Potosi was at one stage Latin America's largest and wealthiest city due to possessing the worlds richest mine at the time. It is also the worlds highest city at a little over 4,000m. To mine the nearby hills the Spanish conscripted labor from indigenous and imported African slaves. They were set to build a huge system of dams to help in the processing of the minerals and to work the mines themselves (the African slaves proved to be pretty useless at 4,000m and were more useful as houseslaves). The silver eventually all but ran out and now the small demand for tin keeps the place ticking. You can't go to Potosi without have a look at the mines (still employing most of the local population). The easiest way to do it is to get a guide, buy some gifts for the miners (coca, drink, dynamite, fuses etc.) and take the tour. The miners generally work as a co-operative venture with miners working in teams and selling their ore through the cooperative to a smelter. I'm really bad with enclosed spaces and had been warned that this would be pretty tough, but when I got there I didn't stand a chance. I got about 20 minutes into the mine before I had to call it a day and turn around (my amigos made it through the full 3 hours). The working practices in the mines are still medievial with basically no safety provisions, poor ventilation, mostly basic hand tools and temperatures from below zero to 45degrees inside. There was no way I was going crawling through the tiny shafts and rickety ladders for 3 hours (the slaves spent MONTHS at a time down there!). The conditions in the mines were shocking and it's no wonder nearly 8 million people have died in the mines and lake building and the average miner lives to 38 years old, normally dying of silicosis pneumonia from all the chemical exposure. None of us could imagine a worse environment to work in. Most of them use Coca leaves to get them through the day (chewing on the leaves dulls any pain or hunger). Unfortunately it is also the only employment in the city. As with most of Bolivia, the miners protest regularly (most days while we were there) and with their good knowledge of dynamite the marches are very 'explosive' (you can by dynamite at any store in the town). Up the workers!! The other point of interest (apart from my blood noses and nausia from altitude sickness) was the Potosi museum. They have restored the old Bolivian mint that used to press all the currency (in real silver) and lined the walls with (I'm told) a classy collection of religious artwork (about 400 depressing paintings of a bairded, bloody guy carrying and stuck on a big cross). The irony of combining the church and a mint was not lost on me.