Potosí

Our broken down bus

Last Tuesday we left for our first excursion as a group. My host dad dropped me off at the Cochabamba airport and we took a half hour flight to Sucre. Then, we got on a bus and began a 3-4 hour bus ride to Potosí. Heidi (our Academic Director) informed us that there was a road block on our route so we were prepared for an adventure and the possibility that a 3 hour bus ride would turn into an 8 hour one. We didn't end up experience the road block, but instead our bus broke down about a half hour into the drive. We ended up sitting on the side of the road for about 40 minutes waiting for a new bus to come and rescue us, but as you can see it wasn't the ugliest place in the world to be waiting.

Taking advantage of the bus breakdown

This is a painting that shows how Christianity
has combined with Indigenous beliefs.
It shows the virgin Mary as part of Cerro Rico, t
he mountain with the mines.
It represents both El Tío and Christian beliefs

That afternoon after arriving in Potosí we headed to the Casa de Moneda where they produced silver coins. It was pretty interesting but I was feeling really out of it and weird because of the altitude. Potosí is one of the highest cities in the world at 13,420 ft and it was definitely an adjustment for my body from Cochabamba. It also doesn't help that it is competing with San Francisco for steepest city streets so walking around I had a lot of trouble catching my breath.

Casa de Moneda

Our first day in Potosí we left the hotel at 8am to head to our tour of the mines. We stopped at a random house that belongs to the tour company and they gave us all our gear so we were prepared to walk around in the mines. I went with a group of 8 other students and two Bolivian guides. We went a lot deeper into the mines than I thought we would and we walked around inside for about an hour or so. It felt very weird to be a tourist taking pictures along side men who were risking their lives and working in the mines every day. I felt like I was getting in the way sometimes or somehow patronizing the work they were doing because I was a tourist. It was a strange feeling. It made all of the upsetting and scary things I'd learned about life in the mines that much more real. It was definitely an intense experience for me and for many other people in the group, but it was also valuable. Cerro Rico is one of the most famous silver mines in the world and it is the industry that Potosí revolves around. One other really interesting thing we saw in the mine was the statue of El Tío. The miners believe that El Tío protects them in the mine so they always give offerings of coca, alcohol and once a year llama's blood to El Tío and the mountains of the mine. Their beliefs are a mix of Christianity and Indigenous spirituality and it was interesting to see in person.

Inside the Mines

El Tío

A view of the city from Cerro Rico (the mine)

The Hot Springs

That afternoon we headed to the hot springs. It was nice to have some time to relax and do a mud facial after such an emotional morning. The drive there took about an hour and was incredibly beautiful. The mountains went on forever and it never got old looking at them. That night Maddy, Laura and I went out to pizza, wine and ice cream and walked around exploring the city a little bit. It was cool to be out at night and see how much the city truly is a combination of history and modernity. Also, we ran into a bunch of drunk Argentinian clowns who made Laura a balloon monkey so that was cool.

Laura and Maddy in Potosí

Laura with her balloon monkey
climbing a balloon tree

The next morning we visited Wayna Pacha which is a NGO funded by a company in Germany. It is an after school program for children of miners. Many of the children's fathers had died in the mines or were going to die at the age of 40 because miners lungs can't withstand the work past that age. It was so hard to see all the kids playing their and wrap my mind around the fact that their families are in such a terrible position. We had an introduction from the program director who told us that the management of the NGO was changing so all of the staff was being replaced. It was frustrating to see what seemed for the most part to be an NGO that actually works and does good, but still has such frustrating bureaucracy. We got the chance to play with the kids for a while and then visit one of the mother's houses. The mother's of the children in the program often work at the organization and this one mother cooks about once a week for the kids. She took us to her house which was one room with three twin beds which her, her husband, and her seven kids all share. She was very quiet and difficult to understand but she talked a lot about how much she missed living in the countryside and how hard life is in the city. It was an even more eye opening experience for me than visiting the mines. I felt like interacting with families directly affected by the mines and being able to hear about their individual experiences was much more powerful.

A girl at Wayna Pacha had a lot of fun using my camera so I have an endless supply of mostly pictures of people with their heads cut off, these were two of the best choices

After that we walked back to the hotel to have yet another giant meal. I forgot to mention that the breakfasts at the hotel were AMAZING with yogurt, eggs, coffee, oatmeal, and everything else I always wanted. The lunches were also pretty good with a salad bar (vegetables, yay!), soup, a main course, and then desert. Needless to say the main theme of the trip was feeling painfully full and then eating again. After lunch we got on the bus to travel back to Sucre. I'm going to write about that experience in a separate post so it is less overwhelming for you and for me. Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: I just figured out how to make accents on this blog so if something from before in Spanish is wrong that might be why, or it could just be because I don't know how to spell things.