25th November

Today’s activity and indeed the only activity in Potosí is to visit the old silver mines in the mountain “Cerro Rico”. In the 1500s a farmer lit a campfire on the mountain and then saw a river of silver trickle out from the rock. The Spanish got to hear of this and in their own inimitable style raped the mountain for all the any nugget of silver there. Parts of today’s entry are pretty depressing. You have been warned.

Our first stop was to pick up overalls, boots, a helmet and a torch. If the mines were in Britain they would have walkways, strip-lights, a souvenir shop and more health and safety you could shake a stick at. But this isn’t Britain, this is South America. We bought our dynamite from a local shop and presents for the miners who still work there chiselling for zinc and others metals. These included fags made of black tobacco and aniseed, crisps, coca leaves and fuses and more dynamite.

The entry to the mine was fairly narrow – not as bad as the Great Pyramid in Egypt though. Our guide, Madelena, was in flip-flops and no helmet. We walked in the torch-light for about 15 mins and then came across a miner (please note today is Sunday) who was hammering a big chisel into the rock face. A few of us had a go at chiselling but the real fun started when our guide chose a place to blow up with a third of a stick of explosive. The fuse was about a minute and we all nervously waited until BANG – lots of dust, thought my heart was going to explode with the noise but still was good fun.

A shirt walk further and we came across some more miners or perhaps minors would be more appropriate. Two boys, one 17 and one 14 years old. They were covered in dust and told us they have to shift TWENTY tonnes of rubble per day (a 10 hour shift) to get paid 80 Bolivianos (5 pounds). Madelena also told us the youngest miners are 12 and it is common for some kids to die on day one of the job. Death is caused by dynamite or falling down the multitude of shafts some 200 metres deep. The statistic of one injury EVERY DAY is also a pretty depressing one as is the life expectancy of 20.

Six of us did the “adventure” which involved crawling and climbing through the narrowest of tunnels, with sheer drops either side, and razor-sharp rocks above and below. Looking back I wouldn’t do it again.

Mining has to be one of the most evol jobs there is. I was coughing dust for hours afterwards and I spent one hour there. Starting at 12 years old and doing it for every day of your short life must be hell. It is one month to Christmas, you can't help wondering if they will be working that day too.

We left the mine after about an hour and the sunlight was a welcome addition. On the way back we blew up some more rocks with explosive and I now have a 1 minute video of the event. Although I think I might have used the F-word when it went off.

After a quick lunch we drove off to Uyuni. The trip on the truck was about 6 hours – the landscape of Bolivia is pretty amazing and the sunset just before we arrived was spectacular again. The rest of the journey passed without much incident apart from nearly puncturing the diesel tank on a rock.

Our hotel was great. There is a pizza restaurant attached with “proper” pizza, none of the rubbish I have had so far. I share a large meaty with Ed and drank lots of Huari andf then shared an apple pie with Kellie.