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Published: August 4th 2006
Hello all! Hope this blog finds you well. Just an update on where I am and what I have been up to in Bolivia for the last two and a half months.
Since my last blog I have been to La Paz, Tiwanaku, Copacabana, Isle De Sol, Rurrenabaqua, Cochabamba and now I have only just left my last stop in Bolivia, which is Villa Tunari in El Castillo in the Chapare region of Bolivia, volunteering with Bolivian kids for this great organization Angels of Hope, before heading to Peru for the next six weeks.
BOLIVIA…
The best thing about Bolivia is that it is different wherever you go; some places are similar in many ways, especially the poverty stricken side. But the landscapes and climate can change dramatically depending on where you go.
LA PAZ…
I am dropped into the heart of La Paz. This place jumps to an awful rhythm. Cars and people rush through the street, noises (car horns), excremental smells, dust and blaring music. Torn up side streets, lined with beautiful artisan markets, where they will sell you assorted items from hand-made guitars and djembes to colorful textiles made from llama and alpaca wool,
La Paz witch markets at night
woman selling dried up llama fetusesdried up llama fetuses, rugs laid out on street corners with fluffy-haired hippies selling hand-made jewelry and, on occasion have been known to sell grass.
At 3640 meters, La Paz is the highest capital in the world. It takes a while to get acclimatized to the altitude and it is important to take it easy when exploring this hilly city so as to avoid "soroche" (altitude sickness). So I found myself taking tablets for the altitude as well as the noise from the honking cars almost every day while I was there.
In one of the side streets there’s the famous Witch markets where they would show off their hideous dried up llama fetuses, used for sacrificial for their Pachamama idol which is the Mother Nature symbol for Bolivia. I was seriously thinking of buying my sister Sam a dried up llama fetus for all the grief she's given me over the years. 😊
There’s a funny joke here that people use, whenever they throw something on the street or litter, they say, “This is for Pachamama”!
The Bolivian women here dress extremely modest, traditional clothing. Little bowler or straw hats and shawl, big, wide, round skirts and
small black shoes with long black plates in their hair tied with something that looks like it would hang at the end of a curtain. They are constantly running here and there and shouting something in their high-pitched voices or cooking something in a big dirty pot or selling mountains of mandarins and seeds on their laid out blankets on the street.
I stayed in a few hostels, but found myself in the Lobo mostly, which is an Israeli Hostel run by this cool Bolivian guy called Victor who speaks Hebrew and Spanish. The Lobo is a decent hostel and has great bar upstairs with pool tables, internet and a TV with an excellent DVD collection.
They also have this fantastic restaurant downstairs which serves all sorts of Israeli foods from Shakshuka to Shawarma. A friend showed me a description one day of the Lobo in the Lonely Planet guide and it had the funniest and truest description. It mentioned that you will know you're in the Lobo when you find a restaurant covered from wall to wall with pictures of naked Israelis in at the Salt Flats freezing their tooshies off.
There is always something
going on in La Paz. Recently there was an election for a new President of Bolivia. Till late at night there were people screaming into booming microphones, fireworks going off, cars honking, radios blasting and was extremely hectic and buzzing time.
Great bronze statues of generals on horses bore the shit out of me, and when they are place in the middle of an avenue where they cause traffic jams and sudden death I am led only to consider for the thousandth time certain Latin rationalities.
When I can’t sleep, I watch as the sky change from tender pinks to garnish yellows and the humming sounds of a great city coming alive obliterates the silence.
When I first arrived in La Paz, it was the day before the festival of the Sun which was to take place at the ruins in Tiwanaku, two hours or so from La Paz.
LA PAZ, TIWANAKU, FESTIVAL OF THE SUN…
I arrived there on a bus just before 6am in the morning as the sun was coming up after a two hour bus ride. The Tiwanaku grounds were incredibly packed; it seemed that almost everyone in La Paz
was there to attend. Thousands of people were pushing though the gates to get to the temple of Pachamama where the sun was to rise through.
