Day 5 Rosita's Masseria Mandrascate
Abandoned Sulfur Mines
Sebastian gives us a briefing on the sulfur mines we will be hiking through today. These mines were used from the 1700s until as recently as the 1980s. Parents would send their young boys to work for the mines, thinking they would have a better life with a steady paying job without the threat of starvation. Little did they know the children were exploited as sex slaves for the older men. During working hours, children as young as 5 were driven in a furious fashion to bring the salt ore out of the mines carrying loads much greater than imaginable for their young bodies, working underground for 8-10 hours a day. These children were essentially slaves with no escape from their living hell. To gain their freedom, a "death benefit" had to be repaid to the owners, but was never attainable.
Here We Are In…??
I have No clue where we are. There is more land here in Sicily than I ever imagined. I DO know there is lunch at the end of the trail. :-) Here is a view across some of the vast landscape we have hiked. If you look closely, in the distance there is a city at the top of the mountain.