Potosì

My timing for being in Sucre couldn't have been any more serendipitous. The city celebrated its bicentenial of independence for the entire month of May. There have been free concerts and parades all over the city. I got to see the Bolivian supergroup Kjarkas play a free concert. Noticably absent from the festivities is the Bolivian president Evo Morales who, despite his nation-wide popularity, is persona non grata in Sucre. The reason for this is that Sucre is, constitutionally, the capital of Bolivia but La Paz is where the center of the executive and legislative branches are. As anyone who has power is loath to let go of it, Sucre has been the site of various protests against Evo Morales, even blockading the airport runway and preventing his plane from landing in Sucre on one occasion. You can see signs scrawled in graffiti that say, "Sucre capital of Bolivia." I think Evo Morales knows that even showing up in Sucre would piss a lot of people off.
I ended up lingering in Sucre longer than I expected, partially because I am lazy and partially because I had an accident between myself and a car on the day I was leaving. I left the accident with only bruises to my pride and my body but my bicycle required a new wheel and I needed to get a new part machined for my saddlebags. I take at least partial blame for the accident as I was being a little too aggressive in challenging a yellow light. What I forgot was that, while the light changes from green to yellow and then to red, the other light changes from red to yellow and then to green. As these are old colonial streets, I thought I could easily beat the yellow light as I only had to cross a one-lane street. What I didn't anticipate, though, was that any driver a distance away from the intersection might try to anticipate the green light by accelerating on their yellow. This led to me slamming into the side of their car as I didn't see the car coming or have enough time to react in order to avoid the collision. I could tell the driver felt a little bit guilty himself for ,even though he stopped to check and see if I was alright, he was quickly gone. I am sure that I probably left a good sized dent in the side of his car as two hundred pounds of flesh, bones, steel, and rubber hurling into anything is sure to leave a mark. I might have even perforated the steel as my metal-spiked helmet impacted with the car first. I am now almost completely healed and my bike is in optimal condition. It didn't even cost me that much to buy a new wheel and machine a new part.
I am in Potosì now, site of the greatest theft of mineral wealth in the history of mankind. I have read before that Potosì supplied half of the worlds silver for over two centuries. The Spanish, ruled by the Habsburg dynasty during most of this time, mostly squandered this wealth on wars and luxury goods and were in decline by the end of the seventeenth century. The Cerro Rico, or rich hill, which looms over the south of the city has also swallowed literally millions of lives. Most of the estimates I have seen range from 4 to 8 million deaths. To put that in perspective the current population of Bolivia is around 9.1 million.
To be a miner in Potosì pretty much guaranteed, and still does guarantee, an early death. There are numerous ways that you can die in a mine: a tunnel can collapse, you can stumble upon noxious or explosive gas, you are exposed to many different toxins, and, if none of that kills you, than you will probably die from silicosis which is caused by the constant inhalation of microparticulate matter. Back when the mercury amalgamation technique for purifying silver was discovered, those who worked in refining the silver would mix the mercury and impure silver with their bare feet. They almost inevitably died from mercury poisoning afterwards. By the time Bolivia gained its independence from Spain, the silver in the mines had mostly run out. People still work, and die, in the mines of el Cerro Rico today, only they mine more tin and zinc instead of silver. This is a sad world we live in where people risk their lives for a pittance to feed the avaricious appetites of people on the other side of the world. If people ever wonder why I don't buy silver, gold, or any other kind of jewelery and I never will, this is why.