Potosi, Bolivia
The good news is I survived hypothermia in the bus, the bad news is I was still freezing my ass off when I stepped outside of the bus. I thought it was the broken windows that was making that bus cold but it was the freezing cold weather in the highest city in the world that was doing the job. I tried using my Canadian flag as a blanket buuuuut surprise, surprise that wasn´t warm enough. Naturally, we jump into a cab and pick the first cheap hostel we find. Beds? Check. Cheap? Check. No fire breathing bed bugs? Check. All right, lets sleep.
The next day´s game plan was to hit the silver mines. Other than being the highest city in the world, Potosi is known for its huge silver mines. Sitting at 5,200m working up there is no easy task. We took a tour up there and suited up like good ol´miners. We then bought some presents for the miners which included pop, coca leaves and of course 90% alcohol. The tour guide let us check out some sticks of dynamite. Matt and I really wanted to buy some but we had no money. The other guy who had money didn´t want to buy it. Don´t ask me why.
Once we got up there we were greeted by an incredibly drunk miner. He couldn´t even speak Spanish correctly. He wasn´t even halfway through his shift! After his little show we headed inside the mines. We first watched a giant pressure drill drilling holes for sticks of dynamite. They didn´t hold back on the dynamite, that´s for sure. We then went deeper into the mine to give the miners a little help. We pulled up a few buckets and let the boys drink their moonshine. It´s the least we could do. After, we mined for some silver and zinc and got to keep some nuggets. I´d say the craziest part of the tour was when we met Tio and talked to the miners. Tio is a devil that the miners worship to receive good fortune in silver and zinc annnnnd not die. If you´re good to Tio, Tio will be good to you. We also talked to the miners about the life of a miner. It was clear that it´s a very tough life. Miners there die at an average age of 35. The one miner said death is slow but certain. The work is very dangerous and the gases they breath in slowly kill them. It´s a tough line of work but it provides good money for their families. Pretty surreal stuff...
We found out that night that it was a big Bolivian holiday. Don´t ask me which one but there was a big party in a concert hall that night. We hit it up with a group of Spanish girls. The party was going pretty normal playing classics until there was an intermission where they turned off the music and turned on the lights. Weird...then they turn off the lights and a local Bolivian band comes out of no where and start playing in the middle of the dance floor. Everyone starts dancing around the band in a rotating circle. It was so weird but so fun. These Bolivians sure know how to party. After my ears were ringing from coumbia and I was a little dizzy from dancing circles around this band we decided to call it a night.
The next day we scarfed down breakfast and headed down to the bus for Sucre. $3 bus...not bad...
The next day´s game plan was to hit the silver mines. Other than being the highest city in the world, Potosi is known for its huge silver mines. Sitting at 5,200m working up there is no easy task. We took a tour up there and suited up like good ol´miners. We then bought some presents for the miners which included pop, coca leaves and of course 90% alcohol. The tour guide let us check out some sticks of dynamite. Matt and I really wanted to buy some but we had no money. The other guy who had money didn´t want to buy it. Don´t ask me why.
Once we got up there we were greeted by an incredibly drunk miner. He couldn´t even speak Spanish correctly. He wasn´t even halfway through his shift! After his little show we headed inside the mines. We first watched a giant pressure drill drilling holes for sticks of dynamite. They didn´t hold back on the dynamite, that´s for sure. We then went deeper into the mine to give the miners a little help. We pulled up a few buckets and let the boys drink their moonshine. It´s the least we could do. After, we mined for some silver and zinc and got to keep some nuggets. I´d say the craziest part of the tour was when we met Tio and talked to the miners. Tio is a devil that the miners worship to receive good fortune in silver and zinc annnnnd not die. If you´re good to Tio, Tio will be good to you. We also talked to the miners about the life of a miner. It was clear that it´s a very tough life. Miners there die at an average age of 35. The one miner said death is slow but certain. The work is very dangerous and the gases they breath in slowly kill them. It´s a tough line of work but it provides good money for their families. Pretty surreal stuff...
We found out that night that it was a big Bolivian holiday. Don´t ask me which one but there was a big party in a concert hall that night. We hit it up with a group of Spanish girls. The party was going pretty normal playing classics until there was an intermission where they turned off the music and turned on the lights. Weird...then they turn off the lights and a local Bolivian band comes out of no where and start playing in the middle of the dance floor. Everyone starts dancing around the band in a rotating circle. It was so weird but so fun. These Bolivians sure know how to party. After my ears were ringing from coumbia and I was a little dizzy from dancing circles around this band we decided to call it a night.
The next day we scarfed down breakfast and headed down to the bus for Sucre. $3 bus...not bad...
posted by Kean @ 7:41 PM
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