Potosí

April 14 - 16
Potosí is a ore mining town with a big mountain, Cerro Rico rising behind it.  It has over 200 mines on the mountain with miles of tunnels.  It's also one of the highest cities in the world at 4090m (13,400ft).  CC and I spent 2 days here.  We enjoyed eating the street food and drink.  I like the food here as it has picante to it.  They even sell salsa picante in the market.  The Bolivians appear to have papas (potatoes) with all their meals. Its hard to buy any meal here that doesn't contain papas in some form.

Mercado Central

Jugo

Frutas

Vegetales


Open market

We did a mine tour that opened our eyes to dangers of this life.  The tour guy who is a miner and a taxi driver, had us buy some dynamite for the miners as they have to buy their own dynamite.(20 bolivianos = 3USD)  I'm not sure if this is the case for all the mining operations on the mountain.  He also took 96% alcohol & a 2 liter of Sprite to mix it with and serve to the miners.  He also said to bring some Coco dried leaves for the miners to chew on.  The leaves are suppose to help with the altitude.  I tried some and can't say I like having my tongue and mouth go numb.  We drove up to the mountain and spent 2 hours down in the earth.  We saw dropoffs with no protection other than the guide telling us to be care as we crossed a narrow plank.  My height is not conducive for being bent over so much.  They also erect gods which they burn candles or cigarettes to and pour the 96% alcohol on.  A couple of workers used the dnyamite we gave them to blow some more rock.  It didn't appear to knock that much rock down, and the sound wasn't to bad. (I had my ears plugged. haha!)  After watching our guide drink quite a bit of the alcohol, I was praying that he would be able to lead us back through the maze of tunnels to the surface.  We did make it out and I was happy to breathe fresh air. :)