Potosi
I made it out of Sucre today with a minimum of hassle. I found some decent breakfast (though still no real coffee, alas) at the German cafe, and then I caught a minibus out to the terminal with no hassle at all. I got out, and was immediately approached by two women -- one offering a car to Potosi (I declined) and the other offering bus tickets. I was not sure about the second one, so I said that I would head into the terminal to ensure that the ticket I was buying was for real. She followed me and slipped behind the counter for the bus company she worked for. I felt a little stupid, but still glad that I had not bought a bogus ticket. My bus left 20 minutes later. All good, and four hours later I arrived in Potosi.
Potosi is the world's highest city, at 4060 metres. I can tell that I am a lot more acclimatised to the altitude now -- I can walk around and enjoy the city in a way that simply wasn't possible a few months ago... It is hard to believe that this city is only 40 metres lower than Leela and I slept at the second night of the Lares trek... where we woke up to a major layer of frost on our tents!! The good news is that my hostal has duvets and a heater in the room tonight in case it gets cold, which is unusual in this city. I am going to head down into the silver mines tomorrow, which should be both disturbing and really interesting. The silver is why this city exists at all, though the mines are largely depleted now. An ore co-op buys the ore that each miner finds, and the working conditions are apparently medieval. I had to sign a waiver re the possibility of dying in a mine collapse. Oy. But I trust that we won't have a cave-in tomorrow, thanks. I think I may try to arrange my tour to the salt flats from here as well, and stay one more night here tomorrow.
No luck again with the pictures -- the computer I'm on won't mount my USB stick properly... though it does offer me the option of safely dismounting it. I don't understand, but hey.
Potosi is the world's highest city, at 4060 metres. I can tell that I am a lot more acclimatised to the altitude now -- I can walk around and enjoy the city in a way that simply wasn't possible a few months ago... It is hard to believe that this city is only 40 metres lower than Leela and I slept at the second night of the Lares trek... where we woke up to a major layer of frost on our tents!! The good news is that my hostal has duvets and a heater in the room tonight in case it gets cold, which is unusual in this city. I am going to head down into the silver mines tomorrow, which should be both disturbing and really interesting. The silver is why this city exists at all, though the mines are largely depleted now. An ore co-op buys the ore that each miner finds, and the working conditions are apparently medieval. I had to sign a waiver re the possibility of dying in a mine collapse. Oy. But I trust that we won't have a cave-in tomorrow, thanks. I think I may try to arrange my tour to the salt flats from here as well, and stay one more night here tomorrow.
No luck again with the pictures -- the computer I'm on won't mount my USB stick properly... though it does offer me the option of safely dismounting it. I don't understand, but hey.
Comments