Ahora, estamos solitas!!

Potosi was a delightful city with bustling pedestiran streets overlooked by the giant Cerro Rico (rich hill), righfully named for its silver mines that made Potosi rich in Colonial times. While the hill is running low on siver, many a miner (15000 a day) haul thousands of tons of minerals out 24/7, 356 days a year. While mining burdens most all miners with bad lungs and shorter life expectancies, it is a very well paid profession (for Bolivia, about 2000Bs a month... 7bs=1$). Of the 14 Hummers in Bolivia, 12 are in Potosi. There are no main companies in the mines, and the miners work for themselves.

While we had heard that the mines were a crazy place to visit, we unsuspectantly took a full day tour. First stop was to the miners market where we purchased presants for the miners (as they do not stop work for tours)... mostly dynamite and pop. Next stop was a processing plant where the minerals are separated from waste in a bubbly mixture. Here we also properly learned how to chew coca leaves, which left our mouths numb.

Now, into the mines, dressed in our miners outfits with gigantic headlamps that must be as old as the mines themselves.

Only in Bolivia... what else can I say? The main tunnel shaft was lined with pipes that hissed and dipped who know what, while we were constantly jumping to the sides as workers hauled huge loads of rock out. We walked into the mountin for about 20 min, and then headed down a small shaft that started out to be 1m round. We ended up on hands and knees wheezing, most likely due to a lack of xoygen (well over 4000m) and a mixture of strange chemicals from recent explosives (the bandans around our noses and mouths didn´t help much). Continuing down the tunnel we were told to stay to the left (for there was a huge gaping hole to the right where loads of minerals were being hauled to the upper levels). Crawling down the shottiest ladders I have ever encountered, with the odd surprise of a swiveling step, we decended a level further. Here we gave our presents of dynamite to the workers (some of whom were a mear 14 years old).

The scramble back out was farily nerve wracking, gasping for breath in the thin air, combied with the closed in quarters left everyone feeling fairly uneasy. Vikki made it very well known that she never wished to enter a mine again.

Glad to be back in the open air, our guides gadly lit some left over dynamite and let er rip on the side of the hill. Good times.

After the not so pleasent mines, we decided the next day would be spent with a relaxing bike tour to some nearby hotsprings. All the biking, they told us, would be down hill, and we could enjoy a taxi ride back. "There is just a little bit of up at the end... no problem." Yes, there was a little bit of up at the end... but at 4000m, it left my lungs burning.

While relaxing in the large hot spring, a friendly German couple informed us that they had read in their guidebook that many a person had dissapeared in the hotspring, reappearing 24hrs later boiled... um... fun. After being reassured by our guide that everything was fine (even though we could now see bubbles in the middle of the pool) we enjoyed the water, and left unboiled.

After a wonderful few days in Potiso, Vikki and I have sadly parted ways. As she heads back to Peru to catch a flight to the great white north, I head further south to meet a dear friend in Buenos Aires for Christmas.

Traveling with Vikki has been amazing, and I am going to miss her dearly!!!

Hope that everyone is well, and having fun preparing for the holiday season!!!

ciao ciao