Thursday 17 March 2011

Arrival at Potosi

We´ve just arrived in Potosi after a 5 hour bus ride on bumpy dusty Bolivian roads through the mountains. Potosi is the highest city in the world at over 4000m, and is a Unesco world heritage site. It used to be the richest city in Latin America due to its silver mines. Unfortunately many many millions of people lost there lives over the centuries extracing the silver to make other people rich.

The same goes on today, but with tin. The mine is run as a cooperative and the local miners each have their own stake in the mine. Tomorrow we are going for what we are told is a shocking tour down the mines to see for ourselves the horrendous working conditions.

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