As close to Hell as I ever want to be before death.

I am sitting in Sucre, Bolivia right now. One of the two capitals of Bolivia. But depending on who you ask it may or may not be the one and only capital. Its weird. I would like to say one thing about Bolivia as a whole. The Bolivians, as a whole, are some of the nicest people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting in my life. The country itself is also one of the most beautiful I have ever seen in my life. If not for the fact there is only one paved road in the entire country and the rest of the roads are plagued with frequent floods turning said roads into raging rivers and the very common landslide, I`d say this country was perfect, if not poor as hell.

Anyway right now I would like to take some time and explain about my trip toward hell. Potosi, Bolivia my last stop is the highest city in the world, with the city center topping out at around 4,060meters high. Needless to say, I was essentially gasping for breath my entire time there. Potosi is also home to a reasonably large collection of silver, zinc, gold, copper, and other mineral mines. I was lucky enough, lucky may not be the correct word, to be able to go on a tour of one of the mines. Let me tell you miner is never a profession that I wish to have. The entrance to the mines is about at 4,200 meters. I went with a tour group and our group leader was a former miner.Before going to the mines he was very eager to tell us about all the problems the mines have especially the dangers involved in working in them and the accidents that have occurred within them. Just a little example, about 30-35 miners die every year actually working within the mine, and countless others die every year from various illnesses they contract working in absolutely heart wrenching conditions. By the way, geological experts came to the Potosi mines some time ago, and they estimated that the mines were suppose to collapse in 2004. Comforting. But hey, this is a country filled with adventures. We were picked up at 8am, and then driven to the "office" of the tour company. Again, like many words I use to describe Bolivia, I use the term very loosely. This was more an alley with clothes hanging in it then anything else. We Were given a pair of pants, very thin jacket, some rubber boots, and a hard hat with a miners light. From there we were driven to the miners market which is normally where the miners buy the materials they need to work.

We were at the market to buy "gifts" for the miners that we would meet within the mine. The gifts were great. We bought the miners booze (96%), cigarettes soaked is Anis, coca leaves, soda, and my personal favorite dynamite. You read that correctly, we were allowed to buy dynamite. It is totally legal and anyone is allowed to purchase it. As I was very nervous to enter the mines, I ended up stuffing a huge wad of coca leaves in my cheek to calm the nerves. When chewed, and left to sit in your mouth (similar to dip) coca leaves give one energy, curbs hunger, makes the person less susceptible to the temperature, and they also cure altitude sickness. So we arrive at the mine, and before we go in we take a tour of the mineral processing plants and some of the other areas outside the mine. The miners we saw coming in and out of the mine looked absolutely haggard; soaked in sweat, breathing heavily, and seemingly unhappy to be alive. I`d also like to explain again that the average Bolivian is about 5`4 or shorter. This is an ideal height to be a miner. Our group of Gringos probably averaged about my height, not ideal for inside a mine. We donned our head gear, and with me chewing my coca leaves furiously trying to take my mind off the fact that we were on a journey to hell, we entered the mine. The first level wasn`t that bad. We had to bend down a little bit, but the temperature was fair and there was the occasional electric light. There were tubes running down the length of every wall in the mine carrying pressurized air for the jack hammers. Both the tubes and the jack hammers were excruciating loud when you were in a confined space, like a mine shaft. The first stop we made was to a room dedicated to Tio. Tio is the name of the devil that the miners worship to keep themselves safe. He is the one who controls their fates when they are within the mine. Talking to a miner the day after I was in the mine, he told me I was lucky to make it out alive because Tio likes white meat. There is a statue of their devil in this little room. His feet are buried under piles of coca leave, there are two cigarettes in his mouth, and he has a beer and the 96% alcohol bottle in his hands. These are all offerings that the miners give to the controller of their lives in exchange for their safety. These offerings don`t always help them however. Many still die, and at this point, Tio has probably killed more people than Stalin.