We got their and heard that there were two spots to see, one was the sun rise and the other was a llama being sacrificed on a stone as the sun was rising. I couldn't find the llama, so I stood with thousands of people trying to get a glimpse of the sun rising through this very old stone gateway, which in the pre-Inca days, was used as a seasonal calendar.
I was surprisingly much colder than I was at the Salt Flats and I thought my fingers were going to chip off, but I kept taking photos and tried to stay positive.
Before the sun rose, the Bolivians were shouting and partying eagerly waiting to celebrate the sun. As it came up there was a hush over Tiwanaku and the people began to raise their hands silently, it was an incredible sight. Then the parties began and people crowded around the flag dancing and singing with instruments and flutes, holding hands in circles and laughing.
Afterwards the ground cleared
and people began to leave. I found a large group of people standing together on an altar throwing sacrificial item into a large bonfire for Pachamama, such as fake American dollars, candy, streamers and cocoa leaves.
A witch doctor stood in the centre dressed in traditional style clothing and was blessing the presents of the people and throwing them into the flames. I managed to get in to take some photos and it was extremely crowded, shoulder to shoulder I was being pushed, until finally my jeans caught on fire. Suddenly I was being yelled at and people were smacking me so severely on the legs I thought I had offended them in some way but then they started to laugh at me and I realized what actually had occurred, so I apologized and left feeling very embarrassed.
COPACOBANA…
After the festival of the sun I headed to Copacabana for a few days to visit the Isle De Sol and take it easy. I got there at a great time, during the day the church was filled with hundreds of people watching young girls sing and dance to the celebrations, there were parades and marching bands and
I always saw someone carrying some sort of an instrument, usually a trombone.
At night, the streets and skies were filled with bonfires and fireworks. Small kids were laughing in the alleys playing with fire crackers and laughing hysterically on the floor as they went off.
Music was being played everywhere and the markets were filled with the usual hoo-ha you would see but a few extras imported from Peru because Copacabana is so close to the Peruvian border. I found a Columbian couple selling beautiful Artisans jewelry on the streets, the lady sold me a beautiful necklace with a green stone which I will never take off for only 30 Boliviano.
There are excellent restaurants to eat close to the beach. One in particular has some great DVDs, live music and great food... but I hear the fish in this town although very tasty WILL give you diarrhea… yay.
ISLE DE SOL…
Isle De Sol is a two hour boat ride away from Copacabana. It's incredibly beautiful, dotted with tiny villages, hundreds of children, friendly people and llamas and farm animals.
As I was waiting for the boat to get back to Copacabana,
Tiwanaku gateway
this is what we watched the sun rise through I met several kids on the way who at first, tried to sell me some beautiful little stones they had found on the island. Once I told them I had no money, they hung around me and listened to Disney songs on my iPod and braided my hair, and we drew and wrote down names and played games. Afterwards when I was leaving, they gave me some of their best stones as gifts which I am going to use to make a necklace.
RURRANABAQUA
Rurranabaqua is the coolest place besides Buenos Aires that I've been to for so many reasons.
First of all, it's the coolest place to wake up in the morning to. Instead of hectic car horns and always being on the edge in La Paz. Only 50 minutes away by military plane is the awesome Jungle town of little Rurranabaqua. This is more like it.
The town is very easy to navigate around, the main centre is about 4-6 blocks of recognizable streets of tourist agencies, cafe's and restaurants, internet cafe's, as well as the quirky and terrifyingly confronting banana bread- man who preaches the word of Jesus and asks you why you
don't believe in GOD when you refuse his neat white pamphlets on Christianity and Government scandals.
There are also very few cars, so you can pick up a taxi motorcycle to get you to places for only 2 Boliviano. There's a cool lake to swim in which is Lake Beni, it is very dirty and incredibly big. It took us a while to work up the courage to dive in. I tried to swim to the other side, but stupidly left my back pack (which had my camera in it) on a rock as a boat was approaching I realized I probably should have hidden it in the bushes. So I swam from the other side as fast as I could and was so exhausted afterwards, it was very much like that scene from Motorcycle Diaries, except I’m not a gorgeous Argentinean man and no one was cheering me on.
