Just got back from a trip into a valley that runs into a feeder for the Amazon. At 2600meters above sea level its pretty cold, even though the foliage and bugs would have you think it sweltering. Took a 4 hour trip to Sorata in bus, then 4 hour trip to Intilaya (sp?), and from there 3 hours by Landcruiser to the peak of the valley, and a 1 hour trek down by foot and to rivers edge. I bought into a community mine, named Cooperativas, literally coops, of the community. My new associates have just recently established claim to the area, and with no machinery have been working the banks by hand for years now.
The round wooden pans are called bateas (Bat-a-ahs), principle being just swirling the dirt around, and washing the matter off the edges until only the heavies are concentrated in the center. We arrived at dusk, giving us just enough time to sample the rivers edge and take GPS coords and elevations. The guys washed about 3 pans full, with about 15 pieces of color, 2 good sized pickers. I of course, in gringo fashion, had taken a military duffle bag full of camping supplies, and got odd looks from everyone as to why I needed so much stuff. We hiked up the river, it drops about 20' every 80', and fast, cold, and every rock is covered in moss/slime. When we needed to cross, it took machete to down a couple of trees and make a precarious one log bridge across, with one log for hand support (kinda hard carrying a pan, shovel, and trying to keep from becoming a human popsicle.
You can see the guys washing in the video, as well as the huge rocks left by flow from upstream. Once it was dark we went back to the campsite, where the guys have setup rudimentary cabins for overnighting. After starting a fire and boiling water, we celebrated with coffee and bread, and started to discuss how to mechanize / bring in heavy machinery. Not cheap considering a 10 year old Caterpillar excavator with 10k hours runs about 100K $US. It was only then I realized in my duffle bag I had brought my Bazooka Super Mini, I got so caught up in hike downhill and seeing the river I forgot. The guys insisted on trying it out, even at 11 o'clock at night. So flash lites, machetes, and Zooka in hand, we went back to the first spot we panned. A rudimentary dam and several bug bites later I explained the concept and had them fill their bateas. After 3 slow pans full I emptied the zooka into an unused batea, and had them pan it down. It was like kids in a candy store, seeing as how a batea takes roughly 5-8 minutes to pan down, and the mini zooka ate up 3 bateas in roughly 3 mins. The picture of the color is what 3 pans got us, though I think the flow might have been off as well as the angle, at that point I was freezing from the spray and just wanted to get into a sleeping bag.
Walking back to the campsite in the dark we came across a stone cabin, when I asked who stayed there I was told it was a house of the Incas. It certianly looked old enough, the rock having been weathered smooth and moss growing all about. It was then that the president informed us that we needed to leave at 6am ish to make back to town by 10am, since corn harvest season had started and he had to harvest along with his father. So we decided at 2am to head back up the trail, which took only 2 hours since I held everyone up. And arriving at the truck it had a flat front tire, so there I am gasping after having ascended 400 meters with a duffle bag, and of course I light a celebratory cigarette and help change the tire. Back at the presidents house we all bunked in the same room, and being so tired I left my damp socks on, not realizing how cold it got (look at the picture of the town and you can literally see its at cloud level). I had purple red feet in the morning. I am gonna head back in two weeks, probably to setup a gravity dredge (got about 20 foot of gold hog mats) if I can find some neoprene chest waders. I plan on ordering 2 Zooka miners so that everyone can share in the experience, and so actually start pooling some gold for the eventual purchase of a excavator.
:sorry the vidya is at a funny angle
The round wooden pans are called bateas (Bat-a-ahs), principle being just swirling the dirt around, and washing the matter off the edges until only the heavies are concentrated in the center. We arrived at dusk, giving us just enough time to sample the rivers edge and take GPS coords and elevations. The guys washed about 3 pans full, with about 15 pieces of color, 2 good sized pickers. I of course, in gringo fashion, had taken a military duffle bag full of camping supplies, and got odd looks from everyone as to why I needed so much stuff. We hiked up the river, it drops about 20' every 80', and fast, cold, and every rock is covered in moss/slime. When we needed to cross, it took machete to down a couple of trees and make a precarious one log bridge across, with one log for hand support (kinda hard carrying a pan, shovel, and trying to keep from becoming a human popsicle.
You can see the guys washing in the video, as well as the huge rocks left by flow from upstream. Once it was dark we went back to the campsite, where the guys have setup rudimentary cabins for overnighting. After starting a fire and boiling water, we celebrated with coffee and bread, and started to discuss how to mechanize / bring in heavy machinery. Not cheap considering a 10 year old Caterpillar excavator with 10k hours runs about 100K $US. It was only then I realized in my duffle bag I had brought my Bazooka Super Mini, I got so caught up in hike downhill and seeing the river I forgot. The guys insisted on trying it out, even at 11 o'clock at night. So flash lites, machetes, and Zooka in hand, we went back to the first spot we panned. A rudimentary dam and several bug bites later I explained the concept and had them fill their bateas. After 3 slow pans full I emptied the zooka into an unused batea, and had them pan it down. It was like kids in a candy store, seeing as how a batea takes roughly 5-8 minutes to pan down, and the mini zooka ate up 3 bateas in roughly 3 mins. The picture of the color is what 3 pans got us, though I think the flow might have been off as well as the angle, at that point I was freezing from the spray and just wanted to get into a sleeping bag.
Walking back to the campsite in the dark we came across a stone cabin, when I asked who stayed there I was told it was a house of the Incas. It certianly looked old enough, the rock having been weathered smooth and moss growing all about. It was then that the president informed us that we needed to leave at 6am ish to make back to town by 10am, since corn harvest season had started and he had to harvest along with his father. So we decided at 2am to head back up the trail, which took only 2 hours since I held everyone up. And arriving at the truck it had a flat front tire, so there I am gasping after having ascended 400 meters with a duffle bag, and of course I light a celebratory cigarette and help change the tire. Back at the presidents house we all bunked in the same room, and being so tired I left my damp socks on, not realizing how cold it got (look at the picture of the town and you can literally see its at cloud level). I had purple red feet in the morning. I am gonna head back in two weeks, probably to setup a gravity dredge (got about 20 foot of gold hog mats) if I can find some neoprene chest waders. I plan on ordering 2 Zooka miners so that everyone can share in the experience, and so actually start pooling some gold for the eventual purchase of a excavator.
:sorry the vidya is at a funny angle
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