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| Cerro Rico over my left shoulder |
A couple of weeks ago, I took a little trip to learn more
about some of Bolivia’s past. My first
stop was in the city of Potosi. Potosi,
founded in 1545, was once one of the wealthiest and largest cities in the
world. It all started once silver was
discovered in a mountain (Cerro Rico).
It is said that a man was on the mountain and made a fire to keep
warm. After the fire had gotten so hot,
a shiny liquid began to flow from under the fire. Afterwards, the Spanish came to exploit the
mountain for the shiny metal. This city
prospered greatly as did the Spanish with every ship load of silver that
arrived in its harbors from Potosi. The
city continued to grow and the mines as well. They brought in African slaves to
work in the mines. Many did not last a
year in the mines because of the horrible conditions, many that still remain
today. But as all good things, they must
come to an end. After the collapse of
the silver market, many left Potosi and the city lost its wealth. The Africans that were brought over to work,
left the cold high altitudes of Potosi and made their ways to the Yungas near
Coroico to be in a more tropical climate.
For those who stayed in Potosi, life was a struggle and many stilled
mined silver and tin to try to make a buck.
The mines in Potosi have been and continue producing silver since the
1500’s.
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| View of Potosi from above |
Potosi
is a descent sized colonial city in the southern part of Bolivia and also ranks
as one of the highest cities at 13,420ft above sea level. Upon arriving at the bus terminal, I
commandeered a taxi that took me to the main plaza. It was around 7 in the morning and extremely
cold. I walked around a bit shopping for
a nice cheap hostel that I could spend a couple nights. Finally I was able to find one and I quickly
made my way to my room and jumped under the covers to get warm. I decided it was best to take a little nap
before I started my day off. After my
rest, I took a shower and made my way out into the city to figure out what I
was going to do the next couple days. My
first plan was to schedule my trip to the silver mines which was the main
reason I wanted to stop in Potosi. So I
found a place and scheduled a visit for the next morning. I then asked for a few suggestions of things
to do. They suggested two convents and
the casa de móneras. Since the Casa de Móneras
is closed on Mondays, I decided to go to visit the convents. The first convent I went to was the Convento
de Santa Teresa. Here in this convent,
families would give their second daughter to God. The girls would leave there families to live
in this community where they would learn to serve God and never see the outside
world again. They would make crafts and
other things to sell to the people on the outside to support the convent. It was a very beautiful and interesting
place. I could never imagine entering
this place and never again to see the outside world or my family again. Even after they died they were buried
underneath the floor of the convent.
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| View from the roof of Convento San Francisco |
After
the tour I decided it was lunchtime and I went to find me a place to eat a bit
of lunch and watch some of the World Cup.
In the evening I went to visit the Convento de San Fransisco. I was able to take photos in this
convent. The tour was more focused on
the art of the convent. After viewing a
bunch of paintings and sculptures, we made our way into the sanctuary which was
very beautiful. Next we went down a small
locked staircase to the catacombs underneath the sanctuary. Underneath people would be put into a room
for a few weeks until their meat was dried and coming off. Then the remainder would be peeled off the
bones. The bones from the dead would
then be put into a box and stored underneath the sanctuary so they would have a
more direct path to heaven. Most of the
bodies were taken out of the catacombs and buried in the cemetery by orders of
a president because the smell was becoming very strong in the sanctuary. A few skeletons still remain as reminders of
the history in the convent. Afterwards,
we climbed the spiral staircase to the roof of the convent where we had an
amazing view of the city and Cerro Rico.
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| Inside Convento San Francisco |
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| The Altar in San Francisco |
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| Where they left the bodies to rot off their meat... |
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| Some Leftover bones and skulls |
The next morning I made my way to
the agency where I had scheduled my trip to the mines. The first stop we made was the miners
market. Normally, people buy gifts to
take to the miners in the mines because it is still an active mine. Kind of a way to show them respect which
opens them up to talking about their job and life. In the market I bought them a 2-liter of
Coca-Cola, some Coca leaves, and some dynamite with a bag of
nitroglycerin. I was pretty surprised at
how cheap the dynamite was and shocked that it is legal to buy here for
anyone. We then made our way winding up
the mountain to the entrance of the mine.
