With 4090 m, Bolivia's and the world's highst city, Potosi, once a place of fabulous riches
In 2002 a group of students from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown participated in a service learning/development project in the Bolivian Andes.
The Cerro Rico -- once the richest source of sliver in the world
Bright colors and freezing temperatures
The Altiplano
Climbing up from Sucre to the Altiplano
Potosi appears to lie almost in a moon scape
Spanish suspension bridge en route to Potosi
Huddled together in the frigid winter temperatures in June
The outskirts and road leading up to the mines
Purchasing dynamite, fuses, and coca leaves before visiting the mines
Once one of the richest cities in the Spanish empire
The market close to the mines
At 4090 m and south of the equator, but yet deceptively Mediterranean, the view from the
Cathedral to Iglesia San Agustin
The roofs of Potosi from the belltower of the Cathedral
Night fall and political campaigning
Slaving in hellish mines for 27 dollars a month
Minors and miners -- children guides and a miner asking for coca
Peaceful scene from the Altiplano
February 2003
Reinhard Heinisch
heinisch@pitt.edu
