Western Boyacá
in the entire region.
The next morning, we departed early for an 11-hour ride to western Boyacá. Hours were spent on deeply rutted roads zigzagging along the spectacular steep mountains and deep valleys blanketed by lush rainforest.
Our destination was the high-producing Cunas Mine, near Muzo. During our walk through the 800-m (0.5-mile) main tunnel, we came to an area with no forced-air ventilation. “Hurry through this section,” we were told, to avoid breathing too much of the built-up carbon dioxide. It makes one wonder about the early miners who didn’t have the luxury of clean air pumped in.
Arriving at an impressively large circular shaft, a ‘lift’ took us down 100 m (328 ft). Torrents of water rushed at us in a secondary tunnel, giving pause as to what would happen if the pumps should fail. Despite the cool water at our feet and dripping on our heads, the mineshaft was like a sauna, with temperatures reaching 40 C (104 F). Finally, we reached the active face. Under the watchful eye of a closed-circuit monitor, a small crew carefully removed the gems from the calcite vein and placed them in a locked pouch. At the end of each shift, the supervisor takes it to the surface.
