Que Les Vaya Bien

Gracias por leer a mis cuentos de mi tiempo en Bolivia. These five months have been a definite growing experience for me, having had time to escape from Gringolandia and see a different side of the world, meet different people, and have interesting experiences. It is an experience that I would recommend to anyone, especially graduating seniors who are not sure what they want to study in college, let alone what they want to do with their lives. Being here has not given me instant insight on these things, but it has definately given me time to take a step back, and reflect on a course which most kids (including me) follow blindly.

Although I am not entirely sure what I am going to be doing for the second semester of my gap year, I will be in Chimbote, and then Trujillo, Peru, working in a school. My new blog will be called http://www.robbieinperu.blogspot.com/

Las Photos del Camino

Need I say more?

El Camino de La Muerte

This past weekend, I bicycled down the most dangerous road in the world, a 66 kilometer stretch of highway wide enough for one car, which descends from La Paz, at an altitude of 4600 meters into the jungle, ending at around 1000 meters. Along the entire road, one side is sheer cliff, about a 200 to 400 meter drop into the rainforest. At various points, waterfalls splash onto the road, adding an extra factor to the already horrible conditions. There are only certain points at which two cars can pass each other, and so when two meet, the one going down is forced to back up to one of these points, and then pull its wheels halfway off the cliff so that the other car can pass. Fortunately, I went on a bicycle (I swear it was a lot safer), but at various points the guide would stop us to talk about accidents that had happened in various locations. At one point, we passed a village, famous only because it has 23 buildings, and every single one of them is a trout restaurant. Later, we passed a stone which commemorated an election that took place during the dictatorship in Bolivia, only because the opposition party had all been pushed off the cliff at that point when the military government realized that they couldn´t possibly win democratically. Oddly enough, the road ends in a small, one horse town called Yolosa, where we rested for a few hours and then took off back up the hill to Coroico (in a taxi).

Santa Cruz

Just when I thought I had seen all that I could from Bolivian soccer, I went to an Aurora Wilstermann Clasico (those are the two Cochabamba teams) this past Sunday, and with five minutes left to go in the game, one of the Aurora players got a red card. When he refused to leave the field, two riot policemen arrived to escort him off. Almost immediately, the entire Aurora bench emptied and the entire team proceeded to fight a force of about twenty five riot police. The Aurora goalie made a pit stop at the corner to pull out the corner flag to use as a weapon. Finally, the police used their mace, and the Aurora team dispersed. What surprised me most, however, was that the referees continued the game afterwards as if nothing had happened, not throwing out or suspending anyone. Aurora ended up winning the game.

Two weekends ago, I was in Santa Cruz visiting the Jesuit Missions. In addition to seeing five churches in a Barroque style, we managed to run into a six and a half foot rattlesnake, two tarantulas, and a sloth. The churches were some of the most beautiful that I have ever seen, ornately decorated on the inside with gold plating. It was interesting to drive through the countryside, however, because there are Menonites (I think thats how you spell it) who are and have been living amongst the Bolivians.

In other news, I want to thank James Bond for his shout out to Bolivia.

Varias Cosas

Perdon, its been a while since I´ve had time to post on the blog, but I´ve been busy. Over my vacations, I went to the Salaar in Uyuni, and went on a three day tour there, seeing the Salaar (a huge salt flat, the largest in the world) and the surrounding national park which included a plethora of wildlife and strange environments, including volcanoes, hot springs, geysers, lakes, and volcanic rock formations. My tour, which consisted of the tour guide/driver, his wife, his kid, and five other travellers, all packed into a 4x4 which should never have fit more than six people, was nonetheless extremely interesting, and El Parque Nacional de Fauna Andina is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been, with its colorful lakes, dotted with flamingoes. After this, I travelled to Potosi, a mere eight hours away by overnight bus, to visit Cerro Rico, the mine which the Spanish severely overdrew during the colonial period for silver. Now, collective and private miners scrape an existence mining a silver-copper combination. The mine itself was a maze of rough, claustrophobic passages dotted with workers, chewing coca leaves and drinking 96% grade alcohol as they worked. After an hour long tour of the mines, I visited a few churches which have been turned into museums, then took a 12 hour overnight bus back to Cochabamba.
In other news, one of the Cochabamba soccer teams, Aurora, is playing for a spot in the final tomorrow night in Cochabamba.

In two weekends, the Bolivians, and all of South America, celebrate el Dia de los Muertos. This fiesta, comparable to American Halloween, holds much more religious significance for the Bolivian people. Each family sets a lavish table with food, and puts out photographs of the dead whom they wish to commemorate. Although the mystical faith is more strong in the regions around the cities, where the more indigenous people live, most believe that on this day, the spirits rise and ascend to the heavens, where they wait. If it rains on this day, the spirits return to the earth, and this signifies that the harvest will be good in the following year, but if it doesn´t rain, then the people fear that the harvest will be bad, or that the dead spirits will bring about natural disasters or bad luck. Some children do dress up, but when they go from door to door, they ask to pray, and then enter, and after praying, they ask for sweets or cookies.
Hasta el proximo

Mi Cumpleaños

El Chapare

Last weekend I travelled to the Chapare, a part of Cochabamba about four hours from the city which is heavily forested and closer to sea level than the city itself. We spent about two days there, arriving on Friday, and the next day we visited two national parks, Parque Nacional Carrasco, and Parque Machia. In the first, we visited some caves which had bats, both carnivorous and herbivorous, and guacheros, a type of nocturnal bird. After that, we went to Parque Machia, where volunteers help to rehabilitate various types of animals to re enter the wild. There we saw a variety of birds, monkeys, a puma and a bear. The monkeys are so acclaimated to human presence that they were climbing all over us and, if you bring anything in your pockets or wear jewelry, the monkeys will take it from you. The views from the park were magnificent as well, and after hiking for a few hours, we went swimming in the river. The next day, we returned to Cochabamba.

Yesterday I went to my first soccer game in el Estadio, where the two Cochabamba teams, Aurora y Wistermann, played each other. This event, known to Cochabambans as ¨El Clasico¨ was the worst display of soccer I have ever seen, excluding only my high school soccer team. Aurora ended up scraping out a 1-0 victory with an own goal from Wilstermann. While the soccer was uneventful, the crowd provided more than enough entertainment. The ´Zona Roja´, where the Wilstermann faithful sit, was cheering the entire game, and throwing firecrackers out onto the field, along with all other types of trash. Their signs held messages such as ¨si jugarias en el cielo, moriria para verte¨ or ¨if you will play in heaven I will die to watch you¨. So while the game was disappointing, I´m sure that I will return to see more of these fan´s exploits.