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: Devil's in the mine, summer Chilean replay "of 33 "

Tourists visit the mine "Darling del Diablo", February 7, 2011. afp photo

The galleries are visited are only 50 meters underground, 600 m away from which "the 33" prisoners stayed 90 days. But the slow descent of tourists in small groups in a metal cage not far removed from that miraculously saved the San Jose, is an emotional moment.

" They must have felt like that "blows a passenger equipped with headphones and a battery attached to the belt for their lantern while the elevator plunges in osbcurité and humidity.

Venus de Santiago but also from Germany, "minors for a Day" in shorts and sandals are lowered, braced between horses plank in the gut was reduced just over a meter high. And try to imagine the risks.

The miner and guide "Darling del Diablo", Roberto Roja, 7 February 2011. Afp photo

Roberto Rojas, a former miner turned into a local guide, refers to a rusty old cage that hangs in the gallery: " It's a small bird cage, which was used to detect the presence gas explosions, gas odorless and deadly. "

" If the bird fell down dead, they cried Grisou +! + and everyone rushed towards the exit ," said Rojas, who holds in his hand a methanometer, the modern version of the canary mines.

Because unlike San Jose (North), mine copper and gold in October now The most publicized in the world, Lota, on the coast 500 km south of Santiago, was a coal mine in Chile have gradually closed. In his case in 1997 after 113 years of operation.

With its galleries running under the Pacific Ocean up to 600 m depth Darling del Diablo (Devil's whistle) is named after the sea breeze whistling that penetrated into the galleries.

Tourists are discovering the lives of miners: coal seams, the organization in a small space with dining area, toilets improvised in a corner, cans of water and quicklime.

highlight of the visit, they imbibe the silence underground when the guide invites them to extinguish the lanterns for one minute, heavy, feel to the mine.

Some found the transition a little of their past, like mine in Chile's history. "I had no idea it was so hard, when my poor father was working there," confesses Masiel Soto, whose father left the mine after losing fingers in an accident.

In families where one child was from father to son, it went down once the children from 8 years to get them used, and sometimes tying them with ropes to prevent them from escaping not provide Rojas. "But as he entered the mine learned to love."

Emptied of the 3,000 children they counted at the peak of its activity, "Darling " is still experiencing tribulation.

She was shaken by the earthquake of February 2010, but restored since.

In November she was "busy " by 33 women, inspired by the miners of San Jose . They have conducted a brief hunger strike to demand ground state aid extended to employment in areas affected by the earthquake.

But for minors become guides or souvenir vendors at the exit, as Miguel Reyes, Darling has not said its last word, in Chile, which seeks to diversify its energy and coal could rediscover favor of cleaner technologies. "But here there for 500 years! "