I was sitting in a dark mine shaft, watching two Bolivian miners jack hammer the wall of the tunnel we were in. The dust was thick, the noise echoed throughout the tunnel and the ground was shaking. This was a very intense scenario we found ourselves in. We were not sure if we could pass the miners because the tunnel was too small and we didn’t want to be anywhere near the huge jackhammer. A minute later, our guide signaled for us to walk behind the miners to get a closer look at the process of extracting silver ore from the mountain. I walked as quickly and carefully as I could behind them, and quickly got out of that tunnel.
We were in Potosi Bolivia, home to the massive silver mines of Cerro Rico, or Rich Mountain in English. Since the mid 1500?s this has been an active mine. We spent the day following a guide through the shafts and tunnels. Spending a half day in that mine certainly made me realize how good my life is. The
statistics of this mine tell its story: in the 500 year history of this mine, eight million people have died inside. The average life expectancy of a miner is 35 to 40 years of age. Typically, miners die within 10 years of entering the mines. The mountain used to be 17200 in height. Now it sits at 16,200. Our guide said that the mountain shrinks by eight meters each year from all of the ore that is removed. Locals truly believe that the devil lives inside the mountain because so many people have died inside.
Before we entered the mine, we stopped at the local markets to purchase gifts for the miners that we would meet inside. The gifts we purchased were coca leaves and cigarettes. The coca leaves help the miners breathe easier at the high elevation and also provide energy.
We put on out mining outfit and walked into the tunnel. It only took me a minute until I was out of breathe (video). The oxygen level at this elevation is already very high, but add to that the low levels of oxygen deep inside the mine. After walking a while through some of the shafts, we came across a miner working by himself at the end of a 4 foot high shaft. Using ( video) a hammer and a metal spike, he was hammering the pipe deep into the stone wall to create a hole. Once the hole was deep enough, he will place dynamite in the hole and blow up the wall of the shaft. Then he will use a shovel and wheelbarrow and slowly move the pile of rocks out of the mine, one load at a time. The shafts of the mines are not tall and flat. Most of the mine shafts we were in were about 4 feet in height. Often we had to crawl through the tunnels.
After talking with the miner, we crawled on through one of the tunnels until we came upon a ceremonial chamber. The miners here beleive that the devil lives in this mountain becuase so many people have died inside. In this chamber there is a statue of the devil. Each Friday, the miners gather here and offer gifts of alcohol, cigarettes, coca leaves to the devil. This will hopefully provide them with good luck in the week to come. There is also a statue of mother earth in this chamber, and similar offerings are also made to that statue.
After the chamber, we continued on through the tunnels until we were behind two miners jackhammering (video). We couldn’t pass them until there was room to squeeze by them in the small tunnel, so for a few minutes we had to stand right behind them as they drilled holes into the wall. It was a nerve racking experience because it was so loud, the ground was shaking, and there tunnel filled quickly with dust. After a while we moved around the workers and made our way out of the mine. It was an intense experience, to say the least.
Tomorrow we head into the Amazon Rainforest for a three or four day trek through the jungle.