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.

Manifestaciones

Hola,

I just wanted to let all of you who have been following the civil unrest situation down here know that I am o.k. The protests are all centered in Santa Cruz, which is a different department pretty far away from where I am. The protests are being incited, as best I know, by the rich upper class land owners who control most of the economy in the area. Since the price of tin crashed and the mines in the southern altiplano became relatively obsolete, Santa Cruz has been bringing in most of Bolivia´s GNP and as a result, they are now looking for political and economic autonomy from the altiplano region. The other motive for the increase in riots and protests in recent days has been a motion by Morales´government to pass a new constitution, one that would not only allow Morales to be re-elected (he cant get re elected as it is), but also re-distribute land to the indigenous peoples, many of whom live in the north-eastern region of Santa Cruz and would severely damage the land holdings of the rich aristocracy here. As a result, blocades have been set up by the residents of Santa Cruz on the roads leading into the city and international flights have been cancelled. The US ambassador was expelled by Morales mainly because he is indirectly related to some of the riots which have been started in recent days. As of now, who knows whether the violence will escalate or not, but all is quiet in Cochabamba.

La Paz

Last weekend, I went to La Paz with twelve other students from the Institute. We stayed in the Maryknoll House in La Paz, and visited the ruins of Tiwanaku and Lago Titicaca. We flew into La Paz on Friday, and the next morning, left for Tiwanaku. To get there, we had to drive up, out of La Paz and across the altiplano, and as we left the city, the views of the Andes got better and better. We finally got there, and walked through the museums before entering the actual archaeological site. The Tiwanakotans were a civilization that existed before the Incans, but were a non militaristic, agricultural society. Their capital Tiwanaku, is the site that we visited, and there, the archaeologists have discovered monoliths 24 feet big, and a temple, named Kalasasaya, which was used as a calendar. There was a stone doorway, called la Puerta del Sol, and at the start of each month, the sun would shine through la Puerta and onto a part of the wall opposite, marking which month it was. They also built a pyramid with a reflecting pool at the top, and, using this, they were able to chart the movements of the stars. Their architecture is very symmetrical, with certain symbols which they held in great importance. The puma, the llama, the fish, and the condor are their four most important animals, as each one represents a certain aspect of their life, the earth (puma), the water (fish), the sky (condor) and the fire (llama). The last one is kind of weird, but the guide explained that the word llama also meant fire in pre Colomban times. Their architecture has these symbols on it, and the number that it has is always 7, 12, 30, or 52 reflecting days of the week, months of the year, days of the month and weeks of the year respectively.
The next day, we went to Lago Titicaca, which is the highest lake in the world. The water was no colder than the beaches of Northern Massachusetts (for those of you who know what those are like), but the water is a striking shade of blue, and the trout from the lake are delicious. We also took a detour to visit a site where boats are built from the reeds. After that we took the plane back to Cochabamba.
This weekend I´m going to hike up Tunari, a mountain outside of Cochabamba. I´m trying to put my pictures up on Picasa, and I´ll give you the website when I figure it out. Until then, nos vemos