A Whole New World: Potosí: Swimming in Silver

DAY 2: Casa de Moneda

The next morning we headed down the street to La Casa de Moneda! All of the Bolivia's coins used to be printed right here in Potosí! We had a wonderful tour guide -- he wore a very smart black dress coat and when he finished talking would say "Thank you very much" and then let us wander around that particular exhibit for a bit. The museum still has all the original machinery from when the factory opened in 1574 and it is the oldest machinery in the world! Mules powered the machines and would work for 10 hours every day, but because Potosí is at such a high altitude the mules had to be shipped from lower altitude regions and only survived three to four months. (Talk about labor laws!) The mint not only printed coins for then Spanish ruled Bolivia, but also for Spain and Argentina! At first the coins were made of 90% silver -- can you imagine? In fact, many coins from that time period are chipped or have holes in the center because people would chip off a piece to pay for what they needed. I guess they didn't want to spend a whole coin? That's what the tour guide told us, although he also told us that people live on Mars... so who knows how much was factual! But it was a great tour! They also had machinery from the locomotion age, a room of artifacts from Potosí and surrounding indigenous communities (including child mummies), a huge room FULL of minerals (and a few random dinosaur bones) found only in Bolivia and tons of silver artifacts such as triptychs, teapots in the shapes of animals, virgins, musical instruments, jewelry, armor and more! It was quite incredible!!! I especially enjoyed the teapots, my favorite was a giant rooster with a necklace! It was ridiculous! They also had a room full of scales and the most intricate lock box I've ever seen to keep silver coins in. It had more than 20 different locks to open it and had at least two 'false' key holes. Much of the technology present in the mint was actually invented by Leonard Da Vinci! Learning that really helped me understand just how important Potosí was to the Spaniards, and the rest of the world. It's no wonder the Spaniards fought so hard to keep control of the mines and why Bolivia was so hesitant to diversify its resources: they were so used to wealth coming easily after a day in the mines.

All my pictures of the museum are 'borrowed' from my classmates as I didn't have my camera with me.. whoops! I'll add more when I find more! :)

The oldest machinery in the world!

Micah & Rhen (the 'mules')

And to give you an idea of the wealth of the city center, here are a few photos of Potosí. Just keep in mind what those mines looked like in my last post!

Lady Liberty and El Cerro Rico... an interesting mix of symbolism

Walking back to the hotel at sunset

Iglesia near la Plaza Principal

Santa Teresa

After La Casa de Moneda we headed to las aguas termales (thermal pools)! After being at such a high altitude, wandering around Potosí and touring the mines everyone was exhausted and the pools were the perfect cure! It's about a 45 minute drive out to the pools and every where we looked were beautiful mountains and scenery! We stopped for a few minutes at a rock formation that looks like a child/prince (see below) I can't remember the name, but it was cool (once we figured out what we were supposed to be looking at!) Once we got to the pools we all jumped in and it was like bath water! Many of us used the mud to exfoliate our faces... others exfoliated any skin they could find and others painted masterpieces on themselves! We all looked quite funny but my face was so smooth the next day, it was worth it! The pool was large but we had to stay along the sides because in the middle there's a giant whirlpool(s??). But that still gave us plenty of room to move around! After our 'bath' we celebrated Rhen's 21st birthday with cake, a birthday song and a few unexpected guests! Then it was back on the bus and we headed for Sucre!