After giving an offering to Tio and stuffing another generous wad of coca leaves in my mouth, which was now packed, but still no match for the baseball size wad every miner I saw had in his cheek we headed further into the mine. After about a thousand feet of walking through increasingly shrinking passage ways we come to a ladder. "down" says our guide. "fuck off" I think. WE go down. It is now, a significant bit hotter, smaller, and entirely dark when the head lamps are turned off there is no light or fresh air in this place, and the air is think with dust, dirt, and rock particles. We continued along at this second level and then came to a steep hill of sorts. It was slippery because it was caked with wet dirt, how the dirt got wet I don't know, nor want to. We clamber down this with much less grace than our former miner guides, and come to the third level. It is even hotter. WE then army crawl through a very small space. It was a tunnel about 2 feet tall and not wide enough for more than one person. From there we walk through a tunnel that you can actually stand in and ome across a group of miners leaving for the day. They were all caked in mud and sweat and looked like walking death. (The average day for a miner is about 9-12 hours. Their average pay 80 bolivianos, or a little more than 11 dollars.) WE then come to another ladder leading to the fourth level which was about 150 feet below the surface of the earth. Lacking many things I have taken or granted in my life like sunlight, fresh air, and a reasonably good chance of survival. If the mine collapsed on us we were all dead. There was no illusion here. So, I stuffed my mouth with even more coca leaves. The fourth level was about 105 degrees, the surface was about 55 degrees. WE come across two miners actually working at this point. They are crammed into a very small space, both sweating profusely, one shirtless, as they try to drive a medal spike into the very solid rock deep enough to be able to use some dynamite to clear more space and hopefully find some minerals. The spike was driving into the rock using only a hand held hammer. They needed a hole that was about 20 centimeters deep, to reach that depth it would take about 7 hours. There was no using a jack hammer cause the vibrations could cause their area to collapse. At least with dynamite, they could give themselves times to escape a possible collapse. We sat in the sweltering darkness with our guide telling us about his experience in the mine for about 30 minutes. We were all sweating profusely, beginning to get claustrophobic, and hearing explosions above was making us increasingly more nervous of the imminent collapse of the mine. "time to go" he said "back up the same way we came down." More coca leaves are shoved into my mouth. We leave the two miners with a gift of cigarettes, soda, some coca leaves, and a stick of dynamite. We had four left.

Back up we go, with every higher level an increasing feeling of our emergence into the light getting stronger. Up the mud caked hill, the two rickety ladders, ignoring the lack of oxygen and the pain in strained legs. We had to get out. We made it back to the entrance, and to the chagrin of our guides we all sprinted into the sunlight and inhaled as deeply as we could at our present altitude. Two hour and 15 minutes we spent in that mine. It felt like a lifetime. How could people do that or entire days? Who would want to? I guess if you have no choice.... We stand outside the entrance of the mine basking in the sunlight, and then our guides ask us possibly the best question I have ever heard "so, do we want to set off the dynamite?" YES. We each get a chance to mix all the ingredients into a plastic bag, the dynamite was not formed in a stick like we have all seen in the movies. The fuse us out in and lit. 2 minutes before it goes off. We all get a chance to hold it and get our picture taken with it. The moment the photo is snapped we throw the dynamite like a hot potato to the next person. We all realize this shit might kill us if we hold it to long. After a minute and change and countless photos. Our guides grab the bombs and book it down a hill where they hastily dig holes with their feet drop the dynamite and run. One, two, three, four....26, 27. Its not going to go off we think. Just then BOOM!!!! Your whole body shakes with the blast. The noise is deafening, rocks and debris fly everywhere. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!!!! the other three go off. WE all stand their dazed for a moment. That was awesome. "we leave now" says the guide. Sure, we are all still alive, and we got to play with live dynamite. Awesome. I`d like to make it very clear though that no one should ever have to work in the conditions that these miners suffered. The average life expectancy of a miner was about 10 years after they began working. They can start as early as 14. It is terrifying, and I am glad I am lucky enough to never have to be in that situation. Tio is not a god to be trifled with and all the miners know that. sooner or later, Tio will come for them, and they all hope that they wont have to work in the mine for that long.