Coppersmith

We visited Santa Clara del Cobre today to experience yet another village, this one dedicated to all things copper. We had expected to find villages like this as we toured those around the lake, all the stores selling a single class of products (in this case copper) made in the homes surrounding the village, but had been disappointed up until today. We started our visit at the Copper Museum where this guy was demonstrating how copper plates are formed. He is pulling a rough form from the fire (just visible at the end of his tongs) prior to placing it on an anvil where he and five of his friends beat the daylights out of it until it cools. Then it is back into the fire for another round of pounding. After viewing his hard work we went into the streets to see many versions of finished product in the stores around the square.