After finishing our trip to the salt flats it was time to move to the city of Potosi said to be the highest city on earth at 4070m or 13,350 ft. Thankfully I seem to have acclimatised over the sat few weeks so didn't struggle with the altitude this time.

Potosi is quite a historical colonial city given its tragic history as a silver mining centre during the time of the Spanish colonisation. Mining continues today and I decided to do a trip to a working silver mine. I was warned that the experience could be quite sobering and that was fair advice. Conditions today are no better than 100 years ago with poorly lit and ventilated mines that wouldn't pass western health and safety standards. The tour lasted about 1.5 hrs and we were asked to bring along gifts for the miners in the form of coca leaves and cigarettes. The miners to shifts of 12 to 24 hrs at a time and do not eat whilst underground so are reliant on the coca leaves to deal with the hunger and get energy. The cigarettes are specially made and very cheap, about 30 p a pack so I thought I'd stock up on a few to hand out as we progressed through the mine.

Whilst we were under there were a series of explosions as the miners used crude old fashioned dynamite to gather the precious stones and materials from the volcanic rock in the mountain. These create large amounts of dust and to he honest I didn't feel terribly safe with all the explosions going on. This wasn't helped by seeing loads of miners exiting at great speed following one of the larger explosions. At this point some of the group decided to go deeper but I took my queue from the experts and decided to leave with them.

On the way out we saw the shrine to Tio, the devil who is worshipped by the miners whilst they are under ground. Above ground Bolivians are strict Catholics but underground it is the devil they look to and pray to for safety and for luck to find silver. They worship with alcohol, coca leaves and cigarettes. It was all a bit surreal to be honest but it was clear that the miners took comfort from the protection they feel is provided from Tio.

I emerged from the mine unscathed and very grateful that I do not need to mine in Bolivia for a living!