The Mines of Potosi

Raj, Ben, Dave, and I before the mine tour


Potosi, Bolivia is the highest city in the world at 3,967 meters (13,015 feet). At one time in history, it was also the worlds richest city largely due to the vast amounts of silver deposits concentrated in the mines of ¨Cerro Rico¨.
¨Cerro Rico¨ translates to ¨Rich Mountain¨. The Spanish Conquistadors had an especially good time with the city of Potosi as they looted the hell out of the silver and copper rich region and vastly increased the wealth of Spain.

Ben, Dave (profile below), Raj (profile below) and I decided that while on our way to the Salar De Uyuni we would stop off in Potosi and tour the mines.


Inside ¨Cerro Rico¨ " mountain pictured above" there are 700 tunnels. Our tour guide, described the mountain as a big piece of swiss cheese. Luckily, we toured one of the safest mines in the entire mountain. Nonetheless, safe is a relative term in Potosi. Currently of the 700 total tunnels, 400 are operational. There is speculation that the mines will completely close in the next 5 years. Geological surveys, recently carried out by academics, have suggested that the mines could collapse at anytime. Everyday, 4000 tons of rock are removed from the mines. 460 years is a long time but eventually the deposits are going to run out and the structural integrity will be compromised.

Currently, 15,000 people work everyday in the mines. This number includes children as young as 10 years old. Simply put, child labor laws are not enforced in the mines. The children work largely as gophers, supporting the everyday needs of the miners.




Somehow I fit down these narrow holes.

The mines of Potosi have been operational for the last 460 years. I cannot imagine that the conditions have changed much in that amount of time. They were deplorable. The four of us were coughing up black shit for a full day after our tour. The miners in Cerro Rico work 48 hours a week, Monday through Saturday, and have an average life expectancy of 40 years. After working in the mines for 10 years, the miners have irreversable respiratory conditions that kill them due to the large amounts of absbestos, dust, and sulpher they encounter. If you think you hate your job, take a trip to Potosi.

These guys work hard in the mines and they are completely filthy.

The smell of Sulfur perferates the air and the altitude makes it difficult to breathe. We were in the mines for two hours, and we all suffered at one point or another. There were a few points where I had to stop moving and concentrate on my breathing as to not hypervenalate.

To further increase my misery, I was crouched over the entire time. It was absolute Hell. Most Bolivians are about 5 ft 3. Otherwise, they could not physically endure the size of the mines.

This is me and our tour guide. He is about average for the size of the miners. He worked in the mines for three years before getting injured. For the last 11 years he has worked as a guide in the mines.

Note to self... Try not to look like such a huge dork in future pictures with tiny miners.

We went down three levels out of the four in our specific mine shaft. On the third level we helped a few of the miners out by shovelling some rocks for them. The fourth floor is off limits to tourists as its that much tougher to breathe. This level is also where most of the actual mining takes place.

Sidenote: Rich, English Gap Year Scum should not be allowed in the Potosi mines. We had two 18 year old, pre university assholes with us on our tour. They did not stop bitching and complaining the entire time. Its amazing that all four of us could not stand these guys, and did not talk about it until hours after the tour. I believe Ben and Dave referred to them as ¨The Wanks¨.

At the end of the trip we got to blow up some dynamite. Dave and Ben, who both worked with explosives with the Austrailian Navy, were shocked to see how negligent our tour guides were with the dynamite. I guess that explains why our guide was missing a few fingers. Nonetheless, its always entertaining to blow things up.

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Traveler Profiles:




Dave Mallett-25- Adelaide, Australia - Just out of the Australian Navy

Dave is one of Billy and Bens closest friends so I knew before I met him that I would like the guy. Dave is going to be traveling with Benny and I for the next few months until we come back to the states in early August. His story is similar to Ben and Billys as he spent the last 6 years as a Clearance Diver in the Aussie Navy. He specialized in diffusing underwater mines and bombs. He also went through the same vigorous training and also lived in Sydney and Fiji for the last 6 years. In addition to his dive training, Dave is also a certified Sniper and a ¨Close Quarter Battle¨ expert (I do not know what that means but it sounds intense).

After Dave got out of the Navy he took a job in Fiji with a friend recovering cargo from wrecked ships. Apparently, Fiji is full of wrecks. I did not know this.

