Michael: Moving up in the world

Yesterday, we departed Sucre for our next GSE adventure. This was a bitter-sweet moment for me because I liked Sucre and I adored my hostess, Patricia Rosales, and her family.
We boarded a bus in Sucre for a 3-hour ride to Potosi. I awoke with a headache, likely a result of my missing taking my blood pressure medication the previous day. I took some pain medication which made me drowsy for the trip, which likely was a good thing.
The first hour of the route was alongside a dry riverbed. The bus crossed the riverbed on a long bridge and began ascending the slope on the far side. It took 45 minutes to gain nearly 3000 feet elevation. Tall mountains, mostly of scrub plants, loomed all around. It resembled the mountains of Arizona. Eventually, we reached the Altiplano, or high plain. There were sparse settlements and farms where peasants worked gardens by hand, bent from the waste to pick potatoes and other crops. I saw only one piece of mechanized farm equipment: a tractor.
We were met by two Rotarians, Sady and Miguel. We had a nice lunch at Sady’s house and then visited a school for students with special needs. We entered a classroom where an expressive teacher used our presence to teach her children additional words in American Sign Language.
Last evening, we were invited to attend a concert featuring a pianist, a guitarist, and a musician playing sort of a miniature guitar, the name of which I’ve forgotten. My headache forced me to abandon my team and head “home” to bed. I’m eager to ask my team about it this morning.
Potosi is not as attractive a city as Sucre, pasted on the slope of a mountain devoid of trees and greenery. However, it may be the most historically interesting city in all of the Americas. There’s far too much to recount here, but the silver in the mountain that forms the backdrop of the city made Potosi one of the largest and richest cities in the world 500 years ago. Potosi was bustling before Jamestown was even formed. This morning, we are scheduled to attend a museum of the mining industry.
Hasta luego!
Michael