|
|
|
you are here :
|
Click on the map to unveil our journey
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I think you've never heard of this town.
Well, it's better known than you might expect.
At least, its history has made a big impact.
Let me explain a bit: ...
In 1545, one of the Spanish Conquistdoras found there was lots of silver in this mountain.
Next year Potosi was as a mining town and it soon produced fabulous wealth,
becoming the largest city in the Americas (except for Mexico City) with a population exceeding 200,000 [quote Wikipedia].
With 115,000 inhabitants and at an altitude of +3967m, it still is regarded as the highest town in the world.
Actually after visiting the very interesting museum I found out its influence towards our societies.
Actually, lots and lots of all the silver used for coins in Europe during last centuries was from Potosi.
Reading notes from my diary, taken from notes during this museum trip,
I read they brought the 'highest technical invention from Europe to Southamerica'.
This invention were machines to fabricate the coins.
They were brought to Buenos Aires in 1752 and made their way to Potosi where they were first used in 1773.
Altogether, coins were produced from 1575 untill 1953, when the silvermountain got to 'exhausted' and competition was to hard ...
For Dutch readers; remember Piet Hein, who concerred the famous Spanish silverfleet?...
It was silver from Potosi ...
aha ... ...
Let's continue with the mountain itself.
We booked the tour to go into the mountain.
First of all, we bought some dynamite, coca leaves and a kind of candy to create the coke effect while mixing it with the leaves.
Only for 1 or 1,5 euros.
I even tried a bit of this mix and it was like going to the dentist, i felt a part of the jaw was parralised ...
The dynamite was great as well.
Just as we were getting into the mountain, our guide exploded one as part of a demonstration.
Marc (who was with us again, as was Harry), wanted me to take a picture of him and the explosion.
But as the stick exploded we were blown away and I wonder whatever is the result of this picture ...
Inside the mountain, we had to salute to the 'devil', the God of the underground.
As religious as they are, inside of the mountain you have to ask him for pretection by drinking a liquor of 96% of alcohol and smoking menthol and tabaco free sigarets ...
After that we visited some parts and aslo paid a visit to this young lad while he was working.
We offered him the coca and dynamites and all that.
Coca was to keep him on going in case they get hungry.
It was quite sad, cause they already start working there from an age between 12/15 and working 6 days a week.
It was a very interesting trip, it was like the mines of Moria of LOTR and apart from maybe one busride I have never been at an altitude as high as that.
|
|
|
