After a long journey from Copacabana via La Paz we made it to Potosi in about 20 hours. I took the cheaper bus to save a bit of money and Chris, Mike and Kev took the more expensive one that left earlier. I got to Potosi at 5:30am whilst the others met up with me at the Koala Hostel at 6am. In English money, I probably saved about 3 quid but it goes far in Bolivia.

So we arrive in a nice little hostel called the Koala Den that has a very homely feel to it. We pretty much check in as soon as we were there and showered up ready for the the day’s activities. We only planned to spend a night here before we move on to the salt flats in Uyuni.

It wasn’t long before we managed to book ourselves on the mine tours. We left promptly at 8:30am to go collect our equipment required for the tour, where we also met our guide for the day named Pedro AKA “Batman”. We were given some overall trousers and jacket which were supposedly used to protect our own clothing. However, they didn’t really stand up to the job. We were also given some wellington boots, a hard helmet and a head torch so we could see inside the dark small mines.

Before we went to the mines, the plan was to go to the miner’s market and see the Ore Refinery. We got to the miner’s market where we were told by the guide that this is the place where the miners buy their tools to carry out their tasks. This included 96% proof alcohol, food and drink and of course, dynamite. We bought 5 sets of dynamite of which 3 will be gifts for the miners and the rest for our own entertainment later. The miner’s life here is hard and it is customary to get the miners some gifts as we were visiting their place of work. In addition to dynamite, we got some coca leaves and fizzy pop for the miners as gifts. After the market, we moved on to see the see how the minerals in the rock are separated in the Ore Refinery.

Soon after we finally entered the mines. The entrance was a small dark opening in the side of a hill. We turned on our head lamps and walked in single file. I could see as I walked along the mines that these holes were all hand made as the sides of the walls were not in perfect shape and the ceilings were all at different heights. For most of the time I had to bend my head down and walk looking at my feet so I didn’t hit my head against the ceiling. On a few occasions the height caught me out and a massive *bang* would echo through the mines because the height of the ceiling unexpectedly changed. Fortunately, the helmet did its job and I never felt a bit of pain.

The mine went as far as 18 levels down. Our guide took us down 3 levels of the mine which was 120m deep. All of this was was done without lifts but with climbing, scrambling and crawling through small holes. The further we went down, the smaller the mine holes got. At one point we had to lay flat on our stomachs to get to a small cavern where a miner was working. we could see him hammering away at a small hole just so he can put a stick of dynamite in. He had already been working on it for 3 hours and it didn’t seem he had got far. We gave him some dynamite as a gift and moved on out of the mines. It was getting a little harder to breathe towards the end of the mine tour because a miner close by had let off some dynamite and we had walked through the aftermath of it where there was small floating particles and gases from the explosion in the air. We had some masks but they were pretty useless.

When we finally got out of the mine, I was glad as it was very tiring getting around in there at my height and it was much cooler and easier too breathe. The miners certainly have a tough life working there daily and It’s something I would never would like to do for a living. The good thing about this tour is that a percentage of the cost is put forward to the miners at the end of the year to help them out.

The day we were in Potosi, also happened to be the 189th Anniversary of the town which is a big event in the country. To celebrate, everyone in every possible job in the town comes out on a big march, donning big banners and shouting chants. We were invited to join the march with the tour guides and tourist association and we happily agreed, not knowing what we were actually in for.

After dinner, we went in search for group we was going to join the march with. As we walked along the streets of Potosi, we could see that the march had already begun. We walked against the march hoping we would find the tour guides group at the end. We followed the march for a about half hour and it still hadn’t ended. The streets were lined up with crowds watching the march. The march itself had an estimated 100,000 people in it. We never realised the sheer scale of this thing. We eventually found the tour group who were already preparing everyone by giving out the flag of Potosi to wave around and a Potosi lapel to wear with pride. We all received one along with the other gringos that decided to join in the march. The march itself turned out to be lot of fun. We mingled in with the other tour guides and getting to know them with some banter on the side. Someone in the group managed to sneak in 2 bottles of Bolivian whiskey for us to enjoy during the march. After about 2 hours, the march was still going strong. All of us were getting a little tired, but we were told that it wasn’t far to go. It wasn’t until an hour later we got nearer the end of the march were things got a bit stricter. Our group was organising themselves so that we were in a perfect rows of 4 people with the men and women separated in each line. We were then told to look right and hold up the flags. We then realised that we were marching past some important political people of Potosi and Bolivia and so had to be on best behaviour!

The march finally ended with a high. Everyone cheered each other as we marched past the finishing line. We marched for a solid 3 hours and it was tiring, but such an experience. This was our first and only day in Potosi but it felt like we had done so much and met lots of new people. It was sad that we had to leave the place so soon but it’s definitely one place we will be remembering for a long time.