Hostal Colonial Potosi

... city of Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain), from where the Spanish Empire acquired most of its silver during the colonial era. Huge quantities of silver were taken to Potosi's mint, where the raw ore was formed into "pieces of eight". These were carried overland ...

... surroundings. It got fabulously rich in colonial times due to silver deposits in the mountains above, and so is adorned with colonial architecture which merits UNESCO heritage status. It should be quite a pleasant place, with narrow streets in the centre ...

... fragile ledge of the road and we were off again. "Only 5 tourists have ever died on the tour" Potosi was once the richest city in all of the colonial Americas. In it's heyday, it's neighboring silver mine produced most of the world's silver and the ...

... empire, heaps of the stuff was shipped to Europe, and the city's grand churches (86 of them!) and wealth of ornate colonial architecture were all paid for by what came out of the mountain.   But all good things must come to ...

... importation of 1500 to 2000 African slaves per year. An estimated total of 30,000 African slaves were taken to Potosí throughout the colonial era. African slaves were also forced to work in the Casa de la Moneda as acémilas humanas (human mules). Since ...

... other folks around def. makes traveling in third world countries a little less anxious... Potosi is a really beautiful abandoned colonial town. Built around a huge silver mine (see tomorrow) that basically funded the Spanish ...

... with the help of Erik's Jerry can we made it all the way to Potosi and filled up with gas.    Potosi is an old colonial city, world renowned for its famous gold and silver mines which are still producing today - hundreds of years ...

... a nice place to stay and with a room we could get into straight away. Hostel Maria Victoria fitted the bill...a colonial house down a narrow cobblestone alleyway and rooms with gas fires around a sunny courtyard. First things first, we dropped ...

... an afternoon tour of the mines.  In between, we walked around the center to appreciate the nice colonial architecture and various churches that were financed from the vast amounts of silver extracted from the mines during colonial ...

... , however. The number of Black and Indian slaves, who died as a consequence of working in the mines during its Spanish colonial period from 1545 to 1825, is estimated to be over eight million. Cerro Rico, the mountain towering symmetrically like a ...

Potosi was a lovely quaint little town with narrow cobbled streets and beautiful old colonial buildings dotted around. After dumping our stuff at the hostel we ventured out to find food only to get sprung with a full city blackout! Had an amazing meat ...

... to go in search of some breakfast before we could get into our room at 12.30pm. We spent the morning having a look around Potosi - a nice but very cold colonial city - the highest city in the world so no surprise it was freezing! - lots of churches and a ...

... a lovely little place with wifi and sunny courtyard. I had a wander around the beautiful city with its whitewashed buildings, colonial architecture and terracotta rooftops - it was lovely and easy to see why it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. ...

... and got rations (salty chips and coke!) in the afternoon. The next day, we walked around town to look at the great colonial architecture. Potosi was once the largest city in the world due to the silver mines which were exploited by the spanish. It is the ...

... was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1987 mainly due to its 32 baroque churches and 2000 or more registered Spanish colonial buildings. The cobbled streets are lined with the former mansions of wealthy mine owners and the façades of magnificent ...

... again. It was a fast recovery this time though! The beautiful tourist office in Potosí From the top of the old colonial building connected to the tourist office, you can get a great view of the city. Lindsey creeping back down the narrow ...

... the adobe walled buildings that populate most of the rest of the countryside. We arrived into Potosi, at 4,000m above sea level, just before dark. Again a colonial style town with narrow streets and buildings. Our hotel is near the central square. I ...

... town itself shows no signs of the extreme wealth that has passed through it, most streets are run down and the few remaining colonial churches are in a bad state of repair. I went for a trip down into the mines, extremely tough is an understatement. ...

... and still have silver to bring across. This did not happen, most of the silver was used to pay off Spain's debts. Today Potosi is a rich colonial city of 160,000 inhabitants, with still 6,000 miners working in the mine. They work inside the mine for ...

... the tour we went for lunch to the Koala Cafe with Javier and Manuel, and ate Llama steaks. We enjoyed our time in Potosi, it's a lovely colonial old town, and Easter has made it quite interesting to be around. We had to leave on Saturday however, as ...