A glimpse into the life of the silver miners of Potosi

At 4.060 meters (more than 12,000 feet) of altitude, Potosi is the highest city in the world of this size. It is also famous for the big silver mines that have been exploited as a state cooperative for centuries. Today, despite the precious metal been more rare, there are 12,000 miners working there, amongst which 1,500 women, in working conditions hard to comprehend. Everything is still done manually and each miner's salaray is based on the silver he extracts from the mountain. No minimum wage here and miners start as young as 15. As we arrived in Potosi, we looked for an agency that could take us to the mines as it is now a well established tour that allows tourists to discover what life in the mines is like.

Descending into the darkness of the mountain

We had been lucky: in less than an hour, we would go to tour the silver mines, which leaves us enough time to enjoy lunch. Our guide was a former miner who had only worked in the cooperative for three years: the conditions were so harsh that he decided to rather go back to the mines with tourists! We jumped in his minivan and went first to put on our mine outfit: tall plastic boots as there is water there, matching over pants and jacket and the most important, our helmet and the light. We were ready to enter the mine and as we drove towards it, we saw from a distance how big it was. There are so many different galleries in there that it is more than easy to get lost and it goes as deep as 800 meters. A real maze!

Our tour started at the miners' market where they buy their supply and for the tourist, as the tradition has it, buy gifts for the miners to thank them for letting us visit their world. You can buy cigarettes or coca leaves that they chew in abundance to help cope with the hard working conditions and the long hours. You can also get dynamite since it is the main “tool” they use in their job and it is quite expensive. We chose a bag of coca leaves and two dynamite “kits”. We will explain later why two kits were necessary. A few minutes later, we were at the entrance of one of the tunnels of the mine. As we stepped closer, we heard a metal noise: two really young miners were pushing a heavy cart full of minerals. They dumped the content at the end of the rails, joining a pile of previously extracted minerals. These would be sold at the end of the week and would constitute their salary. They went straight back into the mine to continue their work.

We turned our lights on and followed our guide into the darkness. Shortly after entering the mine, we gave our respects to Tio, the devil of the mines who protects the miners during their work. Our guide lit a cigarette and put it in the mouth of the devil's statue: by offering him our gift, he should protect us in the mine. We were following the tracks in the mine, our boots walking in deep water. The path was very narrow and all sorts of cables were hanging around us. There were many places where it became so low that we had to bent over to not touch the ceiling. Caroline was very grateful for her helmet as she banged her head multiple times while walking in the gallery. We met again the miners we had seen outside the mine, filling yet another cart: they greeted us in a friendly way and asked Chad if he wanted to help. Of course: he then got to push the heavy cart on the rails towards the exit, not an easy job. We gave them a dynamite kit and said goodbye to continue our journey in the maze.

It was total darkness and the space around us was tight. Being still relatively close to the entrance, the ventilation was pretty good and the temperature fresh. As we advanced further, the temperature started raising to about 28C (90F) degrees and it was getting harder to breathe. We made the observation t the guide and he told us that in the hottest parts of the mine, it could go as high as 55C (140F) degrees and the air could definitively get thinner than that. As we walked, we saw big holes on the left of the rail, going as deep as 100 meters (300 feet) that the miners us to go down to lower galleries. Between the absence of light, the thin air, the tightness and dangerous galleries, this was a tough environment for sure. Miners work here about 16 to 20 hours a day, doing their hard labor and many die from a Grisou explosion or a ceiling collapse. Most of the miners can't do more than 10 years in the mine and have then severe health issues. We stopped in a side gallery that was a little rest alcove, with again Tio watching over us. There were two miners taking a break, and chewing heavily coca leaves before going back to work. Their were a team and the most senior had been in this mine for twenty years, almost a record, and the younger guy had joined him about a month ago. We chatted with them for a while, about their experience in the mine and they wanted to learn more about our motorcycle trip that the guide had mentioned. We felt almost ashamed of the great time we were having on our trip and not working for a year while these guys were working as hard as can be to feed their family. The coca leaves we left them seemed like a really small gift.

Back into the daylight and the fun of the city

We exited the mine in silence, thinking about how hard and unforgiving the mine environment was. We had a hard time adjusting to the light, back in the world above ground. This had been an eye opening experience that our words can hardly describe and once again, we realized how lucky we were. The guide told us it was time to escalate the mountain and use our second dynamite kit. Chad had asked if it would be possible to set one off and so the guide was taking us up to a small water whole where Chad would light his dynamite stick. He showed him how to assemble the dynamite and told him that half a stick would be more than enough. Chad lit the stick and tossed it in the water and we all walked away fast from it, waiting for the blow. We were not deceived: we heard a big noise and a massive splash of water came up several meters in the air. This was really powerful stuff. Our visit was now over and we went back to town, still bewildered by what we had seen and experienced. We went back to the main square with the bikes, getting ready to look for a hotel when we heard a band playing music. Looking around us, we saw a parade of dancers coming our way, with the band pacing their steps. They all had bright and colorful outfits, both for women and men. The men were opening the dance, twisting and turning with big masks on their head. The women were following, with the younger ones wearing really short skirts and high platform boots. Not really what we had pictured as a traditional outfit! The older ones were behind and they had the local hat and the big skirts that they were swirling in rhythm. It was an unexpected parade we really enjoyed, very cheerful and happy with people clapping their hand as the parade was passing. It was a feeling miles opposite form what we just had seen in the mines.

The next morning, we started our ride towards Uyuni, where we would see the famous Salar de Uyuni, a huge salt flat in the south of Bolivia. We were at the end of the asphalt road network and all the riding we would now do in Bolivia would be on dirt roads only. As we left Potosi, we enjoyed our last 20 kms of paved road. Today, we would ride 200 Kms on dirt, rocks, sand and mud, which should take us about 6 hours of riding. It is always a physical endeavor to ride a whole day on dirt but we were ready for it and no rain in sight. Chad as a gentlemen let Caroline go first so that she would eat less dirt being in the front. The ride was beautiful, taking us through canyons with little streams, filled with llamas eating grass. The road was technical but we had seen worse, with challenging times through deep sand and mud as there were lots of deviation and workers in the process of building an asphalt road. We had again to do a few river crossing that ended up being quite refreshing given the afternoon heat. We made it to Uyuni shortly after 5pm, tired and dusty but happy from the great ride. We were now looking forward to see how we would explore the Salar, a glimpse of which we had see from the last hill we rode.