After our travels Dave has a job on a luxury yacht as the master dive instructor. He will be cruising all over the Carribean, the Mediterranian, and South America leading dive expeditions. The cost to charter the boat he is going to be on is $250,000 per week. Thats right, you heard it correctly, $250,000 a week. He plans on doing this for the next few years. Dave shares my love of underground hip hop. This is a welcome relief as Bens musical taste consists largely of Robbie Williams albums.

Sidenote: The BV Shows musical tastes are actually coming around quite nicely. He has come a long, long way. I do not want to beat him up too bad. He is still mad at me for posting the extremely Gay Navy picture of him a few weeks ago.


Rajiv Shah - aka Raj Mahal (BV affectionally calls him ¨Taji¨) - 21- London, England pictured far right

I met Raj at Joyride, one of the best bars and restaurants in Sucre. Most of the backpackers congregate at this bar. Its the official meeting place every night. Anyway, Raj graduated from Oxford (yes, he is smart)last year with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and has been traveling for 7 months. He only has one month left and then goes to work at as an investment banker in London. English companies are very good about deferring start dates for new employees straight out of University. Raj had his start date deferred for one year.

Raj had been in Sucre for 5 weeks volunteering an orphange for girls 3 to 17 years old. He spent much of his time living in a flat with Israelis. He claims to have broken down international boundries with the Israelis by forcing them to speak English.

When I say that Raj Majal is a pretty smart guy, I mean he is borderline brilliant. He learned to speak basically fluent Spanish after being in South America for only 3 months. Before he got here, he did not know a thing. In addition to his travels in South America, Raj has spent quite a bit of time in Africa. He is giving me the lowdown on Kilimanjaro, Kenya, and South Africa.

Despite his massive IQ, Raj almost found himself in a massive battle royal with a few Bolivians three times his size on a weekend night out in Sucre. This happened at about 4:30 in the morning. Luckily, Dave, Ben and I were there. This is before I realized that Dave was a lethal weapon and could probably have taken out the entire bar by himself with one hand tied behind his back. Nonetheless, we managed to diffuse the sitution and Raj is still alive, well, and smart today.
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Notes:

> Yes, I am pretty backed up with Snoop Bloggy Blog. I am blaming my lack of posts completely and fully on the desert. Yes, thats right, the desert. It is very cold in the desert at night. Not that that has anything to do with my lack of posts. Just thought I would mention it.

> The miners of Potosi routinely drink 98% alcohol on Friday and Saturday afternoons. The closest comparison that I can come up with is Rubbing Alcohol. According to our guide, a lot of the miners end up passing out in the mines.

> 20 miners a year die working in the mines. Most of the accidents involve cave ins and carbon monoxide poisoning.

> Salar de Uyuni was amazing. I am planning to post tomorrow. Here is a preview picture.



> I have linked an article about the mine of Potosi to this post if anyone is interested in learning more about how horrendous the working conditions are.

> Spell check is down again on Blogger and I have to go horseback riding in 20 minutes... Please excuse any tarible speling erors.

> I actually just reread the post and found it littered with grammatical errors as well.

Note to self... Reread and spell check your posts at least 26 times. Also, remind yourself that you went to public school in the USA and therefore suffer greatly with the basic fundamentals of the English language.

> On the upper right hand side of the web page under the picture of us on the Salt Flats you can sign up to have new blog posts emailed to your. Just do it!

How does one come to the conclusion to quit the "real world" and travel the "Real World"?

In late August of last year, I was sitting in a bar in Federal Hill (downtown Baltimore) completely miserable, talking about my life with one of my best friends Mark Fruhling. I hated my job, I hated my life and found myself at a crossroads.

I had been planning for about a year to move to LA to try and take my career to the next level. I was looking for a big radio job so that I could make the big money that goes along with selling advertising in the number 2 market in the United States. The decision to move was by and large due to my desire to make a lot of money.

I had plans to initially live with two of my closest friends in Southern California. Dave Binck would be moving to LA from Miami (He is my friend who was attacked last week), and Mike Schwartz who is living in LA currently as an actor and screen play writer. I had flown to LA to check everything out in January of 2006, liked what I saw and decided to move there.

I was going to go to LA in September of 2006. I had planned to quit my job in DC in June of last year. So, when September was getting ready to roll around and I was still in DC, I had a bit of personal crisis. Or better yet, lets call it a full blown meltdown. I was extremely unhappy and in the most uninspiring place of my life.

