Dynamite Juggling, Coca Leaves and More

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i am writing another entry so soon because i have more time than usual. you see, there is a general strike of miners and truckers in this city, and they are blocking the roads, so no one can leave or enter for a while. i expected this might happen, and hope that it ends sooner than later. also, on the negative side, i have been sick for the last 2 days, bad bone aches, bathroom trips (one per hour), and fever. luckily though an argentine doctor is staying in the hostel and has helped a great deal. i am definitely getting better and i hope that the illness ends the day the strike does.

but amigos, despite these setbacks, passing through the third world has many advantages. you get get a complete meal for about 1-2 dollars, decent hostels cost about 3-4 dollars, and you can buy coca leaves and dynamite on the street. for the spanish settlers, potosi (the town i am in now) had the richest mine in all of south america, named cerro rico, and they still mine it today. here, as in other parts of bolivia, you can freely buy dynamite which comes with a fuse, and a bag of nitrates already soaked in deisel fuel for a more powerful explosion. for a tour of the cerro rico, we stopped by a store and we all bought some dynamite, and i juggled 3 sticks on the street. later we gave it to the miners as a gift for visiting the mine, and exploded some others. if i want, i could return to the same store, buy some dynamite, and take it with me!

at this point, i might take advantage of travel objective number 10 (something like having the freedom to change trip objectives according to whim) and possibly add or change the list to include ¨juggle dynamite in a bolivian street¨. as for my pursuit of a rideable llama, i have been having trouble, only petting one once, chasing some another time, and eating some in a restaurant. most of the llamas are free roaming, like cattle, and i havent seen one that is purely pack animal, that maybe i can jump on for a few seconds.

other odds and ends:

-you can get coca leaves everywhere, 1 small plastic grocery bag for about a quarter. its good for altitude sickness and making cocaine.

-people in the countryside live in mud brick huts and appear to live a farming existence much like they did 500 years ago (or even longer), with small plots, terraced hills, and having very native appearances. though they dont live in the cliffs (not that i have seen), their farms and houses really take on a very similar style as the cliff dwellers in the southwest, and if you want to get an idea how the natives lived there, come here for a living example.

-another reminder of the third world status of bolivia is the poor transportation service which rivals that of southern italy. trains neither leave nor arrive on time (4 hours late is normal), and it is common for a train to stop suddenly throwing everyone and everything forward. the good, and bad thing, is the train only goes about 20 mph the whole way, so such abrupt stops dont usually cause damage. the buses have similar problems. it is common for the guys to get out and push the bus in order to coast start it, and one bus i had broke down 30 minutes into the trip. the replacement bus was much nicer, but did not have enough seats so some people had to stand the whole way. on the same bus trip on a dirt road through canyons and deserts (similar to south west u.s.a., but only one dirt road visible through the entire country side, and occasional local existance as described above), we came around a turn and saw the smoldering wreckage of a car that was forced off the road by a mini-bus. i figured we would stop and see if we could help, but the driver to not even slow down.

in all, bolivia might be the best country i have been to yet, and i reccomend it to anyone, especially people on extreme budgets. other places i hope to visit in bolivia promise to be just as bizarre, including an amish settlement in the jungle.

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Comments

[Dope ass ryhmer]

get the leaves!!!
Jon I read this book on the history of cocaine. Those indians have been chewing those leaves for 3 thousand years. This means you must try in order to full-fill your destiney. Make sure you buy the white lye that comes in the gourds to mix with the leaves it helps to leach out the cocaine hydrocloride