Potosi - A very important city many centuries ago
After my fantastic salt-desert tour through Salar de Uyuni I took the bus directly to Potosí, because Uyuni is not a place where you want to stay. In Potosi I met 2 Israeli friends again, whom I had met before in Mendoza in Argentina.
Potosí is one of the highest cities in the world and lies 4100 meters above sea level. A few centuries ago it was one of the most important cities on the continent, due to the silver and tin mining in the nearby Cerro Rico mountain. After the collapse of silver prices, the city is now only a shadow of earlier days. Some of the city's inhabitants do not even have access to water pipes or electricity.
Buying gifts for the miners
For the next morning I had signed up for a visit to a mine in nearby Cerro Rico. Without doubt one of the most memorable and at the same time frightening experiences of my travels.
First we received full body red suits, a helmet and boots. Afterwards we could pose with a "dynamite". In my team were also a Frenchman and a Taiwanese woman. Everyone who visits the mine has to give the miners some gifts. This can be a stick of dynamite, cigarettes, coca leaves or 98% alcohol. Yes, in these conditions, locked up and working in total darkness, you need some light drugs. We also tried a sip of the almost pure alcohol - it was burning down the throat.
Entering the mine
The miner's work is a hard job and also a man's job. Women sit at most in the office. On the way there we already saw all the rough faces of the miners. One of them was peeing on the side of the road so that everyone could see his genitals - and he was completely aware of that haha!
We climbed down the mine and put on our face masks. The air was dusty and dry. And one smiles for oxygen. I only recommend the tour to people who are fit and not claustrophobic, because sometimes you have to squeeze down ladders or wind yourself around the rocks and have to be careful not to fall down during the whole time.
Working here is worse than any horror movie. Although the Bolivians here get a little more than the average Bolivian but it is still not much. And to spend the whole day in this darkness and loneliness underground, that demands a lot
The bizarre underground god of the miners with huge penis
We walked further through the mine and had just arrived at "El Tio" (the uncle). The miners see in him their god. An absurd and frightening figure, whose shape is based on the devil. Even though the miners believe in Christianity, Christian symbols are forbidden inside the mine, because this is the realm of El Tio. On his huge penis the miners place gifts like alcohol, coca leaves and cigar treads and hope for more success in mining. If the gifts are not given, El Tio causes death and destruction.
Right when we were with this underworld god, other miners came up to us and told us that we could not go any further for a while because explosions were taking place now. What if the miners did not give El Tio enough gifts and he is now destroying the mine?
Trapped in darkness next to the devil
We had to turn off our helmet lights and were now sitting in complete darkness next to this bizarre creature. The people I was with started to panic a little bit. We had to endure a total of 16 explosions. That felt damn long. In other countries it would be an unthinkable thing to have explosions somewhere when there are visitors sitting next to it, but surely the Latinos don't take it too seriously with that.
Afterwards we were all glad when we saw the daylight again. Definitely I will not forget the mine and El Tio so fast. Afterwards we drove to the factory, where the raw material extracted in the mines is processed.
Daylight again!
Due to the antibiotics and antihistamine I had to take because of my infected insect bite in Chile, I had an incredible itching and rash all over my body the whole time. Probably the dry mountain air also contributed to this.
After 2 nights I left Potosi in direction to Sucre. During the more than 3-hour bus ride there are no stops and toilets are usually not available in Bolivian buses (or they don't work). Thus, it is recommended not to drink anything before and during a bus trip.