I do not remember the name of the bar that Mark and I were sitting in but it was empty. We were the only ones there, except a guy sitting in the corner. Our conversation was entirely about how I felt like I had a calling to travel the world and that if I did not do it right then (at 28 years old), I would never do it. We talked quite a bit about the rat race, and how I was getting sucked inside of it. I did not think that we were talking that loud, nonetheless this other guy that was sitting at the opposite side of the bar apologetically interrupted our conversation.

He had overheard us talking about me thinking about quitting my job and life, and traveling the world. He asked us if he could tell us his story.

This guy (I never got his name), had his own physical therapy practice and found his daily life completely miserable. He was working 80 hours a week, he was in an extremely unhappy relationship and was on the verge of a breakdown.

I felt like I was looking into a mirror.

He went on to tell us that the previous year he sold his practice, broke up with his girlfriend and took off to travel the world. On his one year trip he met his wife (he said that he was completely in love with his wife), decided to change the course of his life, and found the happiness that he was supposed to have achieved living the American dream.

He told me that he read the most important book of his life on his trip, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

The next day, I went out and bought Atlas Shrugged. I threw it in the back seat of my car. For the next 4 months I looked at it everyday when I got in and out.

That night, I mad the decision that I was going to travel.

Atlas Shrugged, in all of its 1200 pages, was everything this guy said it would be. I read it in the first month of my trip, and finished it when I got back from Antarctica. The philosophy shared by Ayn Rand, is one of the major reasons that I have decided to become a travel writer and to further pursue my personal interests. I plan on working for myself for the rest of my life. I am living my life just for me and hopefully helping people along the way.

So here I am, sitting in a bar in Sucre, Bolivia. Last year, I did not even think such a place existed.

You can easily call what I experienced a mid mid-life crisis. I am going to call it the best thing that has ever happened to me.

All I know is that I have never been happier in my life. I am currently in the process of spending every dollar that I have ever earned. What I am experiencing is far more important than any graduate school, work experience, or anything else for that matter. The bad experiences are just as important as the good ones.

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Notes:

> Dave Binck, my good friend who was almost killed last week is steadily improving. I spoke to him twice last week and he sounds amazing. His near death experience has given him a new outlook on life.

> Ben and Dave (Another Aussie Diver),arrived in Sucre last Wednesday. We have been having a lot of fun these last few days. Tomorrow, Ben, Dave, Raj (Cool British dude we have been hanging out with) and I will leave Sucre for the Mines of Potosi (The mines in Potosi are considered one of the worst work conditions in the world). From there, we will traveling to The Salt Flats of Salar de Uyuni. After our three day tour of the freezing cold Salt Flats, the plan is to make our way west into Chile to San Pedro de Atacama in the desert. As always, anything can change.

> I have a lot of writing to do.... I am planning to write about my second experience with Ayahuasca, the crazy political experience that is currently going on in Bolivia, and my time here in Sucre. I also need to write traveler profiles of both Dave Mallett and Raj. I am a little worried about what the internet access will be like in Potosi, Salar de Uyuni, and San Pedro. I am crossing my fingers. I might not be able to post pictures at first.

> In the last few days the boys and I have watched Anchorman about 4 times. It currently ranks at number 1 on my most hilarious movies of all time list. "I'm going to smash your face into the windshield, and then take your mother Mrs. Dorothy Mantooth out to a nice seafood dinner, and never call her again!" "Dorothy Mantooth is a saint!"

> Thanks for everyone that emailed me or commented as a result of my last few posts. I appreciate the support. Things have dramatically improved since I wrote everything. I feel really good about everything coming up. I cannot tell you how excited I am about these next two a half months with Dave and Ben.

> In Sucre, Dave and Ben have been sharing the same room and I have had a single. This week, after a night out, Dave was being pursued by a nice young lady. So Ben and I found ourselves in the interesting predicament of having to share my full sized bed. Not only does the BV show snore, but he also consistently stole the covers all night long. At 8:00 the next morning, I awoke freezing and found that I was giving the BV show the big spoon. It was not quite a passionate embrace, but close. I was without covers, and I guess my natural instinct was to seek out warmth at all cost. Either that, or I am secretly gay and just do not know it. I am going to got with option number 1 and my natural instincts.

Also, I am on a personal mission to be a recipient of the big spoon at some point in my life. Being 6 foot 4, I never get the big spoon. Never, ever, ever.

If anyone knows any 6ft 7 chicks, tell them to call me.