there are things you have to do… but you better tell your parents afterwards. after you survived.

as i was in potosí of course i visited a mine. those mines are not like a tourist-tour, they are still in use. there are still people in it digging all day. eight hours a day, seven days a week. the youngest are ten (10) years, till the end – expectation of life is about 45 years.
if this sounds shocking to you now, you may figure out how it feels being down there. four levels underground, hundrets of meters inside.

descending wasnt a big deal, although the wholes you have to crawl through are really narrow, neither feeling the beats hitting your body if there are explosions somewhere in the mountain (the agency i went with, is told the be the safest e.g. no explosions during the day, but other mines in the same mountain dont care about safety regulations), neither the heat of about 45ºC, bad ventilation or low oxygen because of the altitude of about 4200m was the really bad thing to cope with. chewing coca-leafs helps you to get over that…
but seeing 10-14year old children pulling the trolleys (each about 1,5t to 2t), standing beside them, staring and maybe taking some pictures like in a zoo makes you feel truly bad. somehow you legitimate your behavior by telling the world what unutterable happens there in bolivia.
on my way back to the surface i felt the first time something like claustrophobia. i dindt freak out, but my only thought was i wanna get out’a here!.

miners earn about 2-4 bolivianos an hour. 1€ is about 7 bolivianos…

mainly owend by canadian companies, but other so called developed countries are not better. europe (also austria) uses these commodities as well… at least your computer contents materials very likely mined in potosí.

more pics…