Potosi Mines -- Chewing Cocoa in Bolivia (Potosi)

Member Name: travelnotes

Product:	Potosi
Date:	06/09/00 (151 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A tour of the co-operative mines gives the visitor some idea of the atrocious conditions these men are forced to work under to scratch a subsistence level for their families.

Disadvantages: The mixture of dust and sulphuric gases are not kind on the lungs, and crawling through holes that are small, even for Bolivians, is arduous for the most adventurous.

Potosi was founded on 10th April, 1545, after Indian silver mines were discovered at Cerro Rico, and became one of the richest cities in South America.

A tour of the co-operative mines today gives the visitor some idea of the atrocious conditions these men are forced to work under to scratch a subsistence level for their families.

The entrance tunnels are understandably chilly.

At 4,070 metres above sea level, Potosi is one of the highest cities of its size in the world, and possibly one of the coldest, harshest, most depressing spots in the Andes. From the cold associated with such altitude, the inner levels of the mines soon cause the men to sweat, without even swinging a club-hammer.

Within ten years of working the mine, there is a strong possibility of death from silicosis-pneumonia. The remuneration is ridiculously low, and if a man working in a state-owned mine dies without leaving a son to take his place, his wife or daughter is forced into the mine if they are to retain the house and some form of income.

Chewing Cocoa Leaves:

The miners chew cocoa leaves all day to alleviate hunger, help them to breathe, and numb their senses. Even the three-hour tourist, wearing a hard-hat and holding a naked-flame lamp, is encouraged to do the same to prevent nausea.

The mixture of dust and sulphuric gases are not kind on the lungs, and crawling through holes that are small, even for Bolivians, is arduous for the most adventurous. The breathless tourist makes way as another Bolivian miner runs through the hand-dug tunnels, to reach his position at the face.

Miners At Work:

When you are completely sweaty and covered in dirt, you get to meet some miners at work. They hammer a chisel into the rock to make the hole for small dynamite charges. The short fuse hardly gives them time to retreat, but they will probably chew some more cocoa leaves before they return.

The process is slow, hard,
and from another age; Dickension characters had it better than some of these illiterate campesinos with no-one to champion their cause. Perhaps if the Argentine-born, Che Guevara had concentrated his revolution within the mining community, instead of Bolivia's fairly uninhabited ravines, the story might have been different.

Che Guevara, and his band of experienced guerillas, needed a brave Bolivian who wanted to change things for his countrymen, and not the determination of General Barrientos to squeeze the foreign pimples off the face of Bolivia. The miners have they never had a talented leader. Now they wait for the tourists to bring them a bag of cocoa leaves.

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