Playing with Dynamite

BOOOOOM!!!!!...That is the sound my dynamite made after I lit the fuse.

I am currently relaxing in the small town of Uyuni, Bolivia. There is almost nothing here except a train, a few pizzerias, 1 ATM, and about 70 tour companies for the Salt Flat expeditions. After a wonderful 1 night and 2 days in Potosi, the highest city in the world, we took a rough overnight bus ride here for 2 nights before our expedition departure on Monday the 9th.

Although I was hesitant about the altitude in Potosi, it has become my favorite city thus far. I did really like Cusco, Peru though. Potosi used to be one of the largest cities in Bolivia and one of the richest too. The entire city has been and still is dependent on its mountain, Cerro Rico and the silver minerals it contains. Back in the 1500s, an indigenous man was burning his llama on this mountain when all of a sudden a piece of silver fell....this became the defining point of Potosi. Since then, the mountain has been mined by thousands and thousands of miners. Today, although the silver is slowly depleting, many minerals are found and put through refineries (owned by Canada, England, Germany, Brasil, Chile..etc) and then sold off.

Mining in Bolivia is much different than many other places in the world. The mines are called Cooperatives which essentially have no rules, no bosses, any one who wants to make money can work. Most children, because of tradition, will enter the mine at age 13 and could work up to 40 years. The only law is that you can only work in the mines for 40 years (if you dont die before that) because of black lung. Most miners die of the black lung far before they reach 40 years. Potosi is a very religous city mainly because of the dangerous mines in which most men and young boys work. Part of this religion is very traditional and sacrifices are just as much a weekly activity now, as it was in the 1500s. Tio, which means Uncle, is the devil of the mines...miners make sacrifices to him every week to ask for safety and protection. They must give him coca leaves, alcohol, cigarettes, or llama blood to ensure protection. It was neat to actually see this old tradition still around today. As a cooperative, anyone can work whenever they want... if one day they do not want to make any money, they do not go to work. However, it is back breaking work that brings in very little money for these families.. that is of course unless they can find large amounts of high quality silver or minerals.

Now, of course they have set up tourist attractions for these mines but the difference with this tour and others is that NO precautions are taken. It is completely at your own risk. Of course they know when miners are blowing things up or where dangerous mining is happening but they do warn you that if there is a cave-in, you are just as much danger as any miner!! The tour starts by dressing the part. We got high black boots, pants, a jacket, a helmet and a headlamp. We looked pretty funny and definitely not like miners! Then, we were off to the miners market. Being a Cooperative mine, miners must buy everything they need to do their work... so in exchange for the miners to allow tourists in, we buy them gifts such as coca leaves, alcohol. soda, water, and...DYNAMITE!!!! So of course we picked ourselves up some coca, dynamite and Simba (soda). Then we were taken to the refineries where all the trucks bring the rocks down the mountain where they are sorted. These are really old school refineries and very dirty as well. But with water, cyanide, and some other crazy chemicals, the minerals are separated then put in place to dry before shipping them across the world by boat.

After the refineries...we entered the mine!
There were 3 available levels for us (in total there are 6).. each one getting further into the ground, hotter, and tighter spaces. On the first level you can pretty much stand up straight while watching your head for low rocks on your way to the miners museum. This is basically a few statues of Tio, the devil they worship, the Bolivian owner of the mines, and an african american who was once a slave doing all the mining. At this point, we saw miners working hard and we gave them a few gifts! They had blown up a spot the previous day so they were mining it and rocks were falling everywhere. Now, I would love to say that after this I was able to proceed to the other levels but unfortunately it just was not so. It was so tight and dusty and claustrophobic, i had to leave the mine. But,. dont judge me because MANY MANY people left the mines as well. Of course, amazing Kevin got to complete the whole tour!! He said it was not easy but one of the coolest things he has ever done. He met a family in which the father had worked 38 years in the mines (long time because they usually die within 10) and he was teaching his sons about mining...including his 13 yr old son-it was his first day in the mines!! Kevin came out about an hour later loving the daylight and coughing up a storm!! However, the mines were pretty awesome!!!!!
To keep your adrenaline going, we got to blow up our dynamite! Usually miners will blow dynamite up inside the mines after 5pm everyday when all tourists are gone and they notify all the other miners. However, we took our dyamite outside to the side of the mountain--where it barely makes a dent.

Our guide lit the fuse... after it is lit you have 2 minutes and 40 seconds before it blows up. So we quickly passed the hot potatoe around, took some cool pictures and gave it back to our guide who ran down the path and put it on the mountain and ran back. Exactly 2 minutes 40 seconds after we lit it and played with it, it went BOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!! Even though I knew it was coming, it scared the hell out of me! But how awesome!

p.s---dont worry mom and dad, we were in the hands of trained professionals!

After a day at the mines, a great day that is, we took a half overnight horribly freezing cold bus ride to Uyuni... checked in our hostel at 2.30 am even though the host was not very pleased! And today we booked our 3 day excursion through the salt flats. We leave tomorrow morning and we will hop off at the Chilean- Bolivian border on Wednesday. During these 2 nights, 3 days, we will see salt flats, lagoons, flamingos, more mountains, semi active volcanoes, stay in a hotel made of salt, and different colored lakes. It is a 4WD excursion out of a jeep where we stay in hostels but they cook for us too! It should be amazing...


Until Chile...