As we approached the World Heritage Bolivian city of Potosí, all we saw was a dominating and unnaturally stark mountain with a city at its feet. In the cold thin air of the inhospitable Andes ranges, it is an unlikely location for what was once the largest and wealthiest city of the Americas.

When the Spanish first arrived in the 1540’s they saw the same mountain, but in their eyes it was a mountain of money. Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain), also known as the “mountain that eats men alive”, contained an inconceivable amount of silver thus setting Potosí’s great rise and fall. I had to go inside for a look. Continue reading →