Backpacking Potosi
Back in Patacamaya we spent some time in the towns only
internet
organising a new shock absorber for the BMW. This time we were leaving
both bikes behind and changing our transport mode for buses. Donning
backpacks we caught a bus to Oruro and changed there for Potosi. The
scenery we were now seeing for the third time! On the last busride a
chat with a neighbour led to
the discovery that Potosi had been under a
blockade for the past two weeks. Mine owners were letting nothing in or
out in a bid to dissolve a tax. They had even dynamited the tax
building! We had been completely oblivious to this fact -
that's what
happens when you don't read the papers. We have since discovered that
keeping up to date with politics (and fiestas) is an important aspect
of travelling in Bolivia what with the popularity of the chaos-causing
marches and blockades and the present unhappiness with the Evo Morales
government.
So
luckily we arrived in Potosi in the aftermath of the fires and the
blockades to find a calm and completely gringo free city.
Potosi immediately charmed us despite its altitude and the
cold.
Beautiful
colonial buildings lined narrow cobbled roads, numerous historic
churchtops gave views over the old city and onto the famous Cerro Rico.
New Spain history was everpresent in it's convents, churches and
courtyard framing architecture and for these reasons it's also a UNESCO
world heritage site. We visited the 'Casa de Moneda' or 'the Mint'
which together with Mexico and Peru supplied the most reliable and
popular currency in the world for the 17th and 18th centuries. These
coins were known as Pieces of Eight (or Reales) with the name deriving
from the fact that the coins could be quartered to make smaller bits.
Pieces of eight are still closely associated with piracy as many got
rich attacking Spanish Galleons loaded with silver returning
to
Spain
(remember the nine pieces of eight in Pirates of the Caribbean?). Also
housed in the mint were mummies of children recovered from church
crypts which had been
preserved by the cool dry air of the altiplano. A
section where baroque church altars and mestizo style paintings were
being restored further helped create a picture of how life was in
Potosi at it's peak. Another integral part of life
was catholocism, we
visited a convent of the Carmelite nuns and our guide described how
devout noble families would send their second daughters to the convent
to never see them again. There they had to give up all the luxuries and
fineries of their former life outside of the cold convent walls to live
an ascetic life.
You
can't come to Potosi without visiting the mines whose now exhausted
mineral ores is what the town was built on. Potosi at it's height was
bigger than the Paris or even London of those days. Willy, a miner of
six years now working in tourism, was our guide. First we stopped off
at the market of the 'mineros' where they breakfast, stock up on
supplies, tools and coca leaves. There we bought coca leaves, alcohol
and cigarettes to take along and give out to miners on our tour.
Incredibly we also bought dynamite, the same stuff they used to blow up
the tax building! Inside the mines the shafts were wet, narrow and
precarious looking and lower down steaming hot. We were trying out the
coca leaf chewing for the first time and it
definitely gave us an extra
surge of energy for the crawling, climbing and
hunched-up walking we were doing at 4000m of
altitude.
Our first stop was at 'Tio' a statue of the devil that the miners pay
tribute to with coca, cigarettes and alcohol before entering the mine.
The subterranean world was his reserve whereas outside it was Pachamama
and the Christian church. Willy introduced us to miners and encouraged
us to talk to them at times translating from or to Quechua. He tried to
give us insight into their lives, beliefs and hopes which was one of
the nicest aspects of our tour with him.
We found the mines so fascinating and Willy such a good guide that we
decided to go again with him for a personalised tour deeper into the
mines. More in the photo essay that's coming: Cerro Rico - the mountain
that eats men.