Potosi & Sucre (27-30/Apr/06)

Santa Cruz, Bolivia

“Worth a Potosi”, coined by Miguel de Cervantes, refers to something of great value or opulence. Potosi, at the foot of a mountain rich in silver ore, is the city where the Spaniards annihilated a vast amount of natives in the process of transferring the silver from the mountain to the banking houses of Europe (without it sticking around in Spain for long). Not so much in the mines, but mostly through mercury poisoning during the process of extracting the silver from the ore. The forced labour idea was inherited from the Incas (who called it mita), though in Potosi a simplified version was used (cutting out complications like job safety, adequate food supplies or benefits to the local community).

These mines are still worked today by miner cooperatives, who sell the ore to a handful of local companies that grind and separate it, and then ship overseas for processing (and then re-bought by Bolivia at ten times the price in the form of electronic goods). There isn’t much money for proper engineers, so most new tunnels are opened by the more experienced miners (not hugely experienced – average life expectancy is 15 years down the mine, mostly due to respiratory diseases). Ore is extracted in the stuffy tunnels, by drilling small holes (luckily using hydraulic drills – these generate less dust), stuffing it with dynamite, and returning next day once the dust has settled to slowly cart it outside. All of this in temperatures of up to 40C and at 4000m above sea level, for shifts of 8-12 hours, sometimes much longer, without food. This is quite probably the worst job in the world.

The main tourist attraction is to go down the mines and have a look. This has been criticised as voyeurism, but in fact it gives some people a chance to get out of the mines (most guides are ex-miners) and the miners receive 15% of the tour price (at least with our agency), and we also started the tour going to the market to buy a few presents: coca leaves, fizzy drinks, 96-proof drinkable alcohol, and dynamite (no licence required, or even age restriction). The tour itself is an awesome eye-opener. I for one am never going to complain about my job again. Dressed in the proper garb (overalls, helmet, light, wellies) you crawl and scramble around the low-ceiling hot, dusty tunnels in the dark, avoiding the 1-ton carts that whiz around the place pushed by two people. You slowly get to see the whole process, slowly going down the various levels. I think the worse bit is the hole drilling, with a really loud noise and lots of dust. Apparently you get used to it eventually. This is probably the best tour we’ve been on as it is a glimpse into a different universe. Mining isn’t something one normally gives much thought to.

We also spent some time round the town itself, looking at the colonial architecture and absorbing the atmosphere. It’s not ugly for a mining town, but Sucre is a lot prettier. In Sucre we spent less time than we would have liked as there was a transport strike coming up. But we got to see a lot of it’s pretty churches, and even got on the roof of one for a great view of the city. It also has the world's largest amount of dinosaur footprints which is nice (even if the tour to see them sucks).