A typical street in the beautiful, poor, declining city of Potosí, Bolivia (4090 meters above sea level), where the Spanish are said to have extracted enough gold to build a bridge to Spain and back. Historians estimate that during the last half millenium millions have died in the mines around Potosí and in Cerro Rico, the dry brown mountain lurking in the background of this photo.
I've been trying to post these pictures for while. They document my dark descent into the bowels of a zinc mine in Cerro Rico, where men and a small number of children work in clouds of dust and as a result die young - often before fifty years of age - of silicosis.
Headlamp - check!Protective Gear - check!
Dynamite - check!
Just fifty meters down into the mine, the temperatures push into the thirties/nineties Celsius/Fahrenheit. Photographic conditions are less than ideal.
One of two principle dieties of importance to miners, here with his drink, coca leaves and giant phallus.
Before we went in, we had to buy some dynamite and coca leaves for the miners.
There's a fast train to get inside the mines, if you don't want to walk the half kilometer to the active areas.
There happened to be a miners' strike in Potosí the day I arrived. The issue at hand is pay and benefits.
Some machines in the shadows of the processing area, which is apparently not much less toxic than inside the mines.
SAFETY FIRST!
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