The workers are very superstitious when it comes to the mines. Outside of the mine belongs to God, but below
the surface belongs to the Devil. They
call him “Tio” which means uncle. If
they appease the devil than he won’t mind if they take his silver and he want
allow a collapse of the mines. At the
entrance to the mine, they sprinkle Llamas blood as a sacrifice for safe
passage. Once in the mine, there is a
statue of Tio where the miners give him alcohol, cigarettes, and coca leaves to
show him respect. Also another
superstition they have is that women can’t enter the mines. The reason is that Pachamama (mother earth)
will get jealous of a woman if she comes into the mines to work and that it can
cause all sorts of problems.
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| Yea I bought some Dynamite! |
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| El |Tio (Devil) |
Once in the mines, things begin to
get crazy. The main tunnel into the mine
is where the workers push the heavy carts in and out of the mine on tracks,
hauling the precious ore or debris out of the mine. It is extremely hard to stop a full cart, so
if you are in the tunnel and see or hear a cart coming you have to run as quick
as possible to find a place to get over to the side and out of the way. It is an adrenaline rush when you know you
have to hurry to find a safe place.
After dodging a few carts, we stopped to see Tio and give him some
sacrifices. We then made our way deeper
into the mines to find some miners at work.
In the tunnels of the mines are many places where there are drop-offs up
to 100ft down into the mountain. So you
have to carefully make your way through the tunnels where we encountered our
first set of miners. We were able to
talk with them a bit and learn about their work in the mines. We gave them some gifts and made our way deeper
into the mines. In order to reach the
next group of miners, we had to get down on our stomachs to crawl through some
small passageways. Once we reached the
miners, we had the opportunity to do some work.
I quickly volunteered. I made my
way back into their work area and began shoveling silver ore and debris down
into a cavern below. It was hard work
but I enjoyed. I could have stayed there
the whole day and worked with them. I
truly enjoyed it. Then we made our way
to another worker who was above us and preparing to chip away in the caves
above. To reach him we had to crawl
through more small tunnels and up through switch backs climbing up to where he
was. It wasn’t the safest of passageways
but we made it up there. We talked to
the miner a bit then I helped him assemble his chipping machine. Noticing what time it was we had to make our
way out quickly because many people were detonating dynamite at 1 and we only
had a few minutes to get out. So we said
farewell and quickly made our way back through the tunnels. Once we finally made it to the main tunnel,
we ran dodging many carts full of ore on the way out. Finally, we saw day light and made our way
out of the mines.
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| Chilling in the Dark |
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| Doing a Lil' bit of work (Notice all the dust flying around) |
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| Chilling by the Carts |
I had an amazing time in the mines
and really could have spent the whole day down there. But, the reality is that these mines are very
dangerous. Many people enter these mines
everyday because there is no other option of work in the city. Many start at young ages of 15 or sometimes
less. Many miners, unless they take care
of themselves and are cautious, don’t live more than 15 years after entering
the mines. The mines employ around
15,000 workers. The mines have claimed
up to 8 million men since the discovery of silver. The men who don’t die in the mines usually
suffer and die from extreme cases of Silicosis from the dust and toxins they
inhale day-in and day-out. The
conditions in the mines are rarely improved.
The mountain has become known as “The Mountain that eats men”. If the mountain doesn’t get you the silicosis
will. In reality, once you begin working
in the mines, you have signed your death sentence. It is a tragedy that this is the only option
for many young men.
After we had left the mines and
made our way back to the city, I went over to the Casa de las Moneras to take a
tour of the Spanish mint. The Spanish
empire ordered that a mint be built in Potosi to coin silver for the
empire. Once the king received the bill
for the mint, his remarks were, “that mint must be made out of Silver”. In this mint millions of coins were minted
from the silver ore that was extracted from the mountain. Many slaves from Africa and indigenous from
Bolivia were forced to work in the mint.
There were many harsh conditions that went along with the work
there. In the mint were 3 large machines
that were used to flatten and cut coins out of silver. At first they were powered by 4 mules below
that would turn a post that gave force to the machines. Since the mules would die after a few months
from all the work, 20 African slaves were used to turn each machine because
they lived longer. The history of this
city that built the Spanish Empire is a long and sad past.
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| Mule powered Machines from inside the Mint |
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| Some cool looking Scales |
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| This place was built like a fort |
The next day I went back to the bus
terminal and quickly caught a bus to Sucre which is only 3 hours away. Sucre is the real Capital of Bolivia and has
been known by many names. The names before
were Charcas, La Plata, and Chuquisaca.
It now is also known as the White City because all the buildings in the
city are white and it is illegal to paint them any other color. It is a very beautiful city to relax in and
enjoy the colonial architecture and narrow streets. Since Sucre is at a lower elevation of 9,
220ft, it has a warmer climate than Potosi.
