one of the sillier touring decisions

so we are now in potosi. 4100m altitude. now it is not only myself feeling short of breath, but also kylie and the majority of the group. i am actually better than in sucre meaning my red blood cell count should be increasing. to get to potosi we had to catch a local public bolivian bus ... interesting aroma ... mixture of sweat, head smell, fish, urine, and other unidentifiable components. classic south america bus with luggage on the roof. only 3h but we are soon to encounter another for 7h. oh well, all part of what we signed up for. potosi is mainly a mining town, and so they offer tours of the 300 year old silver mine. to tell you that over those 300 years 8 million have died as a consequence of working in this mine should give you an idea of the conditions. so we first suited up in protective gear (see pic) and then visited a miners market to buy gifts for miners we encounter below ground .... biscuits, cigarettes, coca leaves (in kylies left hand), and .... dynamite ... yes ... that is what i am holding in the pic. so there are no powered devices used in this mine ... only blood tears and sweat. we travelled 400m into the hill. calls from the guide like ¨watch your head on the right, and mind the hole on the left as it is 100m deep¨ kept us sufficiently scared. at points we had only 30cm or a thin plank to walk on if we wished to avoid the drop. we had to rapel down muddy drops (only 10m height - am exaggerating slightly with the rapel) and one of our group would have fallen had the guy at the top not had hold of her hand. and of course we had to scale these same ´cliffs´ on our way out. at other times the tunnel was only 70cm high and we had to scramble over the rocky floor. and all of this with DYNAMITE tied to our waists. at one point we heard felt and smelt the explosions. but at least we now know we will never have the worst job in the world. these guys stay under ground 24h straight, dont eat to avoid the need to excrete, and live only 20-30 years after starting work at minimum age 12. when we emerged we were all very pleased to have survived. and so we were given a demonstration of a dynamite explosion.... scared the crap out of all of us, not knowing when and what exactly would happen. good dirty fun though. ok thats it. will not likely be posting for 4-5 days as we are travelling across the salar de uyuni - massive salt flats where night temperature is -5degC. fun. and there is no internet of course, as there is not even toilets for most of the distance. so stay safe, have fun, speak to you from la paz.