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