3rd May - In Potosi, a Town with a Past
We had arrived in Potosi about 11pm the night before, after a bus journey accompanied by some trashy films and loud music. Our hostel, Koala Den, was a beautiful colonial building with the rooms built around a central courtyard painted in zingy red and orange. Mairi at Koala Den We had a look around the town. Potosi is a fascinating place and a World Heritage Site. It is hard to believe that in the late 16th century it had a bigger population than London did at the time (200,000), in spite being one of the highest cities in the world at 4090m. We were well acclimatised by the time we had reached here, and I don't remember ever feeling the height. Potosi grew rapidly from a small indian settlement to a vast city because of the mountain that overshadows it. Cerro de Potosi or Cerro Rico, Rich Mountain, was the source of most of the silver exported to Spain from their colony in, what was then Peru. The inside of Cerro Rico must look like a Swiss cheese, and indeed the mountai...