There's also a great community swimming pool, which charges you 20 Boliviano for the day, but it's worth it. The water is clean and there is a poop-friendly toucan who if he gets nervous he will shit on you, not in a good way. There are excellent little
artisans on the streets where you can buy some unusual cool jewelry. The whole vibe of Rurranabaqua is awesome.
…
One our last night, we met some people in the hostel and enjoyed the tropical sunset over the Beni River, listening to music while one of the travelers juggled in the background and we sat around hand made candle holders made from empty water bottles. The calls of children fishing in hand-carved canoes are below us. The rushing sound of the river and the rainforest sounds of dripping water and crickets are every where. The lights on the other side of the river turned off in one go and we go to lie around on the hammocks for a little while longer before we finally go to bed.
RURRANABAQUA, THE PAMPAS…
The Pampas was incredibly cool and I will defiantly do this again if I ever get the chance. We saw plenty of Cayman Alligators and swam close to shy, pink dolphins. We went fishing for Piranhas and a little French girl called Jessica caught more than me.
Mostly, we spent the days lazing in hammocks looking over the lake, as well as spending the afternoons
at the Sun Set bar watching the Sun, well set amongst other gringos, on the way back as the sun was down, we went back to our campsite by canoe with torches looking for alligators in the lakes, and were stared back by two tiny red eyes blinking back at us.
The moon was full, so Jessica and I decided to play with my camera and the light from the moon and made all sorts of crazy shapes and also tried to write our names with the light which didn't really turn out, but made her laugh hysterically and hit me in the head occasionally.
At night, we slept in little huts with beds covered in mosquito nets with repellent all over our bodies; we still managed to get bitten by bull ants, sand flies and giant mosquitoes. I was bitten terribly and if you wanted to, you could play join the dots on my back. It was very itchy, but I have this little cream they sell every where here called Mentisan which smells like Vix. They swear by this stuff and use it for everything from headaches to burns to mosquito bites.
COCHABAMBA…
Cochabamba is
another city in Bolivia that is doing well. It has mountains with tremendous statue of Jesus on top over looking the city.
Cochabamba has strange and basic food that has been cooked in a battered pot over damp wood and mosquitoes. Eating food that has been pounded on a slab of wood by suspicious hands becomes a kind of test that I have seldom passed before, I buy sausages and wander around in the streets eating it very carefully and for the next three days I am sick… great.
I walked past a clean looking tattoo parlor on my second day in Cochabamba and decided quickly to get a tattoo of a tiny red heart the size of my thumb on my hip. It's incredibly cute and in a perfect spot and only cost me 80 Boliviano and took only 15 minutes, it didn't hurt a bit... but now I am wishing I asked the guy if the needle was sterilized because since I got it people have been telling me some horror tattoo stories. So far it's looking ok, fingers crossed. I’ve had it for two weeks now and it’s looking fine and no it hasn’t expanded
and so help me, it better not.
I didn’t do all that much in Cochabamba besides the tattoo, get food poisoning and seeing the film, Pirates of the Caribbean, which was great… but I wish it wasn’t in Spanish, yes I’m a dumb dumb. I only understood half of the film, so looks like I’m going to have to pay to see it again, crikey.
VILLA TUNARI…
Villa Tunari, El Castillo, Angels of Hope Volunteer program
I decided at the last minute in Cochabamba that I will be going to Villa Tunari for two weeks to volunteer with Bolivian kids for an organization called Angels of Hope…
The drive up was beautiful and frustrating, we drove up mountains through thick thick white fog and jungle and couldn’t see the cars in front of us, then there was a road block for two hours and I kept busy by untangling my macramé string and watched the mountains fade away in the distance behind us.
…
Villa Tunari is a small, quiet and cool village in the middle of the jungle. I arrived on Friday night which was perfect, because on the weekends it’s everyone’s time
off and I had a chance to get settled in properly.
All the volunteers here have worms which they received from working closely with the children and said that I will get it too and when I do I am officially initiated. They scared me with tales about bed bugs, insane lightning, vicious dogs that chase you down the streets, crazy trick drivers that try to run you over and oh yeah… mosquitoes.
