I don't know if it is fact, but they sat Potosi is the highest city in the world, at an altitude of almost 4100m. The main attraction here, and more importantly what the city became renowned for, is Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain). This peak that rises over the city used to be the richest single source of silver in the world.
We deliberated whether to visit these mines or not, because they are still working and potentially very dangerous. Since the silver rush in 1545, it is estimated that 10 million people have fallen victim due to these working conditions which have barely been improved even in the modern day. We were also later told that people who earn their living through the mine are only expected to live to about 45. However even in light of this, we still felt it was an experience worth doing.
So we began by heading to the miners market where you can buy dynamite, coco leaves, cigarettes loaded with coco and 96% proof alcohol amongst other things. Miners welcome the 'gifts' of which we each brought a bag of goodies (consisting of coco leaves, pop and some potent alcohol). In case you are wondering, coco leaves are legal here and it is the staple diet in the mine since it enables workers to go for longer without getting hungry. We were then kitted out in our sexy looking mining gear (especially the face mask) before making our way to sample a small part of the hundreds of miles bored throughout this mount.
On entering the mine you realise how active it still is as we had to be alert to literally get out of the way of a loaded cart being dragged along the tracks. You can see that each worker has a hamster bulge in their cheek, being the coco leaves that are fuelling them. Trudging on along the wet floor, we veered off the main track through a series of small holes to see another worker in action. His job is to winch the 20kg pots of rock from the miners 30ft below and to then feed it to his carting friends to transport it out of the mine. It seems quite a dull and repetitive thing to do so we left him one of our goodie bags to cheer him up before moving on.
We proceeded by climbing a narrow shaft where at the top we were greeted by a different group of miners. They showed us the mineral seams they were mining, holes they have prepared for the next dynamite session and performed a ceremony to Pacha Mama (translates to Mother Earth in Quechua). While when I say ceremony, it basically involved having some 96% alcohol and offering some to her for good luck and fortunes. Miners swear by this ritual and belief, so much so that women are not allowed to work in the mine as it will make Pacha Mama jealous! On negotiating our way out of the mines we passed a shrine, which was initially a statue of the devil added by the Spanish to scare slaves to work - it is very peculiar looking to say the least.
The next day we wandered around the city which has a few churches to offer and a square named Plaza 10 de Noviembre. We then visited Casa Real de la Moneda, a silver museum. Enclosed in an impressive complex, this fortress also use to be a royal mint with all the original machinery still in place as well as many examples of archeological artefacts and coins. It was interesting to see and quite brutal the conditions that the Spanish forced the slaves to work in during the operation of the mint.
No city tour would be complete without sampling the local night life. Though classed as a city, it is not the biggest of places so we somehow ended up in a bar that did karoke. It was quite painful (as karoke always is) but especially because all the songs were in Spanish. We persitted to the DJ to play 'gringo music' but it was a long time in coming. Oh well at least the alcohol was cheap and only sold by the bottle of rum which seemed to get us through the shrieks and wails of the x-factor wannabes!
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