Potosi is a little town which in its silver mining heyday from the 1500's used to be the size of London. The town is overlooked by a big orange coloured mountain which was once full of silver. The Spanish funded the mining and sent the silver back to Spain in huge galleons. 8 million people died in 300 years from mining the mountain and it was said that enough silver was mined to build a bridge to Spain. Some of the group went on a tour around the mines as its still mined today on a what you find is what you keep, so some people are mining for silver and others what ever they can find. I didn't join them as it would have been a little to claustrophic for me as they are still mining they same way as they did 500 years ago. Most came back having enjoyed the experience especially being able to buy dyanamite in the miner's market!
Potosi is also home to the National Mint which is now a museum. It was interesting to see inside in the building as also see how the minting of coins changed from 1773 to 1951 when the mint was in use, moving from mule driven power to steam and then electric power. My only fun fact that I remember is that now Bolivia has its coins made in Chile and its notes made in France.
It was also Kirsten's birthday so we felt it was fit to celebrate with a day of eating food. Yum!
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