Rio Tinto

I went to a small town called Rio Tinto last weekend and I just wanted to share briefly with you guys about the town and my fun excursion.

Rio Tinto literally means Colored River, and it’s the color red.  Yup, that’s the right, the water is red.  It’s big talk here in Huelva, and it is for a reason.  Rio Tinto used to be an old mining town, and is basically the reason the province of Huelva exists.  Huelva has a old British Quarter where there are houses that look like British Cottages and such, and those were where the British used to live back when Huelva was a mining province.  They used to mine sulfur and metals there and the large amount of metal that is in the water actually turns it red.  Rio Tinto is the most acidic river in the world, and nothing can live in it except for bacteria.  You won’t find fish or any other living thing because it’s too acidic.  But it’s very cool and doesn’t burn your skin or anything, it’s perfectly safe to rub on your hands, but not to drink. 

So I went with my friend Sarah, we made the 2 hour bus ride out to the town, and were kindly driven in the guide company’s car to the site of the old mine (it has since been shut down) and were able to see the tunnel that they used to get to the mines, and were walked out into an open area where you can see the different levels of the rock they chiseled out and the different colors because of the different minerals that are in the rock. 

Then we were brought to the train where they take you on an hour and a half train ride next to the river.  This again I think used to be a part of the old mines and they used this to transport the minerals to and from different locations.  But the train ride takes you along the river and you can see there how truly blood red the water is, it’s really cool!  They stop the train at one portion of the river so you can get out and take pictures and go down to the water front and touch the water or even fill a water bottle with some (although it looks more diluted in a water bottle and I feel like I just have a bottle of pee sitting on my desk)

After we stopped they brought us back to the main station and the nice guide took us to Nerva (apparently there are only two taxis in that area….so hitching a ride was the only option). There we had to catch the last bus back to Huelva and we ate lunch at a hotel restaurant where the waiter was a singer at heart.  He served us a delicious lunch full of fresh seafood and chocolate cake and then sang Karaoke!  It was certainly the most entertaining lunch I’ve had in a while.  Rio Tinto was really interesting to see, and while we didn’t get to see everything the town and the mines had to offer, due to the horrible bus schedule, it was still charming and worth the ride out there.