuesday with travel-tracks, meeting his guide and a fellow climber at the same time. That evening we met up with the rest of the group from our Salar trip, for a few quite beers. Lawrie left very early to get prepared for the next day...
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