the mines

Went to Potosi for 2 days because I wanted to check out the notoriously dangerous mines. And yep.. they were exactly that. Dangerous. I went with a former miner who took us deep inside the silver mines and saw what these miners have to endure each and everyday. The most alarming thing was how difficult it is to breathe in the mines. Since Potosi is considered the highest city in the world (4,100m) it is difficult enough to breathe just standing still.



Inside the mines are very hot, and there are some people who actually work complelty naked because of the heat. The soot and dust don´t help with breathing eiither. I was down there for about 4hrs and when we finally made it out I had complelty lost my voice. Not because I was yelling, but because of all the soot and silver dust shit that I inhaled. My throat burnt from the chemicals and my skin still smells like sulfur.

Most, if not all, of the miners drink 96% pure grain sugar alcohol, chew mouthfulls of coca leaves, and look at Playboy sometime during the day while they are working just to escape how awful it is down there. The jobs consists of hammering, carrying loads of minerals/silver on their backs, or igniting the dynamite... Some workers are even as young as 7 yrs old. It was really interesting and shocking to see what some of these people wake up to everyday just so they can feed their families.

All I know is that I hope I never have to work in a mine. 4hrs down there was enough.





(this is a picture of my hands when I got out of there)