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Potosi Holidays, Hotels & Travel Guide
Travel guide to hotels & holidays in Potosi
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Potosi Holidays Overview
A guide to holidays in Potosi - Covering an area of 4,680 square miles (12,121
sq km), the Salar is the world's largest salt desert set at an
elevation of 11,970ft (3,650m) and filled with an estimated 10
billion tons of salt. With picks and shovels the local people
harvest the salt from the lake that once covered most of
southwestern Bolivia. This region is one of the most spectacular
natural attractions in Bolivia, a photographer's delight. It is a
surreal landscape combining salt pans, wind-eroded rock formations,
and wandering llamas in a completely unspoilt region. In the middle
is Isla de Pescadores, a landmass appearing as a mountain out of
the white nothingness, covered in towering stands of cactus. Laguna
Colorada and Laguna Verde are other isolated marvels. One a
fiery-red and the other a deep blue-green, these lakes are
inhabited by flamingos and surrounded by extinct volcanoes. Nearby
Sol de Mañana reeks with the smell of sulphurous gases from the
geysers, fumaroles and bubbling mud pools. The village of Uyuni, to
the south east of the Salar, is the best base from which to explore
the area and tours can be arranged from here.
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Potosi
holidays - Top Places To Go
1. Cooperative Mines of Cerro Rico
The mines are located in the outskirts of Potosi
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What is it? Entering the mines is like a step in to the
past. It is a demanding, shocking yet memorable experience.
Visitors can experience conditions much the same as when the
Spanish used Andean peasants as slave labour to work the wealth
from the mines. Guided tours lead groups along the narrow tunnels
and up rickety ladders, stopping along the way to chat to the
miners at work. Working conditions are primitive, shafts are poorly
ventilated and safety provisions barely exist. The miners work by
hand, chipping away at the rock and hewing out rough shafts in
which to place their dynamite. An occasional blast shakes the
tunnels and deafens the ears. Thousands of miners work their way
through the mountain with no overall control or plan, chewing their
way through bags of coca leaves to fend off hunger and exhaustion,
in the hope of hitting a rare vein of
silver.
Hours of Operation:
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2. Casa Real De Moneda
Calle Ayacucho
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What is it? The Casa Real was the Royal Mint House used
by the colonial Spanish to turn the silver from the mines into
coins to be shipped back to Spain. This is one of Bolivia's best
museums, explaining the history of silver production and its
influence. Inside are restored presses and wooden minting machines,
coins and coin stamps. It also has rooms containing religious art,
many by indigenous Andeans, the country's first locomotive and
Tiahuanaco artefacts.
Hours of Operation:
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Potosi
holidays - Top Events
1. Chutillos
From 2007-08-25
To 2007-08-31
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What is it? Thousands of locals and an ever increasing
number of curious tourists enjoy a variety of music and traditional
dance at of Bolivia's most popular festival. The exact origins are
not entirely clear but it is heralded as a fuse of pre-Columbian
pagan traditions with the religious colonial influences of
Christianity, most notably regarded as the feast day of St.
Bartholomew.
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