Into the darkness

Monday, July 5th
Today, the fabulous five woke up early to venture deep into the unknown world of a silver miner. We met up with our guide, Julio Moralez, and he suited us up with a green fisherman-type jumpsuit, rain boots (still way to big for my midget sized feet), a helmet, and a headlamp. I was also given a handful of coca leaves to chew on to help with alertness, hunger, and acclimation of altitude. Now I was ready...And off we went. The tour began at a market where we were taught all about how miners use and have to pay for all their own materials - dynamite, fuses, gloves, etc... As a group, we bought the miners some materials that they could use for their job.
When we entered the mine, I was carrying 2 sticks of dynamite and fuses on my back to give them to a miner as a present. As if I wasn't already nervous enough about climbing deep below the surface of the earth...but now I have dynamite strapped to my back as well. The mine shafts were completely pitch dark - the only light was from our headlamps. The passage was narrow and short, where even I had to bend over and duck almost the entire time. The path was cold, wet and muddy. The rocks surrounding the tunnel were beautifully rainbow colored and some parts of the cave had stalagmites. You could see the evidence of where there were zinc and silver "veins" discovered. We trekked into the mines for 3 hours. At one point we climbed down ricketey old wooden ladders to descend deeper and deeper into the mountain. I kept thinking to myself..."am I crazy...no...this is fun...right?" 
We met some miners who were installing explosives. One group was preparing to blast 16 different sites and we watched them prepare the hole and install the dynamite. Next we walked to a different part of the tunnel and not only heard but felt the blasts go off. It was crazy!!!! The miners are known to drink heavily and chew on the coca (cocaine) leaves as a part of their work culture. All the miners were very shy and sincere. One was a litle TOO friendly with me but, for the most part, they were all very kind and hard working. Juilo was an amazing guide and very informative. He knew all the miners personally that we visited. Julio used to be a miner himself for many years when he was a teenager. He said it was the toughest job he had ever had because the hours were long and the work was very strenuous. He had friends whom had died working in the mines and some who got very ill from the poor ventilation. After seeing and experiencing the mine for myself, I thinking it's amazing how people (some have no choice due to lack of job availablitity) can work in an environment like that. 
After climbing an crawling through the  mines for three hours, we were all relieved to see the sun and breathe fresh air again. We thanked Julio for a fantastic tour and went on our way. We ate a well deserved lunch and booked a bus for tonight to our next destination - Uyuni (the largest salt flats in the world).