December 2008

Cultural trip 3rd stage at Rio Tinto mines (Huelva)

VISIT TO PARK MINING

RIOTINTO On November 11, 2008, the pupils of the third cycle visit the Rio Tinto mining park in the province of Huelva.

At nine o'clock we took the bus. The trip was great fun: some sang songs, others sang, heard some music and others played the Nintendo DS. Overall, almost without realizing we Riotinto.

Upon arrival, we stopped at the door of the mining museum. There, some made a small breakfast (to recharge) and others were playing. After 20 minutes or so, we begin with a visit to the mining museum. In the first projection room, we put a video that explained some of the history of the mines and what was in them. It was a very cool movie. Then we go through different rooms in which we saw old photos, models of mines and minerals, many with names very rare gorgeous. Saul was our guide and explained in detail everything he had in the rooms, although sometimes we despistábamos and not listening to his words. What we do not like so much is that we could not take pictures inside the museum because I know no law .... Well, Saul, we step into the next room where we could see a huge locomotive, the "106" pulling wagons loaded ore and a wagon very cool known as the Maharaja. "Apparently, the car was built for Queen Elizabeth of England but never made it to premiere and that was for use of the personalities who visited the mine complex as King Alfonso XIII and other less important .

Best of the museum, we left for the final. We visited the reproduction of an ancient Roman mine from 2000 years ago. They were very narrow passageways dug into the rock. It was dark and we had to pass one at a time. The truth is that was a little scary. Saul told us that this undermines the slaves worked and that which came to work here, alive lasted two days and three months. She also told us that even working children of our age that came in small spaces where they did not fit the elderly. After the visit to the Roman mine, we went to the museum gift shop that had many minerals are very curious and did not cost very expensive. Some colleagues bought souvenirs like precious stones and dolls.

After breakfast and playing around in the vicinity of the mining museum, we got the bus to visit the English area of \u200b\u200bBellavista, where the workers lived British mines. There, we visited the "house 21". It is a colonial style house early in the century that remains in the same state as they did in those days. Saul told us that in that neighborhood so nice, just living the only English and English who came there were domestic workers.

The house had three floors: the ground floor was a very big old kitchen, large living room with fireplace and a small room. The first was the bathroom, the bedrooms and a small desk top, three small rooms. It was curious that one of these rooms was full of pictures of people doing sports and in so many photos had a great and ancient Sevilla FC. According to Saul, Rio Tinto was founded in the first team of "foot-ball" of all Spain and consisted only of English players who were workers in the mines.
The furniture was all very old and had many musical instruments. It was like a house of our own but without appliances.

After the visit to the English district of Bellavista, we hopped back on the bus and we went to take the tourist train that runs along the river Tinto. Saul told us that the British, when they bought the mines, built railroads to carry the ore from the mines to the port of Huelva and there to embark on large ships set sail for England. But we got on a little train, with only four cars and entire wood. A little old and slow. They agree with children from other schools. The 12-kilometer journey, "began at a station in the middle of the Rio Tinto mining complex near the headwaters of the Rio Tinto. The landscape seemed lunar: there were no plants and it was copper-colored, rusty old machinery everywhere. Pollution is clearly palpable in those areas. Little by little we were leaving the mining valley and vegetation began to appear. The scenery was beautiful and the train ran parallel to the river bed. Most striking was the color of the river, completely red, like red wine. Hence the name "Rio Tinto. Saul us again to explain that the color is due to the action of the minerals that lie at the bottom of the channel, particularly sulfur.

Another curiosity is that this is the area of \u200b\u200bthe planet that most resembles the surface of Mars and that NASA is investigating these areas of possible life forms that may exist on Mars. When we reached the last station, get off the train and got out to look closely at the river's waters. Some even fell in small ponds and all shot plenty of photos. A little tired and starving, we return to the starting point and we went to a park for lunch and rest a couple of hours to continue the visits in the afternoon.

The last visit was at the mine, "Peña iron" in the town of Nerva, 12 miles from Rio Tinto, so again boarded the bus. Mine was a very productive and rich. The mining complex consisted of an underground mine in 11 galleries and a depth of over 135 meters, and one open pit mine. To peek at the open pit we had to cross a gallery of nearly 100 meters and we got a helmet just in case. Saul warned us of the danger of collapse if we did a lot of noise, but we for a change, did not the slightest case. At the end of the gallery was a kind of natural balcony overlooking the lake that had formed at the bottom of the opencast mine. It was spectacular to look up and see the huge hole that was mine. Nearly 150 feet high and more than 300 of one side of the lake.

And here he concluded our visit to Rio Tinto. A little tired but amazed by the things we had seen parts back to Alcalá del Río. -But our river is quite polluted, no comparison with the Rio Tinto-Pupils of 6 º A, we are very satisfied with this visit and we recommend it to all children and teachers in our school that's worth.