This appealed to many of the royal and wealthy families from Spain who
were in the silver trade. Many Spanish
lived here as well as a prince who built a traditional castle near the
city. It was a pretty happen place which
is why it became the Constitutional Capital of Bolivia. Now it is only the seat of the Judiciary
branch of the government because the President Evo Morales, wants to move everything
to La Paz. But that’s a long story I
don’t want to get into…
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| Municipal Building from the center |
Once in Sucre I quickly met a guy who took me
to his hostel. It was a pretty decent
place with a nice Villa on top with couches and a huge TV as well as a great
view of the city skyline. I dropped my
things in my room and showered before making my way down to the market to grab
a late lunch. As soon as I found the
comedor of the market I sat down at a table and the lady brought me a plate of
food. It was amazing. I sat there for a little while talking to a
couple gringos and then made my way towards the city center to walk around a
bit. There is a large beautiful plaza in
the center of the city. It is like a
small park with fountains and may large trees with park benches
underneath. It is an amazing place to
relax and watch the busy people around you go about their days. Afterwards, I walked around the city a bit
more exploring looking for interesting things to do. There isn’t much but there are a few things
outside the city to do if you wanted to do a day trip. I spent the evening relaxing and went to eat
a nice filet mignon in a French restaurant before turning in for the
night.
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View from my Hostel. (Notice all the White)
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| The city lights up at night! |
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The following morning I set out
from my hostel to see if I could discover how to get to the overlook above the
city before lunchtime. I walked a few
streets climbing the hills towards where I thought it should be. After about an hour, I discovered a plaza
high up on a hill with a church/museum on one side and a beautiful overlook on
the other. It was an amazing view of the
city as you could see the white buildings with red tile roofs and narrow roads
all throughout the city. I winded my way
back through the city towards the market to eat a plate of Mondongo, a famous
plate that the region is known for. It
consists of a piece of pork cooked with red aji and yellow corn. It was good but I’m sure there are better
ones around the city. Afterwards, I went
back to the hostel to rest and watch some more of the World Cup. In the evening I waited for my friend that I
had met in Uyuni to pick me up. She
lives in Sucre so I figured she would be a great candidate to hangout with and
learn more about the city. The first
place she took me was to the dinosaur park on the outskirts of town. Years ago when they were clearing land for
their cement production factory they were using dynamite. On one mountain, the dynamite blew and a slab
of the mountain slid down revealing hundreds of dinosaur footprints. Apparently, millions of years ago, where Sucre
is, use to be a lake and many dinosaurs trekked through the mud leaving their
footprints. With the seismic activity,
the lake dried up and the muddy footprints were pushed up into a mountain. It is pretty interesting and the people of
Sucre are pretty proud of their dinosaurs and their park.
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| Beautiful Overlook for the city |
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| Footprints of Dinosaurs |
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| T-Rex trying to sneak up on me |
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| Sun Setting over Sucre |
After touring the park she took me
on a tour around the city showing me the sights and the countryside. It was really nice just to ride around and
see the city. Next we walked around the
city seeing it lit up at night and we went to a park that I hadn’t been to
yet. It is called Parque Bolivar. We were lucky because upon arriving, there
were many college students practicing many traditional dances for a parade that
they would be having a few days later. So
we just sat there and watched the band playing and the people dancing for about
30 minutes. It was pretty awesome to
watch. Finally, we walked around the
park which was cool because the whole park has a Paris theme except for the kids’
park right next to it which has a dinosaur theme of course. We then went down to the central market to
have buñuelos and tojori. This is a traditional
thing for many people to do in Sucre in the evening. Buñuelos are kind of like a funnel cake and
Tojori is a corn drink and they are both very tasty. I could get use to having it every
evening.
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| From Parque Bolivar ( I think it is the Eiffel Tower?) |
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| The main path through the park |
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| Judiciary building overlooking the Park |
The next day I decided should be a
restful day. So I packed my things and
then went to the bus station to buy my ticket to return to La Paz. I then went back to my hostel and talked to
the manager for a bit before walking down to the market to have some chorizos
for lunch. Afterwards I returned to the
hostel and went up to the villa on top to kick back and watch some of the World
Cup and relax drinking some Mate. Later that
evening I went back to the market to again eat Buñuelos and drink some Tojori
before heading to the bus terminal. I couldn’t
think of a better way to end my vacation!
