Potosi, Bolivia

Sunday 29th April

Potosi

Our bus from here (Uyuni) to Potosi doesn't head off til 10.30 am, so a leisurely start to the morning, and pleased for a good nights sleep.

No breakfast included at the hostel, so we pick up a few bits in town, and it's market day today.

Bus leaves pretty much on time, and thinking ahead, Paul chose a seat at the front of the bus to get a bit more legroom. We've already been warned about legroom in Bolivia, so will try to think ahead at each stop.

Unfortunately we're not sitting together, but the journey isn't so long, about 6 hours - a length that doesn't seem to bother us much nowadays.

The legroom is fine, though just before we head off it looks like a couple of other English folk will have to stand, but thankfully there's been some kind of mix up and they soon get their seats back.

The journey is fine, and more interesting mountainous scenery passes us by.

I did feel a little sorry for the girl sitting next to me, she seemed to be crying every so often. With my limited Spanish, there wasn't much I could do to help, unless we were ordering from a menu, or needed directions somewhere.

Anyway, wasn't long before the chubby miss let herself down by chucking a small bag of rubbish out of the window. Not sure if she actually thought it would be better to throw it into the small river we splashed through, so it would wash away into the magic trash can at the end. Tch! - at times like this I wish I could whisper some cutting Spanish words under my breath. She clearly didn't understand the ones I used, accompanied by the traditional British sideways shake of the head.

So, after more scenery, rocks, trees, leathery faced old women, limping dawgs, we get into 'downtown' Potosi, and dropped at the main bus station outside of town.

We're a little lost, with our current position off the Lonely Planet map, though we head up the hill, seeking a landmark.

Not finding one, we seek help, but get lost in translation, however, we are saved by a couple with their children, who communicate to us as to whether we are looking for a room. Whilst we have a hostel in mind, theirs sounds good - double room, private bathroom, cable TV, quiet, central location (though we're now wary of what this means to different people - central can still mean a 15 minute walk away!), and we're able to negotiate the price we were looking to pay elsewhere, from 100 Bolivianos, to 70, which is about just under GBP5 for both of us.

Chatted in our best Spanish for the 10 minute taxi ride to their (Monica and Francisco, children Claudia and Rodriguo) place, and yes, it's very nice, quiet homely, and we even have our own living room.

Walked, the short walk, into town and made some tour enquiries, including the Silver Mine tour, at Koala Tours (recommended in the guide book, and yes, seem very good).

There's an excellent veggie restaurant above the tour shop, and we enjoyed a great 4 course meal for less than GBP3 TOTAL.

This, Potosi, is the highest city in the world at 4070 metres, and we feel it as we walk back up hill to our digs.

Enjoy a fairly early night, with a little bit of TV and chocolate. The rooms a little bit cold, but cosy under the blankets.

Monday 30th April

Wow, another month goes by, and only 2 full months to go before we're home.

Whilst breakfast isn't included with our room, we have it here anyway, for a little extra. Nice to have warm rolls, and freshly made juice.

Had a wander around the pretty town (highest city in the world), Chris booked a tour of the silver mine for Wednesday.

Potosi was founded in 1545, following the discovery of ore in the hill behind, called Cerro Rico (rich mountain). It grew into Latin Americas largest and wealthiest cities - richer even than London. In turn, many churches were built (32 remain) and it has very impressive colonial buildings.

Enjoy a drink on top of the Cafe Mirador (Lookout) - great views of Potosi, The Plaza and Cerro Rico. The building was once a church, and now a cafe and theatre.

Later on we enjoyed a cheap 4 course lunch at the restaurant above the Koala tours shop.

Considered joining the trip to the Tinku festival, but decided that animal sacrifice and (literally, sometimes) fights to the death in the interest of spilling blood onto the sacred ground and ensuring a healthy harvest. Would have been very interesting, with the traditional dress, music and partying and the fact that it's not a tourist event, and perhaps would have been one of the most authentic experiences on this trip....

Just in case we change our minds about going to the Tinku festival, Chris changes her mine tour to tomorrow.

Chilly in our room in the evening - no heater, but the TV keeps us warm and enjoy back-to-back episodes of CSI.

Tuesday 1st May

Chris up early for the mine tour, and we have breakfast together before she heads off. Paul creeps back into bed for a bit.

The mine tour went a little like this...

The group first of all stopped off and bought a few bits and pieces (gifts) for the miners - soft drinks, snacks, dynamite - the usual stuff.

We had a talk on the miners equipment, including the Bolivian dynamite, which is apparently the best, followed by Argentinian. Peruvian dynamite is bottom of the list. Also had a sip of the miners tipple - 96% proof.

