Mines of Cerro Rico
It's like nothing you've ever imagined. The small tour group's first stop is at the miners' markets where visitors and miners purchase supplies. The supplies turn out to be alcohol, cigarettes, coca leaves and dynamite. After another quick stop to don rubber rain coats, boots and miner helmets complete with lamps, your bus takes off for the mines.
Entering the mines is a step into the past. Miners still work by hand cutting small shafts in which to place their dynamite. The air is thick with dust which vibrates with each groundshaking dynamite explosion. Thousands of miners work through the mountain with no central control or plan. Collapses are common. Visitors watch miners drunk on alcohol and stimulated by coca leaves (to ward off hunger) cut at the stubborn rock faces in search of zinc and tin and the rare vein of silver. In Spanish times Cerro Rico was known throughout the world for its silver deposits which are now mostly played out.
We visited with the miners and gave them the gifts we had purchased in the market. Many tours can be quite challenging physically including crawling through tight tunnels and climbing ladders up tight shafts.
Our guide showed us how dynamite is prepared and then had us huddle in a rock alcove as he set off an explosion which blew out our lamps and left us cowering in the dark!
The last hour of the tour was spent sitting in a dead end of the tunnel with the rock idol of the miners, Tio. Our guide recounted the horrors of working in the mines today and in colonial times when over 8 million slaves perished at the hands of the Spanish colonizers.
by Mitch on September 10, 2000
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Mines of Cerro Rico
On the outskirts of Potosi Potosi, Bolivia