Potosi

Our next destination was Potosi which was absolutely freezing, not too suprising considering its the highest city in the world at 4090 meters above sea level. The reason for our visit was to go down the mines of the huge mountain overlooking the city. The mountain was once laced with silver which the Spanish Empire was funded on for a number of years, these days its a co-operative mine with no government assistance and little silver. This has left it open to tourism and guided tours which we of course did. The morning started with a trip to the Miners market to buy the miners dynamite, coca leaves and 90% alcohol (they mix it with water and it did not taste good), before heading down a working mine for a few hours. The whole experience was hard work but an eye opener, because the miners work for themselves health and safety was very low on the agender, and the tunnels were tiny as the longer they spend largening them the less time they have mining for silver. Also due to the toxic fumes each miner could only expect to live for around 30 years after entering the mines.