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But if you push past the chaotic traffic and drive 100km north-east, descending into the sub-tropical Yungas valleys, you’ll discover a cluster of quiet villages hidden in the forest connected by a labyrinth of dirt roads.

In Mururata, a village of around 350 inhabitants, free-range chickens cluck loudly on dirt roads, children play together in the streets, and men and women work the land with hoes and emerge from the forest carrying newly chopped bundles of firewood.

According to Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano, the mines are notorious for claiming the lives of roughly 8 million enslaved indigenous South Americans and Africans over a 300-year period – many of whom died as a result of being overworked, underfed and suffering in the region's extreme cold.

Mururata is the centre of this kingdom and is where the king of Afro-Bolivians, Julio Bonifaz Pinedo lives and "rules" over the community's 2,000 residents – yet, it would be difficult to recognise him, as he largely blends in with the other villagers.

The queen, Doña Angélica, sat behind him on the stairs leading to their home, where she watched a soap opera on a small television perched atop a tall display cabinet.

According to Pinedo, when his ancestors arrived in the Yungas in 1820, one of his relatives named Uchicho was bathing in the river and his African companions saw that his torso had scars reminiscent of members of a tribal royal family.

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