For our entry into the mine itself, we kitted up in jacket, trousers and helmet with built in torch - the heavy battery is on a belt. On the way towards the mine we stop at the miners market and bought some coca leaves (staple in high-altitude Bolivian life). Some of our group had a super-cheap meal, though not much for veggies.

Then we were taken to Cerro Rico, via the treatment plant where the minerals are purified. Zinc is the main mineral now mined, but the plant we visited still deals with silver ore.

Our guide, Pedro, explained some history about the mine, and that millions of labourers were conscripted to work the mines - indigenous people and African slaves. The Africans quickly perished due to the harsh climatical conditions.

Over 8 million workers died from diseases, accidents and contact with the toxic chemicals, including Mercury, in the mine.

Conditions were, and continue to be, appalling in the mines - even as we entered the mine, the heat, dust and cramped conditions hit us.

Firstly we visited the museum inside the mine, impressed with the information in English. There's a 'devil' statue inside the mine, that is considered good luck and the miners give offerings (cigarettes and coca leaves) for prosperity.

They work the mine as a cooperative venture, with each miner working on his own and selling his minerals/ore to a smelter through the cooperative. We learn that some of the miners aren't doing too bad, money-wise, and get around 5/6000 Bolivianos a month, though some earn only as little as a tenth of that.

Pedro's father worked the mine for more than 30 years and brought home on average 600 a month - he never found silver or made claim to a large mineral deposit.

Moving down to the first level, a little cramped and walking a little bent over, then we slide down some wooden planks to the second level, where it is more dusty and the heat sharply rises and we need to scramble through some very low ceiling parts before getting to the third level.

We all had a go at pulling and carrying the heavy buckets, though needed to do it in two's. Bloody hard work, bringing on a little perspiration!

The miners were pleased to receive our gifts, cigarettes, coca leaves, soft drinks, fruit and dynamite.

Quite noisy at this level - compressed air driving the pneumatic drills - quite unnerving.

Heading back up, we're on our hands and knees, but pleased for the coolness of level 1 and then back in to the fresh air.

After our 'hard work' we rest a while in our filthy overalls, and then the boys in the group went to perpare their dynamite. The guides positioned the dynamite and 5 loud explosions followed - no lives or limbs were lost!

Interesting day, and quite unforgetable - Paul regrets not going, but enjoyed his extra rest in bed.

We met up in town for late lunch and chatted for the rest of the afternoon, before stocking up on M&M's.

Wednesday 2nd May

Leisurely breakfast, and went to the Museo and Convent de San Francisco. Not quite worth the 40 Bolivianos we paid , though we did have a guide briefly, but would have preferred to wander around ourselves. There's still 10 monks here - one French and 9 Bolivians, who all teach in the nearby school.

After, we sat in the Plaza taking sneaky pictures of the local women in their traditional dress - knee high pleated skirts, thick tights and jumpers/shawls - topped off with a bowler hat.

After lunch at Koala Cafe we went across the road into the Casa Real de la Moneda (Royal Mint) - there's usually an English tour in the afternoon, about 2pm. The building was constructed between 1743 and 1773 to control the minting of colonial coins. We were first shown Bolivias first locomotive, and then into a lovely room housing religious art. One room holds a copy of Potosi's most famous painting, which is currently 'on tour' around the globe. It'll be coming to London in January 2008, at the National Gallery.

Interesting that the majority of the religious art was painted by indigenous artists who simply copied other art, including on occasions the original artists signature!

Religious art was used as a tool to evangelise the indigenous people .

The most interesting rooms hold the coins and wooden minting machines. The first coins were of course silver, and simply and crudely hammered into shape - this made them susceptible to 'theft' as folk would trim small pieces of silver from the coins.

Eventually the coins were made from moulds, giving them a perfectly circular shape.

The wooden minting machines were in excellent condition in the musuem, and we saw the lower level where mules were used to turn the huge machines - these ran 24 hours a day.

It's ironic that for hundreds of years, Spain's coins were made in Potosi, whereas now, Bolivias coins are made in Spain.

Was interesting to see the different coins throughout the colonial period - the different designs, palmtrees, llamas, Cerro Rico. Also within the museum were Tiahuanaco/Tiwanaku artefacts and several mummified children.

Sobering to see that several of the smelting rooms still had blackened brickwork from the smoke generated in there - must have been such harsh conditions for the indian and african slaves to work in.

After the interesting and recommended museum, we caught up on some internet chores and no doubt some more food at the Koala Cafe- I know it's bad that we had most meals in Potosi at the same place, but when it's so good, it's always risky to try somewhere else and be disappointed...

Off to Sucre tomorrow, so packed in the evening and readied ourselves for departure...

Really enjoyed our time in Potosi, though perhaps not the altitude.

continues on next thread...