20th February 2015 – Potosi

Today we are suppose to be going to Sucre, but we decide to spend the day in Potosi and take it easy after our big day yesterday. We are both feeling the effects of being at over 4,000 meters and the tablets we are taking are making us very dry in the mouth & thirsty, so we are drinking a lot and consequently peeing a lot.  Despite having a good nights sleep we are feeling tired and get out of breath very easily.  We have booked a walking tour of the city this afternoon which will take in the mint museum, so we decide to go for a leisurely walk around the city starting in the main plaza as it’s a lovely sunny morning and not too cold. We walk through the streets watching the locals going about their daily business, selling their goods.  We visit the Vicuna Market, where the ladies are selling local spices, lentils, beans and very strange looking fungus.We stroll (because that’s all we are capable of) back to our hotel for a rest.  Michael decides to try out the oxygen, so a large oxygen cylinder is delivered to our room and he has a 1 hour sleep with the oxygen mask on and wakes up really refreshed.  Our guide meets us at the hotel after lunch and suggests that we take our coats with us as it’s going to rain.  We head to the mint museum first.It is really interesting as Potosi is a mining town and the Inca’s first mined silver here.  There are about 20 minerals mined today including silver and tin.  When the Spanish arrived they set Potosi up as place to make silver coins, not only for the local communities but also for Spain.  All of the original manufacturing equipment that was used over the past centuries is still here on display, from the original hand turned machine to the electric run machines.  While we are in the museum a huge hail storm hits, so our guide was right, thank goodness we took our rain coats.This put an end to our walking tour of the city as the gutters & street are flooded, so our guide came back to the hotel with us, we get changed out of our very wet shoes, socks & pants, and he gives us a history lesson on Potosi, while we drink our coca tea.  It is a very informative afternoon and we are dry and warm inside the hotel.  When we go out for dinner the hail is still piled up outside our hotel so I guess that shows how cold it is!