iBankCoin
My name is Rob and I'm a gregarious gentleman who travels and blogs. http://stophavingaboringlife.com/
Joined Jan 9, 2014
222 Blog Posts

Leaving Bolivia for Peru and a Quick Note on Potosi

potosi_mt_potosi_bolivia
Good day,

I’m writing this from Copacabana with a few hours left in Bolivia before I catch an 11 hour overnight bus to Cusco, Peru to check out Machu Picchu. Bolivia was beautiful, fun and fantastically cheap compared to the other South American countries I’ve visited. I want to share with you a place I had no idea existed but really liked and believe you would as well.

The place is called the City of Potosi and it’s one of the highest cities in the world at an altitude of over 4000M. The plan was to go to Sucre and Potosi was on the way but I never made it to Sucre. After touring the salt flats I didn’t want to stay in Uyuni as it was dark, rainy and somewhat depressing so I took a bus to Potosi with some ladies i met in Chile and arrived at about 9PM.

Potosi is UNESCO World Heritage site because of its historic city. Supposedly at its prime it was larger than both London and Paris all thanks to silver, lots and lots of silver. It’s a historic city because in Spanish Colonial times this was home to the mint where all the silver was processed before being sent back to Spain. As a result the city is massive with incredible architecture and countless churches.

The Spanish had something like 25 random mines but Mt. Potosi was different and one indigenous person sold out his entire country… Once the Spanish knew of the egregious quantities of silver in the mine they setup shop at the foot of the mountain; why else would one of the largest cities in the world be at 4000M+?

Supposedly at its prime, Potosi had roughly 200,000 people from all over the world.

This mountain was called Cerro Rico by the locals aka “Rich Mountain” and silver is still being mined to this day. Supposedly the mountain is so honeycombed that people believe it could cave at anytime. Sadly a big tourist attraction is watching the miners labor in nightmarish conditions; I didn’t bother going.

I did however go to the Spanish Colonial Mint aka the House of $$$ aka the Casa de la Moneda and I think you’d all appreciate it as much as I did. As cool as it was, it was also insanely sinister as you can only imagine what types of conditions and atrocities against mankind transpired inside the walls as well as in the mines to fetch the silver. The indigenous people took the worst of it without a doubt.

I found out about the museum on the last day and glad I went but forget the museum for a minute. This is one of the biggest colonial cities that has never had an earthquake or been involved in a war so it’s mainly original buildings. Easy to spend time in the city and do check out the central market.

What’s crazy is how Spain stole all the riches from Bolivia but now find themselves in trouble. I guess your income is really irrelevant compared to your money management skills, yes? If in Bolivia or touring South America, I suggest you hit up Potosi, you’ll enjoy it.

I’ll write more about Bolivia some other time, now it’s time to prepare for Peru.

Tips hat,

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Greetings From Bolivia and Welcome to SHABL

Greetings from Bolivia,

My name is Rob aka “Dubz” and I’m going to be discussing something that is currently consuming most of my time, travel. It’s an honor to be able to write for a blog such as iBankcoin considering this is the blog that partly gave me the financial freedom to ditch everything I didn’t like; follow my dream which was travel the world and see what’s out there waiting.

I do believe a bit of background is necessary for those of you that are somewhat new here. I began reading iBankCoin in 2009 when I saw a tweet about it and instantly became hooked. I was working as a professional in Ottawa for the last few years and was rather miserable. Everyone was moving on to wives and kids; I didn’t want to go that route because I figured I could get in that game later and wanted to see the world.

I read this site religiously and even blogged like a psycho in the Peanut Gallery before it got shut down. I was part of the original distinguished gentlemen on annual subscriptions to The PPT and even joined the 12631. I spent all of my time thinking about stocks or hanging out in The PPT; it was a good distraction but something had to give.

In the mean time I knew it was now or never as I was approaching thirty and my house was on the market; finally it sold. September 4th, 2009 was my last day of work and I remember vividly how good it felt to be 100% free to go see what was happening on this planet; always wanted to know what was up in Bangkok for some reason.

With the rather humble earnings from an online business, my interest in trading and sizable savings I decided to move to Bangkok and build more online businesses but that never happened. In Taipei while in transit I asked a gent for the time. He was a gigantic and gregarious gent who loved the Green Bay Packers; he told me the time and we started talking.

Turns out he lived in Bangkok and said he’d show me around. We went to Khao San Road and drank like men fresh out of prison. There I met a gent who believe it or not was called Sage and he urged me to leave Bangkok and go to Koh Tao before settling down. I had no idea where or what it was but decided to take his sage advice and go for it.

There I met some backpackers, did the Full Moon Party and left to some more islands. Basically I just started moving and it lasted 23 months until I reached Lake Ohrid, Macedonia. It’s there I went home for the first time and made a massive trading error which perhaps I’ll mention one day but it was a turning point.

I write near daily when possible over at Stop Having a Boring Life aka SHABL. When I left I wanted to see what someone might do if they left it all to travel indefinitely, not some rehashed things to do list. I basically write about what transpires while traveling day to day to hopefully give you a better idea of what it’s actually like to be somewhere.

I’ll be updating here 2-5x a week and when I’m not traveling, I’ll write about possible itineraries that may interest you or trips from the past. I realize that you, the distinguished readers of iBC range from college kids to those pretending not to be over 47.5 years of age and believe I have something of interest for all of you, regardless of your style.

I went and have no regrets; I’m off to Peru tomorrow and Australia next week.

Tips hat,

Rob aka Dubz

P.S: Bolivia is cheap, beautiful and fun.

P.P.S: Check out iBC’s trip to Puma Punku.

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