How to visit the Cerro Rico silver mine tour in Potosí?

When you want to visit the active Cerro Rico silver mines in Potosí, you need to arrange a guided tour through a licensed agency in the city centre, usually run by former cooperative miners or people who worked there themselves.

These intense excursions hand you helmets and protective gear before you go into the tight, claustrophobic shafts so you can see the relentless, centuries-old conditions where they work. It is standard, and honestly recommended, to bring small offerings beforehand, like coca leaf juice, and even dynamite, from the miners’ market, and then give them to the workers once you’re inside.