Day 6 - July 23, 2017 Potosi, Bolivia

We took an early bus from Sucre to Potosi. The journey took three hours on a paved (a rare thing in Bolivia) highway that was built along the mountain ranges. From our past experiences, we knew the bus station would be a mess and very busy. Since we had no idea the exact location of the bus company we booked, we decided to get there early. Just as we had expected, it was a zoo inside and out of the bus station. People sat, squatted, and lied down whereever there was space. I suspected that many local people actually slept inside the station to save some money.

It was interesting to see that there was a under the table economy going on with every bus route. The bus driver would stop by unofficial designated places to allow people to board with their packages on the bus and allow people to get in even if the bus was full. These people would stand on the aisle. Specific merchants were allow to board the bus at midway to sell their products. In return, they pay the bus driver some money.

We were rushing to check in at our hotel after arriving at the bus station so that we could get into the silver mint museum before it closed for the day at noon. Our hotel was only a few blocks away from the station.  While we walked out uphill, Agnes suddenly felt sick, her heart was pounding and could not breath. Most likely due to the high altitude. Potosi is at 4100 m. We decided to take the taxi to the museum instead. Unfortunately, the last tour of the museum already left at 10:30 am so we were out of luck. Worse still, they don't open on Mondays (the next day) and we were scheduled to leave to Uyuni the next day. So we missed the opportunity to see this well known mint museum.  During the 17th and 18th centuries, Potosi mined over 20 million oz of silver and was regarded as one of most wealthiest cities in the New World.  Although the richest ore has long run out in the 60-70's, the mining is still going on the old fashioned way since the miners have no other job prospects. The Silver Mountain dominates the city outline. Tours are available to take tourists to see first hand how these miners labor to take the silver out. Due to the chemicals used and the environment is heavily contaminated with dangerous chemicals, we decided not to take the tour.

The November 10 square (Bolivians like to use specific date to name their town squares) was very nicely built and some of the buildings were under renovation in order to restore to their glorious past. We learnt that the whole Potosi old town is UNESCO designated, similar to Sucre.

The street market was in full swing in the afternoon. We walked a bit to see what kinds of merchandises do they sell and were amazed at the varieties, even home appliances like stove ranges!

The temperature in Potosi was not too cold, around 16 degrees in the day.  However, it felt like 2 degrees to me. With the strong wind from time to time and high altitude, I had to put on most of my winter clothing to keep warm. I just hope that I have enough to keep me warm in the next few stops, which are supposed to be even colder.  At least the weather was very sunny every day.