For the full complement of photos
corresponding to this blog entry, use the following link to the set of photos
in my Flickr pages:
Sucre
Of the few cities that I visited in
Bolivia, Sucre was by far the most picturesque. Its old district, centred on
the main plaza, is a pleasant spread of whitewashed colonial buildings.
Near to the city is Parque Cretácio
where earth excavations as part of the production for cement works revealed
many dinosaur footprints. Shifts in the earth´s crust tilted, what was
previously sedimentary rock from a horizontal muddy plain, near vertically. As
such, the footprints now ´climb´ the wall.
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| Dinosaur Footprints in a Near-Vertical Face |
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| Sucre |
Potosí
Potosí, at 4090 metres (13,420 feet)
is one of the world´s highest cities. It has a long history of metal mining
(since colonial times). Indeed the local mountain Cerro de Potosí is now
significantly lower than it used to be, having had so much of its surface
removed by open-cast mining. Its interior is now honeycomb like as there are so
many mine routes from hundreds of years of ´chasing the mineral veins´ of
silver, zinc and tin amongst other metals.
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| Processing of Silver Ore |
The city of Potosí is not a tourist
destination in itself as it is not attractive; the main tourist draw is the
opportunity to visit working mines that are operating in very basic conditions.
My visit coincided with a national holiday so there were few men working the
mines – at least that meant that the dust underground was at a manageable
level.
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| Entrance to a Mine in Cerro Potosí (Those Carts are Pushed, Full of Rock, Manually to the Mine Entrance) |
Each of the many mine ´routes´
underground is owned independently or by cooperatives, with many of the miners
working freelance. The result is an
apparently unregulated chaotic mix of different mines chasing diminishing
resources. Each mineral vein is ´owned´ by whoever gets there first, so at
times two different teams of miners can be chasing the same mineral vein (a
story by my guide, an ex-miner, illustrated this). Sometimes the two teams can
be blasting with dynamite when the neighbouring team is in a separate tunnel just
metres away – they better hope that they hear your warning shouts in time.
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| Tim in a Mine in Cerro Potosí with Plenty of Room to Stand Up (The Black Hoses Carry Compressed Air to the Drills) |
The work is predominantly manual and
must be back-breaking; even during my few hours underground the low tunnels
started to drive me nuts (mind you I am a lot taller than the average
Bolivian). Their drilling is aided by compressed air supplies, other than that
all the work is manual, with buckets of excavated material being hauled and
lifted up vertical shafts by hand (rarely by electric winch). Once in the
´larger´ tunnels, the carts of rocks are pushed manually along the tracks to
the mine entrances.
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| One of the Carts Which are Pushed Manually Along Tracks to the Mine Entrance |
The majority of the miners suck on a
ball of coca leaves to give them the boost necessary to cope with the very
tough working conditions. The mines are at an elevation of around 4,200 metres
(13,780 feet) and the temperatures underground are in the range of 30 to 40
degrees Celsius (86 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit). If that mix of rarefied air and
high temperatures in low tunnels does not get you, then the dust surely will
(many miners die by the age of 40 from lung conditions). Given the many dangers
present in such conditions, the miners show a great reverence to their god (El
Tio).
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| A Shrine to the Miner´s God - El Tio in a Mine in Cerro Potosí |
Bolivia is a poor country. I believe that the average monthly salary is in the
range 2,500 to 3,000 Bolivianos (around £230 to £270 or US$350 to US$410), with
the minimum wage being far, far less than this. I understand that the miners
make in the region of 3,000 to 3,500 Bolivianos per month, with this rising to
5,000 for a while if they hit a good mineral vein. So really, those poor guys
are not really making ´big bucks´ as compensation for the back-breaking work
which is literally life-threatening. One miner who was working underground
during my visit told me that he was working to save for a car (over a number of
years), that is a lot of high-risk work just to save the cash for a car. It is
quite apparent that many Bolivians never really manage to get a foothold above the
financial level associated with a basic lifestyle; (I avoid using the term
´poverty line´ as I think that poverty has to be judged by more than just your
bank balance).
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