On the first night, we had dinner, best steak (better than Argentina!) at one of the only restaurants here run by Rodriguez, who speaks Hebrew of course as well as Spanish, Portuguese, French, English and Turkish… We think he's some sort of spy.
…
There are no traditional taxis here again, instead there are locals who pick up 5 to 12 people and squish them in the car for 1 Boliviano. They leave the back boot door open and fit another 5 people in there too.
You take a taxi when you’re driving into the main village of Villa Tunari to check the internet of buy food. With people sitting on top of you or sitting in the boot with your legs
hanging out almost touching the gravel, you drive past beautiful jungle scenery to the main town and trying not to fall out by hanging on with your life.
…
I shared a room with an Israeli girl named Chedva and we listened to my iPod during the night and talked about “boys”, very girly, yes I know…
Our room is small and cozy with green mesh screen mosquito nets nailed across the window panes; there are no glass windows anywhere in Villa Tunari that I have seen. I was worried about bed bugs and mosquitoes, so kept my side very clean, aired my mattress in the sun to kill any bugs and bought a pretty blue mosquito net and hung it over my bed with duct-tape which made me feel like such a little princess, I looked out the window as I fell asleep and saw fire flies circling the light posts.
…
On one of my first nights before dinner we, the volunteers, the teachers and some neighborhood kids would play soccer in the front yard, outside the Castillo. It was loads of fun and everyone was really into it and, even though we were playing
with boys that used to play the game for their school they still played it for fun and whenever I screwed up it was laughed at and nothing more.
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In my first week I started with Spanish classes in the first half of the day and volunteering in the seconds half till 6pm. This includes helping to build a bridge with river stones and feeding the pre-schoolers as well as accompanying them home by bus and assisting the teacher in the class room. As well as any other tasks that you can help with that you have experience with, for me it was computer stuff… joy.
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In my first Spanish class, our teacher Jose taught us some necessary sentences to use with the kids, such as "No sacar por la ventana la cabesa en las manos" which directly means, "Don't take out from the window your head and hands". As well as "No Pelear!" which means "No fighting!" and "Seintatei" which means "Sit down". I found myself yelling "Seintatei” constantly to the kids and at night it would go over and over in my head and drive me crazy. "Seintatei” "Seintatei” "Seintatei”!!!
I remember back
in primary school in Sydney, where my bus driver Mr. Richards would yell to the kids "Sit down and shut up!" in the most horrible way, we would sit so quietly and pale-faced terrified to move even a little bit.
So I got on the bus thinking that it would be all X-Mas and puppies and was surprised to find how difficult it actually was. About 150 kids bombarded the bus at once and took forever to find their seats, what will be a two-seater on a normal bus, will fit about 4-5 kids, sitting and lying on top of one another. My job is to help the teacher control these kids, by telling them to sit down, not to fight and keep their heads and hands inside the bus. Sounds fun? It is in many ways and I found myself starting to talk to them with por favors and gracias ninos, to- Seintatei ahora! And threatening them by closing the windows and moving them to the front of the bus.
The bus ride is a grueling 2 and a half hours to 3 hours, these kids are naughty and loud and are constantly doing something sneaky, you
have to watch them like a hawk and constantly threaten them. I really prefer playing with them obviously; it was very hard for me to try to be tough with these little things. The they would be so cute suddenly and whenever we would pass a river they would all poke their heads out the window and get really worked up and yell over and over RIO, RIO RIO RIO!!!
I noticed one morning when I was on kitchen duty, that on one of the blackboards that the kids were leaning about their heroic president, Evo Morales. They had to describe him, so what they said was that he was the smartest person in the world, has a helicopter, he’s the richest man in the world and has all the best toys and knows EVERYTHING. They failed to mention that he was the President of Bolivia, just the fact that he is the man that knows everything was enough for them.
After a while on the bus, when they started to calm down, I found a few of them fast asleep under the seats and legs of a few children, so had to pick them up
and place them somehow on top of the others, it was like a very complicated puzzle.
Towards the end of the ride, it got so quiet, these precious little beauties were piled on top of each other fast asleep, some of them were drooling and sleeping with their mouths wide open, it was the cutest sight and they are sooo much cuter when they're asleep! So I finally sat down and enjoyed the scenery. The sun was setting over the jungle and men on ladders were chopping down huge bunches of green bananas and throwing them on top of a mountain of bananas and there was finally a hush over the school bus.
