Cerro Rico

This morning we took an infamous tour of the mines scattered throughout Cerro Rico (rich hill) in Potosí. The legend goes that if you took all the silver that the Spaniards mined from this mountain (Sumaj Orcko in Quechua meaning beautiful mountain) you could build a bridge to Spain and still have enough silver left to carry across. Although the Quechua and Ayamara peoples mined silver in the nearby towns it wasn't until the Spanish and their lust for precious metals arrived that the true exploitation of Cerro Rico began. The mountain with an elevation of 4800 meters has dropped 300 meters in the 400 plus years since then.

These past 40 years the mines have been run by cooperativos, a blessing or a curse depending on how one looks at the situation. During the era of government control all miners got free housing, water, electricity, and subsidised food. However, they received a lower price for their product. Now, with the cooperativos, the miners run the show, receive higher prices for their products but none of the benefits the government offered.

Our tour commenced at the miners market where we were geared up in rain gear, boots, headlamps, and helmets. We then proceeded to some stalls where coca leaves were sold along with dynamite, 96% alcohol (for consumption) and other articles pertaining to mining. We each bought bags stuffed with coca and some soft drinks to give as gifts to the miners we would meet. Then we proceeded to the entrance of the mine La Negra run by the cooperativo 26 de Septiembre.

We had to hurry along the narrow passageway as carts filled with rocks and minerals hurtled past, at which time we would cram into little holes dug out for this purpose. The entire time we were hunched double walking through puddles and breathing the stale air inside of the mountain. We walked for maybe half an hour stopping frequently so we could catch our breath. Remember we are nearly at 14,000 ft. Eventually we arrived at a hole that a miner was working at. Don Angel who has been working in the mines for 22 years was grateful for the bag of coca leaves and a bottle of soda. We had to crawl on our hands and knees to reach him and spend the entire time hunched over while talking. Later Sam got to try some of the manual labor of shoveling rocks into a wheel barrow, nothing like shoveling dirt, much much harder. All the more so because of the intense heat and humidity. The temperature fluctuated greatly throughout the mine.

During our tour we passed holes as deep as 300 ft which miners had cut in pursuit of veins of various minerals. We wrapped up our tour with a visit to El Tio, which is in fact a huge devil the miners have constructed out of clay. His origins date back to when the Indigenous were forced by the Spaniards to work in the mines under the mita system of forced labor. Under this system, adopted from the old Inca traditions but in a much harsher form, the miners were forced to work up too 15 hours at a time. Something that would be impossible without the stimulating effects of chewing coca leaves. Even today miners work up to 15 hours a day, 6 days a week with only one meal a day, usually breakfast, enduring with the help of coca leaves. All for a salary of $100 a month.

Back to El Tio. El Tio is worshipped because the devil rules the under world and the miners spend most of their lives underground. He is a synthesis of the Catholic devil whose form he takes and the ancient mother earth goddess Pachamama. As one of our guides Julio explained, El Tio has a beard because when the Spanish first arrived the Indigenous believed they were Gods with their white skin and hairy bodies. But later they turned out to be devils who brought evil and hardship.

Every Friday, after a hard days labor the miners burn cigarettes, give a small offering of the 96% alcohol, in the hopes that they will soon discover one of the 96% pure veins of silver that the mountain is famous for. This offering also insures good luck in health and preventing accidents, to which end they sometimes sacrifice llamas or leave llama fetuses. Hey even El Tio has to eat!

All in all the tour was amazing, sad and eye opening. We saw kids as young as 10 years old working. We got just a little taste of what kind of life miners have, enough to know we never want to be one.

Just a note, the tour agency we went with was GreenGo Tours. We highly recommend them. One tour guide was a miner and the other comes from a mining family.