Our plan was to visit the mint, but we were the only two wanting an English-language tour when we went, so we were told maybe there'd be enough if we went back later. So we headed back to our wifi place and had cake and submarino (hot chocolate made by melting a piece of chocolate in hot milk.)
The mint is meant to be Potosi's best museum but you can only go in on a guided tour. Thankfully, there were enough people for an English-language tour later that afternoon. It was really good - we learnt lot of new facts, like the origin of the dollar sign, and also saw controversial mummified babies. We didn't get any pictures though as you had to pay to use your camera and neither of us was sneaky enough.
Later on the first day, we realised our fridge wasn't working. Paul got to work pulling it apart.
The problem appeared to be dust in the jet of the gas burner, but in trying to fix it, we damaged it beyond repair. Doh! Cue a day of internet searching the next day. We managed to track down the name of the part we need, but with our crappy Spanish it was going to be impossible to source one here, so we have ordered one from the UK to be shipped out to La Paz. It will take about a week, so our plan is to lesiurely head to La Paz.
After a day of admin, we finally got round to Potosi's main attraction - a tour of the mines. Potosi's economy is driven by a hill in the south called the Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain) where silver was found. It's now mined for zinc, lead and other minerals. We'd been warned that the tours are tough - low tunnels, high temperatures and lots of dust. You have to be mentally prepared!! And dressed for the occasion.
The tour included a visit to the miner's market where we bought gifts for the miners, including drinks (because it's so hot), 96% alcohol (used by the miners during their Friday ritual), coca leaves and dynamite.
Ronald has the 96% alcohol, I'm holding a stick of dynamite.
The yellow bag, known as a completo (not a Chilean hot dog), contains dynamite, a fuse and a catalyst to make the explosion bigger.
Then it was on to the refinery where we were shown extracted silver of about 75% purity.
Then down to business: entering the mine.
First we visited Tio. The miners believe that the minerals belong to the devil, so they build a shrine to him called Tio (or uncle) and every Friday they offer him coca leaves, cigarettes and alcohol to appease him.
To get down to level 3 of the mine where miners were actually working involved crawling on hands and knees in some places. For once, I was glad to be small. There was a tall German guy in the group who complained more than once that his neck was killing him!
We saw various stages of the mining process, including rocks being loaded into carts and winched to the surface.
The toughest work we saw though was miners drilling holes for dynamite. The drills produced so much dust, it was unbearable. This is the scene with no flash.
With flash on, you can see just how bad it was.
It may have seemed voyeuristic to be going in to a mine and gawping at these men doing one of the toughest jobs, but Ronald assured us that the miners welcome tourists, not only because of the gifts, but also because 15% of what we paid went towards to the miners' cooperative.
No doubt the tour was tough. Climbing out of the mine was done in stages because the altitude made it so much harder! I would definitely not recommend it to anyone with breathing difficulties, nor anyone with a fear of bashing their knees on rocks :o(
We were all so glad to survive!
