Spent yesterday afternoon doing the silver mine tour in Potosi. Started by getting decked out in miners gear which was tres amusing, then onto the miners market to buy some presents for the miners. Oh and some dynatmite and ammonium nitrate!! Got broken into groups of 7 then marched into the mine. i have never been clostrophobic before but this put me pretty close. The mine is dark tight and hard to breath in. The deeper we went the worse it got. Sort of like a journey to hell, in fact the miners worship the devil as they recon that the mine is his turf. We were all chewing coco like it was going out of fashion as it was meant to help!! I felt really sorry for the miners as most of them start at 15 and work till they are 40ish then they usually have 4 years off then die. Not the nicest of lives. They have to work in cramped, toxic, dangerous conditions for up to 16 hours a day. The only good point is that they are all coop mines so they are working for them selves.

After we escaped the mine we got to set off some dynamite which was pretty cool. Not as good as some of the explosions I have seen with the Army but quite close. Not bad for 2$ US.

Got the night bus to La Paz which wasn't nearly as bad as i thought and V similiar to the other buses we have got here. Now in a wicked hostel and going out for a HUGE one tonight as we have been laying off the sauce while Niall has been ill.

More later,

C