Cerro de Pasco,
a mining town at 4400 m, built around a huge hole of by now 2000 m depth, longtime ago the richest silver mine of Peru.
The hole is surrounded by large fences. Peeping through its wire you cannot see the bottom. Unfortunately guards do not permit
to get closer or even flying down by paraglider.
The ugly thing about the really rich mines of Peru and Bolivia is, that only a small part of the earned money remains within the country.
A nice link with some portraits of mineros can be found at
mountain voices.
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