Potosi - City of Silver

"I am rich Potosi
The treasure of the world
And the envy of Kings."

This quote from the city's first coat of arms sums it up. Silver was discovered in the mountain behind Potosi in 1545 and catapulted the city into being the richest in the Americas. The Spanish imported millions of African slaves to work alongside the indigenous people extracting silver from the mines. It is estimated that during colonial rule (1545 - 1825) as many as eight million Africans and indigenous Bolivians died in the appalling conditions.
We watched a documentary the other night about a fourteen year old boy and his twelve year old brother who work in the mines today, manually chipping out holes and laying explosives. Their story is heart wrenching as they explain how they worship God outside of the mine, but once inside the mine they must worship the Tio (the devil) because that is his realm and he can cause rocks to fall on them whenever he wants. Each mine has a statue of a Tio where the miners lay offerings of coca leaves, cigarettes and alcohol before they go to work. Sometimes they will sacrifice a llama outside the mine and paint the blood around the mine's entrance as well as on their faces.
Miners still work in unacceptable conditions today and many die from silicosis pneumonia before they turn forty.
It's so sad to imagine the amount of suffering happening all in the name of silver.
Driving into Potosi, I could see the faded grandeur of the colonial times. Buildings stood strong and proud but were old and tired. We checked in and decided to go and visit the National Mint. At 4070m I could feel the effects of the altitude as we made our way into town.
The Mint was built in 1572 under orders from the Viceroy of Toledo. The walls of the building were a meter thick and one large room housed immense assemblies of mule- driven wooden cogs that served to flatten the silver ingots into the width required for coining. At first the coins were shapeless bits of silver stamped with the mint mark "P". They were called Potosis.
After bits of the coins were getting hacked off and sold separately, the Spanish decided to start producing round coins. The wooden cogs were replaced with steam powered machines in the 19th century and eventually with electric machines. The last coins were minted here in 1953. Now all Bolivia's money is minted in Chile. The tour was interesting, but quite long and we were all getting hungry and chilly.

After a huff-puff walk back to the hotel, we got ready and headed out for dinner to a restaurant located in an old silver refinery building where they used to produce silver platters. I enjoyed a delicious llama steak covered in a wild mushroom sauce, served with mashed potatoes and washed down with a lovely syrah/merlot blend from Campo de Solana, a Bolivian vineyard.
As we left the restaurant the heavens decided to empty themselves onto Potosi and we skipped, hopped and jumped over the torrents running down the steep cobbled streets. Finally, back at the hotel, soaked, but thankfully not washed away, we dried off and crawled into bed.
The following morning our guide took us through narrow, winding roads almost to the outskirts of town, to a church locked up for most of the year, but with a sad story attached to it. It is said there used to be a very handsome monk at this church and he fell in love with a girl who used to visit it. She asked him to runaway with her so that they could be together, but when he refused she threw herself off the roof of the church. He felt so guilty that he did the same thing. Crazy love....
Picking our way through stray dogs and grubby children we made our way back into the main square and a quick walk through the market before heading to the bus station. As we passed through the meat section of the market, I had to do a double take at what was actually laid out on the counter for sale. Cow noses. Yes, a whole cow nose, would you like an esophagus to go with that. Yum!
Eventually at the bus station that was over run by, yes, you guessed it; dogs and little old Bolivian ladies selling everything from underwear to popcorn, we caught our bus to Uyuni. The hair raising ride went quite quickly considering most of it was on a curvy, corrugated gravel road. Covered in dust and exhausted from five hours of free butt massage, we showered, had dinner and collapsed into bed.
Tomorrow the surreal landscape of Salar de Uyuni awaits.