Potosi, Bolivia

Potosi slideshow

I had to stop and brace myself against the walls as I walked up the steep streets of Potosi to catch my breath. My lungs reacted to receiving the thin air at exactly 13,420 feet, and my heart was beating at a scaring fast rate. I think I know how it must feel to have a heart condition after this experience. The air entering the lungs seem unsatisfactory, the head is light with lack of oxygen and the body gets tired very easy. At least that is how I am still feeling, despite the coca leaves I stuff into the right side of my mouth every couple of hours. I actually did not think it was possible to get coca leaves easily, but I asked around at the Mercado Central in Sucre and found a campesina on a quiet corner with a large basket covered with a cloth. She also had herbs for the prostate, liver, to reduce the level of blood sugar, among other illnesses. The $4 bolivianos bag (US60c) I got should last through my travels in the Altiplano in Bolivia and Peru.

It also didn't help that my bus was six hours delayed because of two road blockages. There was a demonstration by the transportation union members against a city ordinance not allowing diesel vehicles to come into the city because it is causing pollution. The workers wanted to negotiate better terms and to show that they were serious, they protested by starting a blockade at midnight. When I finally got into town, found a hostal and ate my dinner, I was exhausted.

Potosi is even more photogenic than Sucre. It is also a Unesco World Heritage Site and it has a rich history. The tour at the Casa Real de la Moneda, one of Bolivia's best museums, built between 1753 and 1773, was very informative. The city of Potosi was founded in 1546 as a mining town. According to official records, 45,000 tons of pure silver were mined from 1556 to 1783 by indigenous people at first and then by African slaves. Workers died around 40 years of age due to poor working conditions. It is estimated that approximately 8 million of Indians died during the last years of indigenous labor.

In the meantime, in 1572, a mint was established to coin silver and at that time more than eighty six churches were built and the city's population increased to nearly 200,000, making it one of the largest and wealthiest cities in Latin America and in the world. The shortage of Indigenous labor led to the importation of a total of 30,000 African slaves to work in the mint from 1608 until 1767 when it was closed. But things have changed little. Like most everywhere else in the world, with some few exceptions, exploited work bring wealth to a few people while there is no shortage of money to build churches in great numbers.

The mines are still operating to this day in Potosi, under cooperatives, although most of the silver is gone. Work is done by hand with basic tools and underground temperatures that varies from below freezing to 113F. Workers are exposed to silica and often die of silicosis pneumonia after 10 years of entering the mines.

The interesting thing I learned at the mint house, though, is that the coins minted there were used all over the world. This required the transportation of the coins by ships, and the creation of a myriad of security systems that included false locks and bronze made craters. A ship even sunk with the equivalent of $400 million dollars worth of silver. It was found much later by an American, and remnants of the ship is in a museum on the east coast. America never gave back the silver coins either. But this is nothing considering to the modern days pirating of ships on the Somalian coast.

I am off for a night to Chaqui, a resort town with hot springs. I am hoping to get an infusion of healing boiling water into my skin. The cold I feel in the highest town of the world without amenities such as heaters is a little hard to take. I also still need to get used to the altitude before heading out to the Salar de Uyuni, also the highest salt dessert in the world. So much for superlatives...