rini's notes day 9

Mar 4 : Potosí - Oruro

We were divided into two groups.

Group 1 : the high energy; David, Paola, Edu, Kathe, Juan y Javi.

Group 2 : the low energy; Hugo, Eva, Rini and Nino. The ones who had visited Potosi and its Casa de la Moneda before and were so tired to take the trip to Potosi Mine in Cerro Rico.

So Group 1 left the hotel around 9:30. Before visiting Casa de la Moneda museum, they stopped to book the mine trip with Koala Tours whose office was just in front of the museum.

Casa de la Moneda could be the best museum in Bolivia. A guide will lead all the way for 2 hours. The guide gives good stories and information.

I was in Group 2, so I couldn't talk much about Group 1 trip, except it was quite an adventure because they had to crawl in the small dark tunnels, breath little air and it was really hot down there that they were sweating under their clothes. But the experience they had, watching the crazy hard life of the mining workers, talking with them and playing with dynamites is priceless. Edu wrote his story in his journal and Javier wrote an excellent short article about the mine trip.


Hugo and Eva took the opportunity to take more rest the whole morning. Rini and Nino after breakfast took a stroll around the plaza and visited Casa de la Moneda. At 12, all four met in the hotel lobby and went to lunch at El Fogon. It was a fancy restaurant and all the meals that we ordered were excellent. After lunch, the four walked around the town.

Potosi is a busy town. The local market is so lively. You find old houses with colonial balconies. Colonial churches are all around the town. Once in the old days (16th centruy) Potosi was one of the big capitals of the world competing with Paris and London and now it's one of the poorest cities in Bolivia, Potosi has special place in the world history book. Knowing all those facts, I have been in Potosi in two trips and both times in my head I was like "Gosh, I'm IN Potosi!!!"

Around 5pm, everybody was back at the hotel. We loaded our stuff back into the cars and continued our journey to the next destination, Oruro. No more dirt unpaved road from now, we had asphalt road until Chocabamba. We made one stop in Challapata for dinner. It was a restaurant where bus and truck drivers eat. Without any more incident, around midnight we arrived in Oruro. We stayed in Hotel Villa Real San Felipe.

Edu and Hugo had a little hard time with the lady who guarded the parking place who was basically just asking for money. The boys took a taxi to go back to the hotel. It was a crazy ride as the taxi driver was either incapable of driving or drunk.