Potosi, Bolivia

The four of us arrived in Potosi at 4:30am after a horrific 8 hour bus ride that covered about 300 km before which we almost lost all of our bags on top of the wrong bus. After some solid sleep we explored the gorgeous city seemingly from another era. Potosi was at one point the most important city in the world with an intense wealth from the silver mines that the Spaniards profited on.





Potosi´s silver mine is to this day a very important part of the region employing thousands of miners who work in the most terrible conditions. We went on a tour of the mines and for about two hours got to see first hand what these miners live through everyday. We felt the intense heat, crawled and climbed through frighteningly tight passage ways and enhaled the toxic gases that everyday are killing the workers as young as 10 years old. It was mind blowing to see that in this day and age there are people making a living like this.


Every group of miners (Quecha aboriginials) has there own Tio (god of the earth or the devil according to the Catholic Spaniards). Before starting the day of work they must give offerings to el Tio such as alcohol, coca leaves or cigarettes. It is custom to give el Tio a lit cigarette to smoke. If he smokes it, then a good day of mining is sure to come.




Here in Potosi we met up with our friend Diego who we met way back in Val Paraiso, Chile. Our nice little gang of five then headed off together to Sucre, the official capital of Bolivia.