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El Cerro Rico

Discovering The Working Conditions Of The “Devil’s Miners”

The Mineros del Diabolo or "Devils' Minors", inside the Cerro Rico, "The mountain that eats men alive", Potosi, Bolivia, South America

The Mineros del Diabolo or “Devils’ Minors”, inside the Cerro Rico, “The mountain that eats men alive”, Potosi, Bolivia, South America

Already in 1545, the Spanish were aware of the enormous wealth inside of Cerro Rico and forced thousands of Indigenous to work in the mines extracting the huge deposits of silver. To increase production, the “Ley de Mita” was passed that forced Indigenous and later African slaves to work 16 hour shifts. They were kept underground for 4 months. The working conditions were beyond description and an estimated 8 to 10 million died of the forced labor over the three century of Spanish rule! Continue Reading →

Potosi, The Highest City In The world

The Cerro Rico, "The mountain that eats men alive", Potosi, Bolivia, South America

The Cerro Rico, “The mountain that eats men alive”, Potosi, Bolivia, South America

After 10 days traveling on our own, Heidi studying Spanish in Sucre and Gilles discovering the South of Bolivia, we met as planed on Wednesday, November 21st in Potosí, the highest city in the world at 4.070 meters. Continue Reading →

Rough Trip From Sucre To Tupiza

In the South of Bolivia, you only find terrible bumpy dirt road ... This is the main link from Potosi to Argentina!

In the South of Bolivia, you only find terrible bumpy dirt road … This is the main link from Potosi to Argentina!

Immediately after returning from Tarabuco in the afternoon, I left Heidi to her Spanish class and started out for my journey to Tupiza, in the very scenic south of Bolivia. Continue Reading →