We woke up early, packed, had breakfast and got to the bus station at 9:15am. We saw a rickety old bus pull up that had no front bumper at all and we thought, oh no! Our bus was only leaving at 10am so we waited a bit and that bus started spluttering and bunny hopping it’s way down the road at 9:40am so we were relieved it wasn’t ours. We were very happy to see our nice bus pull up with all its bits intact and no black smoke in sight. The bus ride was 5 hours and it was a stunning bus ride through the mountains, canyons, fields of llamas.
I basically stared out the window for the whole 5 hours. As soon as we got out the bus there was a taxi waiting so we jumped in and sped off to our hostel. Our hostel was fine although our room was freezing. We were starving as it was 4pm and we hadn’t eaten since 8am so we found a restaurant for lunch/dinner. Pete ordered a steak roll so him being vegetarian didn’t last long!!
I didn’t have a great feeling about Potosi. I don’t know why but it just looked like a big, dirty city and my first impressions weren’t great. The city use to be the richest city in South America and Europe due to its abundance of silver. Nowadays however, the silver has been depleted to very scarce levels and the town is a bit run down and overcrowded.
The town centre was quite nice with some beautiful old colonial buildings and streets lined with shops selling clothes, bags and hammocks made from llama wool. Pete likes it here but for some reason this city is just not for me. Pete booked us onto a tour of the Cerro Rico silver mine, I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it but said I’d go with him as he really wanted to do it. We had read a lot of reviews from people who have done it and said it was an amazing experience.
I wasn’t so sure. Anyway that evening the hostel was playing a documentary about the Cerro Rico mine called “The Devils Miner”. We decided to watch as we thought it would give us some history about the town and the mine, well I wasn’t prepared for what the movie was actually about. It followed a 14 year old boy around who has to work in the mines as his father died and he is the main bread winner for the family now. His 10 year old brother also works in the mine. It was so sad. There are 800 children that currently work in the mines. It is such hard work and really scary for the poor kids as they are afraid of the devil who they call “Tio” as they have been told that God cant reach that deep into the earth and that “Tio” eats miners alive if you don’t take him offerings like coco leaves, cigarettes etc. if they don’t die of accidents involving explosives or run away carts, most of the miners (who start working at normal age) die around 35 years old because of silicosis of the lungs from breathing in all the dust so those poor kids that start work at 10 have no chance.
I spent the rest of the evening in tears after watching the movie and just didn’t feel morally right to go to the mines to watch these people work in such harsh conditions. I just felt like it must be hard for them to see tourists come and go….we can go back to our “safe” lives but they can’t leave. It must be especially hard for the children to see people with nice clothes and nice cameras come and go. In the movie all the 14 year old boy wanted to do was go to school and to one day be able to leave the mines, leave Potosi and maybe travel to Europe….reality is he will probably never leave the mine. The tourists do take presents down to the miners like chocolates, alcohol, cigarettes, food, cold drinks etc and someone said that some of the money from the tours goes to the miners but I am a bit skeptical of that and think it probably just goes to the tour operators and if the miners do get anything I doubt it stretches down to the children.
Even now as I type I have tears welling up just thinking about it. This place has been quite a harsh reality check…..
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