This is...mi vida

Postosi...the mine tour to the devil

Why do people go to Postosi...to do the mine tour. The mines have been the glory and demise of the town for the past 500 years. And the conditions in the mines are probably still just the same.

Our tour started with the shady lady who told Hadass and I that she sold the tour for 80 but would give it to us for 50...whoa lady simmer down. We climbed into this van for 5 people (we had 8) and headed to the miners market to buy the miners presents.

What gifts to you give to miners? Alcohol, cigarettes, coca leaves, water, pop and then for us to play with, dynamite. Our horribly conflicted guide, who spoke English directly translated from Spanish, a confusing ordeal for everyone.

He gave alot of his person views on the tour...like the people in Bolivia are sleeping in the head because they don´t have education and that he sometimes buys cocaine, but it´s ok because he´s educated and that the worst tourists are people from Argentina.

I felt so badly for him the entire time. ¨Thanks¨ to his education he can´t really believe in the mother earth side of this culture, even though he still participates and obviously would like believe in it, and now it´s hard for him to connect with the other Bolivians. But I suppose at least he as a good job.

Bolivians in Potosi have basically one money making option...work the mines and then normally die in 10 to 15 years from inhaling the toxic chemicals. As grim as that is the working conditions make it that much better. Everything is done manually, they stay underground picking away until the get a cart full and push and pull it to the unloading place. For 8 to 10 hours a day.

The main entrance to the mine has sheds where the tools are stored and a main office, all of which looked like there were hosed down with brown liquid. Actually it was dried llama blood from the week befores yearly sacrifices (12 llama´s per mine and a few get buried inside).

We entered the mine in our miner gear and sloshed through muddy floor and cart tracks. This was one of 3 times I could´ve been stuck with claustrophobia, but fortunately it pasted because the guide cracked jokes and I was happy at least I could breathe, as the entire time Hadass was on the verge of an asthma attack. It´s not comforting to hear...yeah there´s not much air in here.

The 2 hour trip in the mine included, chatting with miners and giving them coca leaves, walking hunched over in areas 5 feet tall and crawling on our hands and knees to see the devil all while gasping for air.

The miners kept trying to get dates with us and telling us, ¨they work hard in the day and at night too¨, if we knew what they meant.´

The farther down in the mine we went the warmer it got, which was actually nice. When we finally arrived to the devil we got to rest and find out why the statue showcased a enormous erect penis. Ohhh for the fertility of the mines...rightttt. Even the guide said he thought was because of machissimo.

The Devil, built by the workers, wore mining boots and was covered in coca leaves and confetti. The guide offered coca leaves and a lite cigarette and alcohol to the devil. He also toke customary swig of the 96% almost pure alcohol. He told us how most of the people believed in both Catholicism and the mother earth. When we left we were invited to take pictures with the statue but no one could bring themselves to do it...so back to day light to light a stick of dynamite.

Returning to the light and realizing that no we didn´t die or break any bones was refreshing. The guide was in charge of the dynamite and ran like a mountain goat after he lite the fuse down the hill, buried it and ran back up all before it blew up. The explosion was impressive and I cursed myself for not buying a stick.

Back to cram in the van to return to the city, where we were kicked out of the van in the middle of town, because the driver had only been paid to bring of there, even though we´d never been there before. Hadass protested to no vail, but we made it back to the hostel.

I never want to do I mine tour again, but couldn´t be happier that I did.

entrada de Stacey @ 18:26