The Highest City in the World

The highlight of a trip to Potosi has to be visitng the cooperative mines of Cerro Rico. As dynamite blasts shake the mountain, the visitor experiences conditions little changed from hundreds of years ago when the Spanish ran the mines using slave labor from amoung the Andean peasants throughout the colony.

A tour of the museum in the Casa Real De Moneda will complete the picture of exploitation visited upon the Andean peasants of the colonial era. The Casa Real contained the colonial mint.

There are over 80 colonial churches in Potosi containing wonderful art and artifacts from throughout the history of the city.

Quick Tips:

Be mindful of the altitude. Potosi is at 4000 meters (13123 feet). The air is very, very thin and the city is very hilly. Walking is exhausting and sleeping is difficult. Altitude sickness is a possibility. In any case, visitors arriving from the lowlands will need to take it easy for a couple of days. Visitors with medical conditions should consult their doctors, etc.

Drinking coca leaf tea can help somewhat alleviate the effects of the elevation, but it is a mild stimulant and could make sleeping even more difficult.

Best Way To Get Around:

The central colonial area of Potosi is very small. Walking is the best way to experience the city but be mindful of the effects of altitude.

The Jerusalen cost less than $10/night for a room with a shower and toilet. It was a couple of steps above the normal backpacker fare. The hot water was provided as it often is by a frightening contraption mounted on the shower rear. The hotel's courtyard was full of loud people one night. So try to get a room away from the courtyard. The rooms were clean and comfortable but small.

The Casa Real was the Royal Mint used by the Spanish colonizers to turn the silver from Cerro Rico into coins to be shipped back to Spain. it has been wonderfully restored. The musem alone could justify a visit to Potosi.

The museum boasts a wide variety of coins and coin stamps. Also, visitors can see the restored presses including hand powered minting machines. A room containing religous paintings, many done by indigenous Andeans was our introduction to the history of the region.

It's like nothing you've ever imagined. The small tour group's first stop is at the miners' markets where visitors and miners purchase supplies. The supplies turn out to be alcohol, cigarettes, coca leaves and dynamite. After another quick stop to don rubber rain coats, boots and miner helmets complete with lamps, your bus takes off for the mines.

Entering the mines is a step into the past. Miners still work by hand cutting small shafts in which to place their dynamite. The air is thick with dust which vibrates with each groundshaking dynamite explosion. Thousands of miners work through the mountain with no central control or plan. Collapses are common. Visitors watch miners drunk on alcohol and stimulated by coca leaves (to ward off hunger) cut at the stubborn rock faces in search of zinc and tin and the rare vein of silver. In Spanish times Cerro Rico was known throughout the world for its silver deposits which are now mostly played out.

We visited with the miners and gave them the gifts we had purchased in the market. Many tours can be quite challenging physically including crawling through tight tunnels and climbing ladders up tight shafts.

Our guide showed us how dynamite is prepared and then had us huddle in a rock alcove as he set off an explosion which blew out our lamps and left us cowering in the dark!

The last hour of the tour was spent sitting in a dead end of the tunnel with the rock idol of the miners, Tio. Our guide recounted the horrors of working in the mines today and in colonial times when over 8 million slaves perished at the hands of the Spanish colonizers.

Colonial churches filled with art and artifacts including the Convent of San Fransisco and the Convent of Santa Teresa which contains skeletons of dead monks. The Compania de Jesus on Calle Ayacucho displays fabulous examples of the mix of Spanish and local architecture.