Eden and Josh

July 16th was Josh's and my 6th wedding anniversary! We hopped a bus from Uyuni to Potosi and celebrated at a posh Bolivian restaurant. Potosi is the highest city in the world at 4060m altitude. Because of the altitude, it is very cold, there is amost no vegetation and no hope of any kind of agriculture. Why do people live here, you may ask? FOR THE SILVER!

During the colonial times, Potosi used to be the richest city in South America. The mountains were filled with pure silver. The Spanish used millions of Bolivians and black and indian slaves to mine the silver. It is estimated that over 8 milions workers died in the horrific working conditions. These silver mines bank-rolled Spain for hundreds of years.

Today, most of the pure silver is gone but there is still a lot of composite - silver, lead and zinc alloys. The mines are co-operative mines which means the miners work for themselves rather than an outside company. They haul out tons of rock themselves and sell it to refineries that separate the minerals and pay the miners based on how much of each mineral the rocks contained.

Josh and I took a tour of one of the biggest mines. The working conditions were shocking! The men and boys work in this mine where the temperatures are sweltering and there is almost no air to breathe. What air there is, is so full of dust that most of the miners die a very early death from lung problems. We wore bandanas over our mouths but even still, after less than 2 hours in the mine, we were completely hoarse.

Because these mines are co-operatives, the miners must buy all their own supplies, such as dynamite and shovels, and decide where to blast and tunnel. These tunnels are not built or approved by engineers so the younger miners depend on the experience of the oldest men to prevent cave-ins and to find the mineral veins.

The working conditions were appaling, however, most men in this city are miners because there are few other jobs and mining tends to pay a little better than other jobs. One miner told us that most of them have 6 plus kids and even working in the mine does not earn them enough to support their families, so many boys have to work as well. The miners also feel abandoned by the government who refuses to build them a smelting plant. As a result, they must sell their silver powder at a very low price to Chile where it is smelted into a useable product which Bolivia must then buy back at a very high price.

Potosi is a very nice city but unfortunately its hay-day is over and as the mountains run out of silver, I'm sure it will eventually become a ghost town.