My Afternoon as a Miner

Today, I went down an active silver mine with a bunch of pissed Bolivian miners.

I didn't really want to go, I didn't like the idea of crawling down small dangerous holes and takin pictures of miners working in appauling conditions as if they were animals in a zoo. In reality it was just as unpleasant as Id imagined; It was dark, dusty and the tunnels were small enough that we had to crawl on our hands and knees. It felt horrible going down there as tourists and watching men and boys working in such a dangerous environment.

However, I'm glad I decided to do it because I learnt a lot and it was really eye opening to see the mines first hand.

We visited the refinery where the silver is produced - its a rickety old shed with dangerous chemicals everywhere and no safety measures. And then we went into the mine.

The mines are on a mountain named Cerro Rico (rich mountain), and it was discovered by a shepherd during the Spanish colonisation. The miners are as young as 7 and the oldest is 62 although they say once you start working in the mines you will die within 10-20 years because of all the chemicals and dust you inhale. Most of the men work 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. They earn on average 150 bolivianos per day, depending on how much siliver they extract. This is about £15 a day, which is a lot compare to the minimum wage in Bolivia which is just £2.50 per day.

The miners don't eat whilst they're inside the mine, they just chew coca leaves. They also drink the local alcohol, Ceibo, which is 96% proof and tastes like paint stripper. We saw several miners working and they were clearly drunk.

The mine is spread over many levels, and temperatures on the lower levels can get up to 40 degrees. Another big problem for me at least was the lack of oxygen; we were over 5000m above sea level and even walking slowly made me out of breath. I was also suffering altitude sickness and had been sick in the morning, making the whole experience of crawling through mine shafts even more horrible.

We got to see the miners in action and talk to them, the highlight for me was sitting with one of the guides whilst the rest of the group went on down to a lower level (I didn't want to, I'd had enough). The guy was called Julio and was 26, he'd worked in the mine for 7 years, from the age of 14, until he broke his arm and gave up and became a guide. We told me all about his life and his family, his dreams of going to England and studying computers, and he sang to me in Quechua and in Spanish. He was really nice and friendly (and drunk).

We spent 2 hours down the mine and I was so relieved when we came up again. However the relief was short lived as we emerged to learn that our bus driver had gotten steaming drunk and decided to head off to La Paz, leaving us stranded on the mountain and taking with him all our stuff we'd left on the bus!!

It was getting cold and we had to walk down the mountain until another bus arrived. The whole tour was pretty shoddy, all of the guides were drunk, it felt like they were exploiting the miners and it didn't feel particularly safe or well organised. But it was an interesting experience and probably the only time in my life I'll have the chance to see a silver mine in action.