…
On the walk to the Foundation in the morning you can hear roosters and see navy blue butterflies with ivory streaks that would circle my knees with wings like velvet petals.
You walk for about 15 minutes from El Castillo to the Foundation passed the jungle on either side of you with faded mountains in the distance and great jungle leaves as big as pillow cases, sleep in the shades of bigger trees. There is also a bat cave that you can walk
through, it’s not really a cave it’s under the road and is basically a metal tube that the bats live in, because the tube echoes you have to clap as you are walking though so they don’t fly into your face. When you get to the other side you find a sweet little haven that the bats live in, it has little sun and tall trees to protect them.
You walk over the same river stones that were used to make the bridge that we helped build. It took the volunteers over three weeks to build this bridge and I could only imagine the effort that went into these small roads and I found myself admiring them every morning.
The foundation we worked in is basically a school where they teach children (aged 3-6) math’s, Spanish and basic hygiene.
It has a main room where the volunteers and the children would eat fantastic meals in, such as morning breakfasts of soggy oatmeal in a cup with a slice of un-sugared chocolate cake or fried pancake bonwalla things, and the lunches would be filling soups with meat and rice. This room had long communion tables and ceiling fans,
over looking the yard and the beautiful playground that the volunteers before me built.
…
I’ve been assisting the teacher twice a week with the first grade class, which has about 30 or so five year olds. Some of them are really slow so I’ve been helping them with maths and writing simple words from the black board. They are really sweet kids, some are so smart and others (the ones I’ve been helping) are really slow and require a lot of patience and persistence. I’ve never been good in school, so I find it a real irony that I am helping kids concentrate in class, let alone concentrate in maths! My God, Miss Franks would faint!
The classrooms are small and messy with the timetable, the alphabet, hand prints, and English in simple words posted upon the walls. Small hexagon shaped tables seating 6 small children and an old black board with simple words and vowels underlined in chalk.
The children run around with stanley knives to sharpen their pencils, while the teacher, looks and judges their paper work with gentle eyes and raised eyebrows and points to the board with a long stick and occasionally
gives them a good whack with the stick when they are misbehaving.
Oranges are given out to the kids at break time and orange peels are all over the yard.
These kids will put anything in their mouths and fight over everything, pulling and pinching and spitting and scratching.
The kids play outside in a broken down basket ball court can be seen from the window, with a piss-box idling behind it and rubbish stretched over the yard, with a busted up soccer ball, torn and saggy.
I get the kids to wash their hands before it’s time to go back into the class room, “llavarse y manos” I yell and again, they fight over the soap and use the water as a new game.
The school bus is late as usual, so the teacher put on the TV and the kids eagerly sit around to watch. They are suddenly quiet and pushing each other around to get a good enough view. Suddenly they all yell at once... JACKIE CHAN!!!!! JACKIE CHAN!!!!! And we see Jackie jump out of a 10-story building on fire into a car with a beautiful blonde as he speeds off.
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A great girl, Liz has been volunteering there for about 2 months in total. She has created a play about hygiene and needed help drawing up some posters. Her instructions were simple, draw poo, draw files on the poo and then those flies on food and draw pictures of people washing their hands properly. I drew up the posters and looked up to see about 20 kids were crowded around me hanging on my shoulders, and under the table were holding onto my legs looking so fascinated and were whispering, “Que Bonito”! This was very cute, I thought, it means how pretty.
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One afternoon during a Spanish lesson there was a big kafuffle coming from the back of the Castillo. A green snake, apparently deadly and unconscious lay on the cement as our director, Brent was playing with it. He assumed it was dead because it was hit over the head and snakes have been known to convulse minutes after they have passed on. So we forgot about the lesson and decided to play with the “dead” snake instead. The snake wasn’t dead, just a little wonky because of the bump on the head, so when
he started to come-to everyone stepped back and I ran to the kitchen and came running back with a butcher’s knife, ready for war. I stood over the snake and with one swing chopped off his head. I had a little trouble because the knife was stuck, so another volunteer, Ritchie finished the job nicely. Now before anyone starts crying about the dead snake, it had to be killed, there are little kids that run around the Castillo and this snake WAS actually a very deadly one… so put your machetes away.
