Potosí, Bolivia

Here a bunch of pics from what I have seen/done lately.
You get lots of markets like these in Bolivia where you can buy absolutely anything from a stall selling just diodorants to TVs to plastic buckets.A side street in Potosí

An electric element in the shower head... Hmmm
Not to mention the bare electrical connections..

Part of a huge machine that used to be used for flattening ingots to mint coins.. It was run by donkeys or mules.

I really liked Potosí. It is an interesting town to walk around and admire all the colonial architecture. Potosí has the honour of being the highest city in the world at 4060m. You do notice this as you walk around and your lungs try to find more air that isn´t there. Mind you on the last morning I was there I witnessed some sort of marathon with lots of people running up and down the streets and while you could see them panting away there is no way I could have done that. I enjoyed Potosí for it´s history. Next to it is a mountain which has been mined since the 1500s for silver. More silver has come from here than any other place in the world. It literally kept the Spanish economy alive for over 200 years. Millions of indigenous and african slaves worked and died in the mines in apalling conditions. Potosí was bigger and richer than London many years ago. You sort of wonder what happened to all the money (Well Spain took it all but what then??)... I took a tour down one of the mines still operating today to check it out.

The miner´s market where you buy coca leaves, cigarillos and dynamite..Coca leaves.. Popular with miners (and locals), supposedly helps combat the altitude. I chewed a few leaves for fun, don´t know if it made any difference. The present Bolivian president, Moralés, is known (among other things) for the saying Coca leaves yes, Cocaine no. Don´t know how hard it is going to be to realistically separate the two with Cocaine still being one of the biggest income earners in Bolivia.That is 96% alcohol!!! -At just over a dollar a bottle. Talk about burning the insides out. It was rotten. Smelt like White Spirits. Excluding the conditions in the mines no wonder the miner´s here don´t have a long life span..One if the many entrances into the mine. Often wet and/or dusty.Climbed down and up a couple crazy ladders. They are held in place by two bent over nails or a piece of bicycle tubing..Not even a ladder here. The workers need to climb the knotted rope you see in the bottom right corner at the end of their shift to get out.A piece of the famous silver ore. While the vein of ore is nowhere as rich as years before the price of silver keeps all worthwile.Tio, the god/devil they serve to keep them safe. Originated from the time when the Spainards made the locals and slaves work in the mine. Since the Spaiñards wouldn´t go down there themselves they spoke about a `being´ in the mountain who was checking up on them, blessing or punishing them depending on how hard they worked. The story grew from there and is still alive today..

After Potosí took the road to Sucré. For Bolivia it was a fantastic bit of tarmac. If I lived out here I´d own a sportsbike just to do this 160km long road at least once a week..

Brilliant.