In the small Bolivian town of Oruro, there is a one-of-a-kind Miners' Museum. It was equipped in an annex to the revered by all Bolivians Sanctuary of the Virgin Sokavona. And she, as it is known, has always patronised miners. Although it is difficult to call this place a museum in the full sense of the word. Tourists are offered a route into the bowels of the mine. It is a serious test, a lot of impressions and adrenaline feeling, because by the end of 40-minute excursion there is a serious lack of oxygen. Thus, each participant of the route can feel the extra strain to which the workers were subjected at the mine. The labourers were mostly Indians, but they were uncooperative and independent, so they were replaced by blacks from the plantations. However, in the airless mines, they could not survive for long. Actually, it saved the Altiplano Indians from complete extermination, because nobody could replace them in the mines. But, in the future, they began to drag everything they could carry out of the mine. Thus hastening the process of its closure. You will find the whole history of this gloomy but extremely interesting place in the Ethnographic Museum of Miners.
