DAY 140
Bye bye Uyuni, Hello Potosi! It's a short bus ride away and even higher in the altiplano. The bus ride is extremely scenic. We were over 2000 most of the time in Ethiopia but 3500-4000m is a different story. We even go over 4200m during the bus ride. The road is good and we make it in 3h30, once again on schedule ;) Potosi is around 4050m; carrying our luggage to the 3rd floor leaves us panting for an embarrassingly long time. The city has many things to see. It's build at the bottom of two hills filled with silver. The Spanish founded the town in 1545 and the silver funded the empire for centuries. Some of the wealth was used here and the town has many incredible convents and churches. The first one we go to is the Convent Santa Teresa. It's too dark they tell us and advise us to come back tomorrow early in the afternoon; fine by us. Instead, we catch the last visit to the convent San Francisco that is (almost) next door. A quick tour in the small crypt first then all the way to the top. The crypt is nothing special, they have a few bones but the real treat is the roof. The views are gorgeous, the best in town says the guide.
DAY 141
I don't feel great this morning, the altitude probably, but it's not bad enough to keep me in bed so we go visit the town. We walk about from one church to the next. The facade is usually the nicest part. All of them are beautifully carved with lots of different styles. For the Jesuit church, only the tower is remaining but it's impressive. When they got kicked out of town it fell into disrepair and the adobe (sun-dried bricks) walls could not withstand the elements without care for long. What's interesting is the peculiar mestizo baroque style. It incorporate pagan elements into the usual Christian symbolism, quite interesting. It was a way for the locals to keep their previous beliefs alive and what's even more surprising is that the church allowed it.
It's now time to go back to Santa Teresa. We have enough little to enjoy its wonders today. The guided tour is 2h30 long and extremely instructive. We learn a lot about the inner workings of a Carmelite nun convent and all its rules. It got less harsh recently but it used to be a very closed world with no visual contact whatsoever with the outside world. The could talk to their family through a wall a few times a year and that was it... They have an incredible collection of art too, the fees to enter the convent were quite high and all forms of payment were accepted (clearly in that regard, the church was ahead of its time...). We finish the day with the cathedral and a once again gorgeous view from its tower.
At night, we try a famous local specialty named K'alaphurka. It's a soup with a lot of stuff in it (corn, bacon, veggies) which is normal for a soup; and a super hot volcanic stone in it which is less normal! Legend has it, it was to keep the soup warm longer for when the weather is not cooperating which happen every so often in these mountains.
DAY 142
Last but not least, La casa de la moneda. It's the last thing for us in Potosi before we take the bus to Sucre. Minting coin has always been a sensible endeavor but the Spanish empire had to create these minting factories in the new world as it was completely impractical to do it all from Spain. The building is huge with complicated engineering and lots of sample coins of course. They tried using slaves here too but the altitude and rough weather decimated them. That's why the population has almost no African descendants.
Back to the hostel, we pick up our bags then catch a cab for the bus terminal and the cab easily wins the prize for weirdest cab ever... see for yourself :D
We catch the bus at the exit gate of the terminal... Running. The 1pm bus leaves at 12:55 it seems. And they dare say to us we're late! We're too happy to catch it to argue much but leaving 10 minutes early is not cool.. The ride to Sucre is seamless and we finally lose some altitude. Sucre is only at 2800m, nothing compared to Potosi. We even consider running around the block for fun but reconsider ;) We go tour shopping right away and are lucky to find a couple of Spaniards looking for the exact same tour in one of the tour companies. We had in mind a few quiet days in Sucre to begin with but we can always have them later and jump on the occasion.