Potosi, Bolivia - Silver Mines

The trip from Uyuni to Potosi was probably one of the worst moments of this trip. 6 hours (for less than 200km) in a bus that was far from its ideal conditions, in a road that... well, I am being nice to call it road... in a rocky and dirty "path" that did not allow the bus to ride smoothly. Basically, I felt like a Kangaroo baby going through Australia inside its mom's pouch...

And of course many funny things: a woman that came up to the bus in the middle of no where, with a baby goat in her arms, a man that stops the busm because he had to give a packet to one of the passengers, and they keep talking for 5 to 10 minutes about their lives, while everybody kindly waits for them to finish their conversation, etc. At the same time I was happy, I was certainly finally in Bolivia and it was everything I expected it to be!

Potosi used to be one of the richest cities in South America, back in the XVII century, when its silver mines were one of the main sources of minerals to whatever was being built in Europe.

Today, the "silver" old times are gone, but the city has kept its charming architecture from that time, and of course the silver mines.

We went on a tour to visit the mines that was fantastic! Basically because it was nothing but a organized tour. We really felt as one of them. Early in the morning we were drinking alcohol with them, the same they drink before they go to work with 97% alcohol. We were also chewing loads of coke leaves and smoking a "hand-made cigarette" with cinammonm coke and tabacco. All this before getting in...

Once inside, with no security at all and dressed as one of them, we got to the different levels of the mine, we saw a couple of explosions, helped them bringing up or down the stones, and stopped once in a while to have a cigarette with them and chat.

Unfortunately the pictures from inside the mine did not turn out well due to the bad ligthing and a broken camera...