Blogs from Potosi, Potosí Department, Bolivia, South America - page 31

Going back to Bolivia was quite exciting and after a couple of months of relatively easy travel it was going to be quite a shock! We crossed the border and instantly everything was different - but in a good way. This is South America and Bolivia is unique. We spent the day waiting for our overnight bus to Potosi. Only a couple of hundred kilometres but it was going to take us about 8 hours. The roads were exactly as they had been 8 years ago - terrible. The bus journey wasn't the worst but certainly not comfortable. We arrived in the dead of night to a deserted Potosi. It was absolutely freezing and we really struggled to find anywhere to stay. We eventually settled on a hotel but were given the most awful room you ... read more

Bolivia has to be the most actively political country in the world. It makes for very interesting conversations with locals but does somewhat get in the way of travel plans. On the limited time budget that we have we needed to get direct to Uyuni and did not have time to take in any other towns of this direct route through the country. But Uyuni, in true Bolivian style closed for three dyas at just the time we wanted to go there. And when I say closed I mean totally shut off from civilisation. Nothing was allowed to be open. People had to sneak round the back to buy food from shops that would have been in trouble if seen open. No-one could leave, to the extent that eventually 50-60 tourists protested in the central ... read more

Hazardous to your health, mining in Potosi: the colonial way or is it the Bolivian way? As you may notice this entry is long overdue - essentially dropped the ball on Potosi, but then again no love lost there on either side. It is a fascinating historic town but essentially located beside what looks like the surface of the Moon, a landscape of bleak rock over 4000 metres (12000 ft) high, where basic foodstuffs are somewhat limited - very tough to get any milk - and all roads lead to the mines... Like everyone else does when they come here, we took a tour. Not much seems to have changed here (las minas) over the years with the exception of head lights vs burning candles and plastic rubber vs animal hide to transfer minerals from one ... read more

Potosi owns a couple of superlatives. It’s the world’s highest city at 4070m, was once the riches city in South America and once had more inhabitants than London or Paris. That Potosi was founded in 1545 is thanks to the Cerro Rico “Rich Mountain” which contained huge amounts of Silver. The Silver content of the ore mined exceeded up to 70 percent. Today the content of metals is a maximum of 30 percent and always a mixture of different metals. Millions of Indian labourers were forced to work in the mines and many of them died young due to appealing conditions and mercury poisoning (Mercury was used to separate the silver from the stone.) The good silver ore depleted sometime around 1800 which led to a steady decline of the city. Today there are still over ... read more

Potosi at one time in history was one of the world's largest and wealthiest cities, as well as being the highest city in the world. It's no longer so large, but remains the wealthiest city in Bolivia. Why...? Because it has the world's largest silver mine, and if you wear silver there's a good chance it came from here. When we arrived in Potosi, Nik's first concern was seeing the England-Sweden match. We decided on putting our bags at any hostel we could find and then running round to find any place that was showing the football. After the match we walked about the city on our next mission..to book a mine tour. We weren't exactly sure what to expect in the mines or what preparations there were, but it was the main reason we were ... read more