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Published: March 13th 2008
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We Left Uyini and had a six hour bus journey to Potosi, the highest city in the world. At over 4km (4060m) above sea level it literally leaves you breathless. It is a mining town with the tour of the mines been one of its highlights. According to the Lonely Planet the tours involve ¨scrambling and crawling in low narrow, dirty shafts where work practices are medieval, safety practices are non existent, and temperatures vary from below freezing to a stifling 45 degrees¨. The mine itself is a cooperative so each miner works for themselves taking what they can and then selling the ore to the coop. On a daily basis the miners are exposed to noxious chemicals and many of the miners die within ten years after entering the mine mainly from silicosis pneumonia. If you already had your doubts about the tour, on the way to the tour you buy small presents like cigarettes, alcohol and of course dynamite. One of the highlights is that they blow up something for the tourists. After living in Australia through the Tasmanian mine affair, where two miners got trapped in a mine for 16 days I was happy to be told about
Potosi Rooftops
View from roof of San Francisco Church this tour rather than experience it. Colm declined this trip also, however, apparently he now regrets it, a regret that was only expressed after we well and truly left the town and there was absolutely no possibility of doing it. Apparently there is a great movie called ¨The Devil´s Miner¨ about these mines.
We stayed in a hostel called ´Koala Den´just outside the center and spent a few days wandering around the town. Potosi is another great town and to date Bolivia has far exceeded my expectations. The first day we visited the San Francisco cathedral and got our own private tour in English, something that you would have never got in any of the other countries. We were taken to the roof which had smashing views of all Potosi and then down to the catacombs where there were baskets of skulls and bones. The next day we visited the Santa Teresa convent/art museum where we got another great tour in English of the old convent, and told about the nuns self flagellation. That evening we went to the markets where you can buy a pig and cow´s head should you have the craving, but the top seller is
Potosi Locals
Check out all the hats. perhaps the cow´s tongue which you can buy whole.
The following day we did a tour of the Potosi mint, which is meant to be one of the best museums in Bolivia It was a pity our tour guide was a bitch. She did not really like questions so we pretty much just looked at her and nodded. This mint used to make coins for all of Bolivia and Spain but ironically today Spain makes all Bolivia´s coins. All in all it was not a bad tour. After lunch that day we booked our bus, Sucre bound.
The trip usually takes 4 hours but with Miguel Schumacher at the helm we got there in two and a half. Thank god he had a horn which he used to warn other approaching drivers that he was taking the corner blind at 100km an hour. I actually think at one stage he broke the sound barrier, well so I´m told. I was asleep but Colm was pale when we got off the bus.
We managed to arrive in Sucre in one piece and the journey was worth the wait. It is another great Colonial town, (we seem to have
been in alot of them), but it is one of the nicest that we have visited. It is the constitutional capital of Bolivia, where the seat of the Supreme Court sits. We checked into a hotel and were greeted by another bitch (two in one day). The accommodation however made up for the receptionists personality, or lack there of. That day we went up to the town lookout, accompanied by our Israeli friend Shirley, where there were great views of the whole town. We had our lunch at the lookout where I had the best tomato soup of my life. Bold statement I know. Later on we visited a folk museum where we went on a great tour, in Spanish no less, from a very friendly guide. With his sign language and our gesticulating we got the gist of what was going on.
After two days in Sucre we booked our bus for Samiapata.
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