After Sucre, our tour guide chartered a private taxi for the two hour journey to another Bolivian world heritage city - Potosi. Potosi is a very interesting city with a glorious and tragic past. There are many beautiful if slightly decaying Spanish colonial buildings in the city. The city streets can be very steep and surprisingly busy given the size of the population. The mine (Cerro Rico) is the reminder of the hardship many people endured (and still endure) to get resources out of the land. Our guide at the Case de Moneda explained that almost all blacks died during the Spanish colonial period as they were not used to the altitude and the cold weather of Potosi. We did not go to the mine because of limited time. Rather we enjoyed the excellent English tour of the Casa de Moneda to learn more of Bolivia's interesting history.

Amongst the highlights of the tour of Casa de Moneda were

- Bolivia used to make the coins for the Spanish empire as silver was mined in Potosí.

- Now Bolivia contracted Spain to make the Bolivian coins and Bolivia has to pay Spain for the more poor quality coins. The gold/silver coloured coin (similar to our toonies in Canada) is made by Canada. Bills were printed in France.

- When a ship wreck was found off the coast of Florida with silver coins from Bolivia during colonial time, the US set up a museum in Florida with the treasure found and gave two silver coins to Bolivia.

- The beautiful architecture and many pieces of artwork, especially the painting showing the blending of native spirituality with the Catholic faith, forming the new Bolivian spiritual belief.

Local markets are not to be missed to experience some local life. The weather was getting very cold in Potosi, in sharp contrast to Sucre and we bought winter gear at one of the many interesting markets. The automatic teller machine was amazing – you could choose English or Spanish and withdraw money in Bolivianos or US dollars. Talk about service! Another interesting thing is that locals use old buses from countries like Japan as regular buses. So you can see Japanese signs on local buses. Overall, another great day on the tour!