Let´s talk Dynamite

so yes, it´s been a bit since my last blog. oh well, i got about 3 weeks till i get back to crooklyn and i´m counting the days. the trip has been awesome so far and i can´t complain much...except for the mosquitos, diarhea, and retarded shoes. i look forward to summer in new york. days spent riding my bike, hanging with friends, and eating supersized pizza on top of the williamsburg bridge. as it is, i´m still chilling out in bolivia... found some old friends in la paz and we´ve been rocking out on the guitar and eating street snacks. days are winding down here and i should really get a move on to catch my flight. 3 weeks to travel 2,000 miles.

anyhoo i digress, let´s talk some dynamite...

the city of Potosi was once famous for it´s mineral rich mountainside. back in the day, miners grabbed tons of silver, tin, zinc, and lead from the belly of the earth. nowadays, most of the pickings have been picked and most miners scrounge for any scraps they can find. even still, there are over 12,000 miners going at it 24 hours a day. at least 2 miners die each week as they succumb to respiratory illnesses. and the chances of cave-ins and rocks falling are great. they don´t have engineers down here, just experience to go by.

the day started by meeting the fellow crewmembers and putting on some cool yellow jumpsuits. before jumping into the mountain, we had to stop by the miners market and buy a few supplies. we bought gifts for the miners such as: coco leaves, 93% alcohol, cookies, soda, and dynamite! i´m so amazed that you can buy dynamite on the street here. i was tempted to take some back to the states, but you never know... someone at airport security might actually be doing their job that day, and i could find myself in a tight spot....

-the miners chew on hundreds of coco leaves in order to alleviate hunger and fatigue. they don´t take lunch breaks, they just pop more coco leaves into their mouths.
-the cookies were for the children living on the mine site. the littles ones don´t do any of the hard work. i think you have to be a teenager to do that.
-i tried some of the alcohol and immediately wished i didn´t. tasted like rubbing alcohol and my stomach cursed me for trying to be manly in front of the ladies.

we delved into the mine and squeezed our way through a small tunnel that went deep into the earth. my little headlamp found small crystals lining the walls, which i found out later was the cause of many miner´s deaths. it´s similar to breathing in fiberglass. inside the mountain, we found odd colored veins that strew throughout the tunnel. these were the minerals that we were looking for. it´s interesting to me that mountains have veins. i mean, who would of thought that mountains were alive in that way. trees and grass are easy to pinpoint life, but mountains? hmmmm.

anyhoo, we spent the next few hours crawling through the mountain. we bumped into miners doing their thing, shoveling rocks, jackhammering walls, and pushing carts full of rocks. we finally made it out of the tunnel and out into the sunlight. i was able to stand upright for once and our guide told me to bust out the dynamite. heehhehe. this was my favorite part since growing up we only had sparklers and smoke bombs for july 4th. the dynamite was a green silly putty type substance. we rolled it into a ball and the guide ran up the mountain to set it off. we counted down 60 seconds before it blew, and i´m sorry to report that a stupid bird flew by and landed right next to the explosive right before it blew! it was a crazy explosion and everyone jumped at the sound. we never did find the bird...