Bolivia: Pulacayo

Pulacayo is a ghost town of historic silver-mining settlement in the Bolivian Andes, on the edge of the Atacama altiplano at 4,200m (13,800 ft) of elevation. At one time, this was the second-largest silver mine in Bolivia after Potosí’s Cerro Rico, producing over 600 million ounces of silver in its peak years. During the 1870s–1920s it was one of the world’s richest and largest silver mines. And In 1891 it became the site of the first steam locomotive in Bolivia on the railroad built to connect the mine with Antofagasta on the Chilean coast to transport the silver. The mining stopped in the middle of the 20th century, and today it’s a bona fide ghost town of railroad ruined locomotives, and building. The train cemetery is particularly impressive! It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Tentative Site.