Potosí is one of the highest cities in the world, lying in the south of Bolivia's highlands at 4090 m. It gained historical importance due to the silver mining from the mountain Cerro Rico by the Spanish during colonial times (60% of the world's silver stemmed from here). Potosí became the richest city of all South America and was the location of the Spanish colonial mint for centuries. Due to its wealth, beautiful palacios and numerous churches and convents were built, which are nowadays protected by UNESCO world heritage. Today, tin, copper and silver are still mined at Cerro Rico, but the city's population is poor and working in the mines is dangerous (still today there are children working underground and life expectancy in the mines is only 15 years). We arrived in Potosí from La Paz by night bus in the early morning. Unfortunately, Fabienne had caught food poisoning and was grounded for three days. Philipp could in the meanwhile climb the Cerro Rico mountain (4’800 m) and witnessed the dusty, strenuous workplace of the miners. Local travel agencies offer daily tours into the mines - including a dynamite explosion -, but we didn't go. We were rather shocked how money is made out of this poor people's struggle for a living and it offered us a lot of food for thought. Next time we consider buying silver ware (same goes for other precious metals), we might think twice!
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