The Gold Mine

First of all, let me tell you about the gold mine. It was AWFUL!!! I have never been so scared in my entire life and that is NOT an exaggeration. It was terrifying. First we had to go down a mile and a half in an elevator. Yes, your ears pop. On the way down we were in the elevator with just our group. On the way out, we were packed like sardines in there with 20 miners. None of them spoke english, but we kept hearing them say "Americans" and laughing a bit of an evil sounding laugh. It was a little creepy and it's pitch black. I latched on to Bart's shirt in front of me. I would have been horrified to have been in there by myself. Anyway... it's also pitch black down in the mine. We had these little lamps on our helmets, but if we turned them off, you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face. We walked about 2 miles underground in these tunnels that had already been mined out. A good majority of it is held up by criss-crossed rows of lumber. I'm sure it's fairly safe because hundreds of men have been working down there for years and years and it's never collapsed on them, but I was terrified. Another interesting thing, there are trains under there that carry materials around and when one comes by you have to suck yourself up against a wall until it passes. Seriously. Next came the really horrible part, we had to climb up a pile of rubble to get to the "face" of the mine where they were actually digging and looking for gold. I never actually got all the way up because halfway there I couldn't believe we were actually allowed in there that's how harsh and dangerous it was. It was SUPER SUPER hot and humid and treacherous climbing. Every step up you took, rubble fell down. I was 75% convinced the place was going to collapse. I'm gonna confess it here... I didn't have a meltdown, but I was totally shaking and I had a few tears. It was really the scariest experience of my life. I might never buy gold again. I felt a little embarrassed that I was so scared and no one else seemed to be all that concerned about the danger level, but then I reminded myself that I was scared when we were in the elevator, so the fact that I sucked it up and made it only a few feet away from the face of the mine and all the way back out was a VERY impressive thing. I went WAAAAYYYY past my comfort zone limit. And I'm happy to say that I never plan to visit a gold mine again. Been there, done that. Doubt many other people ever will. Check out the bottom photo... It shows exactly how I was feeling. It's funny now, not so funny at the time. Time plus tragedy equals comedy, right?