Inside the Bowels of the Rich Mountain

Preparing for the entry. I had no idea what I was in for at this point....

I´m working with migrants from Potosí, so I felt it important to visit their reality along with a few other crazy tourists. A visit to the still active mines of Cerro Rico is not considered to be your everyday tourist activity, but rather a lesson in the local reality and history of this region. This still working cooperative mine offered me a perspective into what some people have to do in order to survive. For by the grace of God go I... Although the miners we met would likely share a different persective, life in the tunnels and slides of a mountain sometimes up to 24 hours per day without food or drink (only coca leaves) is no way to live, but it´s the only way to live and survive in this region. They are proud and determined people and boy do they ever work hard, in dangerous conditions. It´s too arid and cold to grow anything, mining is it. And all this so I can have a nice little silver ring around my finger. As I look at my rings dancing across the keyboard at this moment, I am able to reflect on a whole new level and I invite you to do the same. One intense four hour visit for me, and a lifetime (of about 45 years) for these brave men.

A brake at the bottom of a very steep slide of dust. I was trying to take deep breaths, but the combo of elevation and immense amounts of dust, made it challenging.

They even let me lift a shovel! All I know now is that shoveling rocks is a hell of a lot heavier than the soil in my garden. I only lasted a few rounds before I was way too tired...