From horses to hell

If anyone ever hears me complain of my job, all you have to do is say ¨Potosi¨ and I´ll shut up. I promise. The mine tour we did today was one of those weird experiences that no one wants to do, but you sort of feel obligated to do. The mine used to be one of the richest in the world, and Potosi itself was the largest, richest and one of the most influential cities in South America...now Im sure 95% of you have never heard of the place. We hit up the Miner´s Market at 8am, loaded ourselves up with dynamite, ammonium nitrate, blasting caps, soft drinks and coca leaves. After that we swung by one of the processing plants, where they take the rock and filter out all the goodies (Zinc, Lead and Silver) through the use of cyanide and whatever other horrible chemicals they can think of (with all the excess junk being pumped into the local river free of charge!). Then it was up to the actual mines where we flipped on our headlamps and descended about 100-200 metres into the bowels of the earth. Kids as young as 10 work their asses off in these cramped, dusty and hot corridors (the bottom level hovers continously at 42 degrees) with 90% of the miners dying of a variety of lung diseases well before their time. The mine was fairly empty today due to it being Saturday, and the groups that we did come across were well on their way to being a few sheets to the wind. Nothing beats drunken miners with high powered explosives at the ready. As we came across different guys we´d hand out our gifts to them and they´d thank us by grinning with their coca stained teeth and throwing a few incoherant slurred phrases our way. In general they seemed like really nice guys and our guide seemed to be telling the truth when he said that any man without a sense of humour, isnt allowed to work the mines. Given that I was up the previous night vomitting due to the altitude (compliments of Potosi...highest city on earth), I jumped on the opportunity to try coca leaves, which are a natural fix for altitude sickness. Within an hour my lips and teeth were dyed green, my mouth was completely numb and everything had a happy tinge to it. I´m assuming that the coca was also the reason my normally claustrophic self was somehow able to belly crawl through hell. We finished the tour by lighting off a few sticks of dynamite on the local hill.

Prior to this little dip into mother earth we had completed our two day horseback trip in Tupiza. This ride was much better than the previous one at Coroico as the kid who guided us wanted us going muy rapido constantly. Lots of cantering with the odd gallop thrown in and my equastrian skills seem to be at an all-time high. Getting into the sadle the second day after riding for 8 hours the previous day was a pain I could have lived without, but it was a necessary evil. Highlights of the little trip include charging goat herds at full speed with Sabre (my lovely horse, who I miss dearly), grossing out the ¨posh¨ New Zealander who joined us with our disgusting conversations, traversing a flooding river on horse and watching the sheep headbutt one another at the little farm house we stayed the night at. Speaking of which, the family somehow made us a great meal of llama steak, rice, potatoes and this onion dish, all for a measly 5 bolivianos (65 cents of so). All in all a busy last few days and we're all looking forward to heading to Santa Cruz tomorrow night (currently in Sucre) and taking it easy while our Brazilian visas are processed.