The Silver Mines of Potosi, Bolivia
In Potosi, Bolivia, the economy is built on the silver mines in town. So today, I went on a tour of the silver mines, where you crawl around the mines where the miners are working. Ex-miners serve as the guides, and the tourists bring the miners gifts of coca leaves, soda, and dynamite. From a social justice perspective, it's weird to me that this is a tourist attraction without any larger goal of ameliorating the situation, so I had mixed feelings about going.
It felt like I was descending into hell. In the Candelaria mine where we were, there are two levels above the entrance and four below. After walking in the mine for not even an hour, I just couldn't go on. A couple of people had already turned back, but the full tour included descending to the fourth level below ground.
The conditions were so terrible. It was hard to breathe because of the high altitude (above 4000 m), the heat in the interior of the mine was increasingly stifling the further we went in, and the air was full of dust. The miners have a very short life span because they develop lung disease from the work.
Embarrassingly enough, I told the guide I couldn't continue and then burst into tears. One of the other tourists shouted, "I think she needs some oxygen!" But all I could say was, "No, it's not that. It's just that this is very heavy for me. To see people working in these conditions..." I think they all thought I was crazy.
Last night, I bolted upright in bed to a nightmare that I was in the desert all alone. This is definitely not the breathtakingly beautiful part of the trip anymore. I feel like I landed back into real life with a heart rending thud.
The conditions were so terrible. It was hard to breathe because of the high altitude (above 4000 m), the heat in the interior of the mine was increasingly stifling the further we went in, and the air was full of dust. The miners have a very short life span because they develop lung disease from the work.
Embarrassingly enough, I told the guide I couldn't continue and then burst into tears. One of the other tourists shouted, "I think she needs some oxygen!" But all I could say was, "No, it's not that. It's just that this is very heavy for me. To see people working in these conditions..." I think they all thought I was crazy.
Last night, I bolted upright in bed to a nightmare that I was in the desert all alone. This is definitely not the breathtakingly beautiful part of the trip anymore. I feel like I landed back into real life with a heart rending thud.
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