Potosí is the highest large city in the world, near 4,000 metres, and it is a place of enormous history. Above it stands the Cerro Rico, the Rich Hill, a reddish cone that gave the Spanish crown so much silver after 1545 that it helped shape the economy of the whole of Europe. For a time Potosí was one of the biggest cities in the world, and the phrase worth a Potosí became a Spanish byword for great wealth. Today the mountain is hollowed out by centuries of tunnels, and cooperative miners still work it, in conditions that leave a mark on any visitor.
The cost is the other side of the story. Indigenous labourers and enslaved Africans worked and died in those mines in numbers nobody can state exactly, and walking the old colonial centre, you see the churches, balconies and the Casa Nacional de Moneda, the royal mint, built to turn that metal into coin, with the shadows of that history close behind. UNESCO lists the city for good reason. Tours into the mines are offered by former miners, and they are not for the claustrophobic.
Riding in, you cross the high plateau on long, quiet roads before the city appears under its dark red peak. From Sucre the road climbs and drops through dry mountains, with a handful of good curves and some rough patches, and the thin air takes a little of the engine's power, so do not be surprised if the bike feels sluggish. Mornings are bright and cold, afternoons bring wind and sometimes hail or snow, so dress for a range. Town streets are steep, cobbled in places and narrow, so ride carefully, particularly when wet.
Potosí has all you need, with fuel, restaurants, workshops and lodging in a city of well over a hundred thousand people, with Betanzos, a much smaller town, the nearest place of any size on the road toward Sucre. Try a salteña, the baked pastry stuffed with juicy filling, which locals eat mid-morning with great ceremony, and a warm cup of coca or herbal tea to help with the altitude. Spend a day before you push on, because the thin air will tire you faster than the road does.