Villa Imperial de Potosí, Bolivia

This hostel is great but still very cold. The city is at 4,090m elevation, so it’s not a surprise. There is plenty of hot water however and for 20p we can enjoy a bounty for breakfast including scrambled eggs so I am happy sat by a gas heater. Potosí lies at the foot of the Cerro Rico (rich mountain) which produced 60% of all silver mined in the second half of the 16th century. It was at this time one of the worlds largest cities and bigger than London. The Spanish crown became very rich from the spoils of this mountain and forced indigenous people to work in Potosí’s silver mines through the traditional Incan mita system of contributed labor. Many of them died due to the harsh conditions of the mine life and natural gases. At such a high altitude, pneumonia was always a concern and mercury poisoning took the lives of many involved in the refining process. Once this became an issue, Spain sent thousands of African slaves to work in the mine who also met a similar fate. In today’s mine the men work as cooperatives but it is still very manual and a dangerous occupation. The final silver is due to run out in 7 years and with 60% of the men still working in the mine, I wonder about what the future holds for this once majestic city. You can do tours of the mine and Shivani has signed up for one with an ex miner this morning. I don’t doubt it will be interesting but it’s not something I want to do, so Vanessa and I are going to stroll the key highlights of the city. We wander through the central plaza, noting that alot of the houses have external wooden balconies on the upper floor which is a new style. It is always interesting to view the central market but we were less keen on seeing the meat sellers who were busy sawing a carcass. It didn’t look like a very hygienic area, so I will perhaps stick to vegetables here. There is a pretty church sat behind the market, San Lorenzo. The guide is happy to let us in for 10p and also lets us go up and view the city from the roof. We have a great view of Cerro Rico as a backdrop as well. Shivani is back for lunch, proclaiming that the tour was an eye opener but she’s not in a hurry to do it again. Our plan for the afternoon is to visit the Casa de moneda, what was once the national mint of Bolivia. I can’t remember the numbers but this was one of 8 mints that produced coins for the Spanish crown. In the 16th century this mint created millions of silver coins and they were shipped over to Spain, as the men toiled in very manual processes and poor conditions. The museum is interesting, lots of examples of early coins that were hand stamped and erratic shapes through to the later rounded coins. The Potosí mint stamp was made up of overlaying the letters PTS & I from the city name. The story we were told was that the US dollar symbol evolved from the S & I being overlaid. The museum still has the old machinery that was powered by mules walking a drive on the floor below, all made of wood. We also view later machinery powered by steam until the final electric machines which were from the US but only used for around 20years before production was closed down. Bolivia’s currency now comes from Chile and is made from nickel. We found a great restaurant for us tonight, enjoyed a mustard pork dish in a lovely warm room.