On Day 8, we took a taxi to Potosi. It takes 2-3 hours to get there, but just like with Samaipata you could take a special taxi there for Bs.120 (for everyone). We ended up splitting the taxi with two fellow-gringos who we met earlier on the dino-truck.

The last photo shows Potosi’s Cerro Rico (“Rich Hill”) where Potosi’s mine was (and still is) mined.

Sucre is at 2,700 m elevation, which rarely causes problems for anyone. Potosi, however, is at 4,100, which is already serious altitude (with atmospheric density at 2/3 the sea level), where “mal de altura” is a serious possibility. We've been warned in Santa Cruz to take altitude sickness (aka “mal de altura” or “sorojchi”) seriously and told that it’s not the same thing as just feeling short on breadth when going up the hill: you can get sick with headache, vomiting, and a bunch of other unpleasant symptoms and that prior exposure to altitude is no guarantee – some people get sick for the first time on their second or third visit to La Paz. In our cases, spending a full day at a half-way point in Sucre would improve our chances quite a bit, but we decided to get some Bolivian “sorojchi pills” just to be sure. We took some before flying to Sucre and then again on the road to Potosi. For this reason or others, we didn’t have any problems, until La Paz where I felt short on breadth during the first night.