there and (hopefully)back again: the infamous potosi silver mines and la paz

I woke up in the morning, striking up a conversation with a woman from Spain, who apparently had done the exact reverse trip than me. I picked her brain for details on what to do and what to not do. After breakfast, I decided to wander about La Paz (I have always found that wandering through a city is one of the best ways to get to know it).

traffic in la paz is really bad, making me glad that I am a pedestrian

I then went exploring to the witches market. Llama fetuses were prominently featured.

But I still had my day ahead of me. What to do? I remembered what some of the people who had gone to cholitas wrestling told me.

And then I decided to jump out of a building

This building:

Here is me, about to take the jump

everyone below looked like ants

It was pretty exhilarating, and the first time a bit scary. Jumping off the side of the building, bouncing my way down; I was making good progress. They stopped me at like 30 ft up or so, and let me freefall until about 5 feet. That requires a lot of trust, but as I am still typing a way, it obviously worked out for the best.

The 2nd time was still fun although it didn't have the same degree of uncertainty so it was less scary

I definitely got my adrenaline rush for the day, so after that I chilled in a cafe, reading my kindle. I ordered a smoothie at the beginning of my tenure in the cafe and by the end, had totally forgotten about it. Done with my chapter, I started to leave the cafe, but to my dismay, the barista slammed the door shut and started yelling at me in Spanish. Sheepishly, I realized I had totally forgotten to pay, so I did that promptly.

After taking a shower etc, I met Ana's friends in the lobby just as I was about to go to dinner. As dinner with company is generally more interesting than the alternative, I asked them what their plans were. Apparently waiting was in order as they had just gotten back from mountain biking and they needed to freshen up as well. After about an hour and a half, we left in a taxi, going to a random part of town, and inevitably, it started to rain. Searching for an open restaurant amidst the deluge, we finally found a bar that also served food. Dinner was nothing too notable, but something at dinner was. I am not sure how, but the conversation turned to cocaine. Matt, the australian in our group, was talking about cocaine, and I quipped that cocaine could take you to a different place (I was joking). Matt responded, quite seriously, that while it felt good, it mostly made your nose and parts of your face numb. That shut me up for a while. They proceeded to talk about how horrendously expensive cocaine was in Europe, and how cheap it was here in Bolivia. Matt really wanted to find an underground dealership called route 36 and even said he had already purchased a gram. While I am not positive he did or not, he sniffed something in his wallet.

This beauty is called a submarino. It is basically steamed milk with a bar of chocolate at the bottom, had it with cesar salad and llama ravioli as well as the good company of a New Zealand couple.

On the walk back, an old and wizened woman was casually sitting down on the sidewalk, wrapped up in a traditional skirt. Only after a second did I realize that a steady stream of urine was pooling under her. This is a poor country, a message that was soon to be hammered in by the mines of potosi.

But of course, first I had to get there. I had originally planned on taking the morning bus, but as that did not exist, the night bus it was. Splurging the extra 7 dollars, I went cama, the more comfortable first class option where you can fully recline. This is always a good decision, because by going on the night bus, you are essentially skipping the cost of a hostel.

Once we arrived, I joined a german man for breakfast, and we had llama cheese. For several pieces of bread, butter, llama cheese, and a hot chocolate, I paid a sum of 1 dollar.

Of course, in potosi, the thing to do is to visit the silver mines, and to do this, I went with Silver tours, costing me less than 10 dollars.

Me suiting up

Some of the miners, with a view of potosi in the background. They were paid based on how many of these wagons full of stone they could produce. Each wagon was about a ton, and they were only paid a pittance per wagon. Their daily wage is about 13 dollars per hour.

The richness of this mine is still evident. The major mineral that they are seeking for now is zinc, but historically, they sought for silver. Approximately 45000 tons of silver were mined from Potosi. Even more sobering is the number of people who died to make that a reality. Someone quoted me 8 million, but that strikes me as high. Multiple people die from both silicosis of the lungs and mining accidents. They say that you have 10 years once you start mining, and once that time period has elapsed, more mining will literally kill you due to the build up of dust in the lungs.

Entering the mine

We walked miles deeper into the mountain

We climbed down several levels to reach the area where they were actually mining. With the altitude, the exercise was actually pretty tough. We went down 6 levels.

The miners were steadily chipping away with their hammers. It was intense to see the present in lieu of the past historical associations that this place has. We sat in a circle and shared some bolivian whiskey (when in rome right...). That stuff is intense. It is 192 proof, or 96% alcohol, and when it goes down, you have a burning feeling through your throat. We also sheltered from the dynamite blasts, kind of like the sound of fireworks, except the sound and the feeling of the dynamite resonates through the mine. BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM. I wanted to go further down, but my guide pointed out how the blasts released poisonous gases so I was like, fair point, and gave up in that quest. We soon climbed back up.