Thursday: down a Potosi mine. It's a bloody hard life for them miners.

In the space of ten minutes shopping, we managed to pick up several bags full of drugs, a stick of dynamite and a detonator. All for about $10! Where else can shopping be such good value?

Dynamite, coca leaves and 96% alcohol - you can't buy these at Walmart!

These were all 'gifts' for the miners that we visited as part of a mine tour. We got kitted up with overalls, boots, helmets and lights and made our way into the mine tunnel that runs under the mountain.

Mines in Bolivia were started by the Spanish, who after discovering silver in 'them thar hills' went all out to get as much of it as they could. Locals were employed or forced to work under extremely hard conditions: silver was the goal at all costs and there were many deaths. Our guide said several million, but that doesn't sound right.

At one time, hundreds of years ago, Potosi was one of the largest towns in the World, rivalling London, Paris and Seville. This was all funded by the mining boom.

It was also the Spanish who introduced eucalyptus trees to Bolivia to shore up the mine tunnels, and as we stooped to enter the mine we could see that several of the supports had split, making us crouch even lower as we went further into the darkness. The split supports did not deter us.

Just into the entrance the miners have an effigy of the devil. Apparently outside the mine Catholicism rules, but inside it is the devil who looks after the miners and they make offerings to the effigy to fertilise the mountain goddess. Offerings include coca leaves, 96% alcohol and cigarettes. Without this, the miners believe the mountain's ore veins will not bear fruit.

A life of hard smoking, drinking and chewing; and the miner's effigy

Each miner works his (women are not allowed as devil may fall in love with the them rather than the goddess of the mountain) own little patch of the mine that they can own after two years working in the mine. Conditions are poor, the air at the pit face is thick with dust, there's a constant threat of roof collapse and deep in the mountain the heat reaches 50C. The two miners we met had been at work in the mine all their lives, one for 43 years. Both were ill as a result of the dust and poor conditions but hoped to continue working there until they were 60. They would be lucky to reach that age. One of our group works in the mining industry and he was shocked by what he saw. He said the mine was the worst he had ever seen.

We asked the miners if they had to work in the mines and they said they had no alternative; with no education they had no other prospects. One had four children and was working hard to ensure they didn't have to work down the mine. Their futures depended on an education - that was their escape from the virtual prison that this mine is. Fortunately the price of ore has been relatively high recently, enabling him to give them an education.

The miners chew coca leaves to give them strength and suppress their appetite while they are at the pit face and while we were there one of the miners sat stuffing his face non-stop with the leaves; it reminded me of a mountain gorilla eating shoots. The miners don't eat the leaves but chew and ferment them in their mouths (300 leaves at a time) and suck the juices, without the coca they cannot work.

Coca powered miners

We handed them our gifts, and unfortunately also the dynamite that I was secretly hoping to take away and blow up somewhere in a remote location. Cory said it was no longer legal to explode dynamite like this, but a few years ago it was. We'll have to be satisfied with blowing up our bike tyres after a puncture.

Just light the touch paper and......   run!

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well thumbed from my BlackBerry