Potosi and the big bang!

After a chilly night in Uyuni it is on to another bus this time headed for Potosi and not so luxuriously! It is time to go local. Fantastic views en route and crazy mountain roads with interesting beeping techniques used by our driver whilst travelling at high speeds round blind bends on single tracked roads. Ah it is good to be on the road!

Arrive into the beautiful city of Potosi, grab the other white girl on the bus and flag a taxi to our accomodation, high up on the hill, 4,100m up. Quick hot shower, followed by a good dinner in a hot restaurant . We like this city!

The next day we booked on a tour to the still active silver mines. We dressed up in our highly sexy yellow suits and hard hats to head for the miners market. Shopping list - drinks for some of the miners, water and dynamite (oh yeah baby!).

We climbed in the bus up the red mining mountain where Don compacted some dynamite in his hands, careful not to get his lovely new ring dirty, and inserted the fuse ready for blast off! Our trusted guide then climbed a little down the hill and lit the fuse. Now we have videoed this bit and my god did it go KAAABOOOM! Wild! Good fun for a Wednesday morning!

We then climbed to the top of the mountain and entered a small gap in the mountain and into the mines. We clambered in, walked along the dark narrow passage to our first big hole, where we trusted our ill fitting wellies to grip on to the crumbling rocks as we descended to level 2. Our torch lights highlighted all the seams of minerals in the rocks, fools gold, zinc, nickel and the tiny slivers of silver. We ducked and dived our way along the, Indie eat your heart out, passageways until we met the miners and handed over our gifts of dynamite and juice. We then reached a small cave where a musuem dedicated to the history of the mine and Tio, the extremely well endowed god that the colonial spaniards had created to scare the native Indians into working hard, lay before us. After providing some 96% proof alcohol to the god and some coca leaves we moved back through the mine and out into the sunshine and bustle of activity as lorries were loaded with minerals and local women hammered the stones to show the value of the mined ore of the day.

A truly frightening place where safety is non existent and families still live in small stone houses on the mountain but a hell of an interesting experience.