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In my second week at El Castillo, we had a new Spanish teacher who speaks excellent English, his name is Miguel and he is very knowledgeable about Bolivia, its history and politics. He reminds me of Lisa's substitute teacher in The Simpson’s and he also wears a really cool cowboy hat! After Spanish, he sat us down and spoke with us about the history of Bolivia, its problems, wars, the economy and its political status. It was so interesting, because I finally understood why these people are poor and living like this and we sat there with our mouths wide open and spitting out a
hundred questions a minute.
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This is the basics of the history of Bolivia from what I understood...
Up until the 1500's the western parts (Andean region) of what is today Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia and Chile was taken over by the Spaniards. These Western parts used to be pre-Inca civilizations. The way it used to work was that these civilizations had small communities where everyone would help one another, everyone was considered brothers and it was a very peaceful time. They praised Pachamana, Mother Nature and took excellent care of the lands and of one another.
When the Spaniards took over, this region was enforced to slavery and many of them were killed when trying to fight back. The Spaniards main interest was Silver and when a Bolivian from Potosi found silver in the mines one day and informed the Spaniards, thousands of people were enslaved and killed… what a clever guy, hey?
After the Spaniards had been living there for so long, they had enforced governments and laws and it was a very corrupt time. Then in the 1800's the Inca's from Venezuela had enough and started a revolution and fought for their independence
that moved from Venezuela through Columbia though Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia and upwards from Chile to Bolivia and wiped out the Spaniards. This is how they won their independence.
When this happened, they took over their land again and now, since the Spanish system and its money were set in place they kept it and have been struggling since then, which has been the last 4 generations or so.
Bolivia cannot even try to export products or supply to the rest of the world because it is such a poor country, everything costs too much to produce and by the time they have made one company that they are proud of, Brazil for instance would have made five that produces faster and cheaper supplies. 70% of the population here is in poverty and the only thing they have really, is their land. Right now, they are re-vamping their constitution, they realize something is wrong if 70% of their country is in such a bad state and they are trying to rework it. How they do this is difficult to say. Many people have suggested that they learn from their Inca ancestors and work together as communities rather that
trying to dip into the global markets, other say they need to borrow money from the US and the popular vote seems to be that South America needs to become united.
I feel very lucky being brought up in Australia and receiving all the attention I needed from my teachers, parents and doctors. The families here have nothing, live in terrible conditions, the water is filthy and WILL make you sick. They need a lot of help from outside, I think other countries should start paying closer attention to Bolivia and providing assistance.
…
On my last day a puma walked passed me on my walk to the Foundation, I was too slow to reach for my camera and it was too fast and hid in the bushes. This was a big deal, because no one has seen a puma in these parts before. I also saw trees filled with tiny yellow tailed monkeys screeching and jumping around.
On Friday nights we like to celebrate the coming weekend with dinner and drinks. So this Friday was my last night and we went to a Bolivian discothèque that was so lame, alcohol was the only thing to
Jessica doing my hair
What's with kids doing my hair?! get me through it. As usual, I drank too much and one of the volunteers had to take me home, I found myself in the mud, covered in vomit, I experienced an overpowering dejection of the spirit, that night and refuse to drink like that again.
Right now, I’m in Peru on my way to Arequipa. More about that in the next blog.
Ps- if I hear any comment about the length of this blog, so help me.
Ciao.
intia warri yassi, bolivian model contest and no comer,
gringoes cooking kids
Oh yes, please check out my photos when you get a chance, there’s heaps of new ones..
Go to this site...
http://au.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/debsi_photos/my_photos
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Maria
non-member comment
Wow!
Wow! Yeah was pretty long blog entry but loved it! The way u describe things is fantastic. I'm so jelous.....I remember that Bolivia was amazing.I'm now back in London doing a 9 to 5 waiting for the weekend......keep living the dream and keep the blogs coming.