4,000 metres up in the highlands of southern Bolivia, the Cerro Rico hill of Potosi rises its way above the red-tiled roofs and adobe houses of the old town.  Defining the city’s horizon, it was beneath the dusty desert surface of this very hill that silver was found in bounteous quantities’, making this town rich, legendary and famous all at once. Soaring to a population of more than 200,000 people between the 16th and 17th centuries, Potosi became one of the first mining boom towns of the Americas; the closest the Spanish colonials ever came to that lost city of gold. 
Today visitors are invited to partake in this great historical narrative, wandering their way through the cobbled lanes of the old town, taking in the old Potosi Mint, the quaint mountain cottages, and UNESCO attested churches, all built on silver foundations, by silver coin. Those looking for something a little more immersive should ask their Potosi tourist guide to book a tour around the tunnels of one of the local mine cooperatives currently in operation, the conditions of which have sadly not improved much since the colonial times.