After a mad dash last few weeks that followed the chilean earthquake, Cait and I have found ourself no farther from Chile geographically than we were months ago. It has really amazed us how much time it's taken to see the southern part of the continent. On a map it looked like we could just connect the dots and be up in Ecuador or Colombia by now. We never saw Brazil or a hundred other amazing things that would make for another helluva 3 month trip...la proxima vez...no?
Our time in Bolivia was a collection of some of my favorites from the whole trip. Cait covered many of these from our introduction to the crooked gringo taxing all the way to some of the most spectacular natural wonders on the planet. I still find myself wondering and fretting over the fact that Bolivia isn't a world power. I know there are plenty of political and economic arguments to be made here but the bottom line for me is that it is a culturally rich country that has very effectively found a way to coexist with three different cultural groups inside its borders. It also has some of the richest agriculture and mineral concentrations imaginable. What could possiblly hold them down.....
We finished up our time in Bolivia with some spectacularly hectic time in La Paz, a ride down the world famous road of death, and explorations of the birthplace of much of the native cultures of south america. Lake Titicaca, nearby Tiwanaku, and the Isla del Sol provided almost a week of time travel that found us standing on and next to ancient incan ruins that were arguably the most important of their civilization. Usage and preservation issues aside, the ability to happen upon the footprints, burned into rock, of the sun god and have the revelation that you're standing inside the ancient andean cross staring at the rock where the inca's were born out of was pretty powerful. So powerful for me that when the opportunity arose to camp inside of one of their impressive labrynth structures for the night with a view of the beach...I couldn't do it. It was serene and immensly powerful at the same time.
We crossed into Peru and a one or two night stay in Arequipa turned into a 5 day dry dock as Caitlin suffered through and recovered from a devastating double wammy of parisite and bacterial GI infection. She's better now and the time allowed us to take a second look at our travel planning. We had been planning on heading up the coast in sprint fashion to make it through all the original points on our map. We threw that idea and the budget out the window in favor of seeing machu pichu. We're too close to miss it. So we'll leave in about an hour to head to Cusco on an overnight bus that will put us on the trail for 5 days starting tomorrow trekking up to Machu Pichu. With this trip, we'll complete the Incan trifecta and I'm really excited to see how the build up of seeing the birthplace of their civilization will impact my appreciation of their holy city in the sky.
We've seen so many things in the last week that are truely amazing and I can't wait to get home in some regards....to see family and friends...to slow down(as terrible as that sounds)...but also to try and digest it all.
Sorry we can't get pictures up but just imagine us sitting on the edge of a canyon that is twice as deep as the grand canyon at its deepest part and looking at condors swoop over our heads and hang out on a ledge just 20 feet away. Crazy world.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
a smile that lights up the world- bolivia
as scott and i were boarding the bus from buenos aires to villazon, bolivia (over a day on a bus), i was very aware we were entering a new world. we were very distinctly the only gringos on the bus for the first time, since santiago. though sunburned from our perspective, we were still pasty, pinky white compared to the much darker faces that surrounded us. argentina, chile, uruguay (previously visited countries) were much, much more europeanized than bolivia. in fact, bolivia has the highest number of indigenous people in south america. the women were wearing fantastic traditional clothing, they use woven blankets with electric colors and patterns to transport babies and cargo alike. at first, the usual small talk didn't cut it. generally a couple of nice words and a smile can turn a stranger into a friendly acquaintance but it wasn't working with this group. only scott, the truly personable one of the two of us was able to crack a smile from one of them in that first half hour and i really think it was one of the most beautiful smiles i've seen. there seemed to be such a frank honesty that i found in the faces of many bolivians: they might seem to be frowning at first but if you can get through to them at all, or share a funny moment, their smile really seems to light up everything around them.
bolivia is such a confusing place. they have the wealth of the world, minerals mostly, lithium, the largest navigable lake in the world, the largest salt lake, incredible indigenous history and incredible views, but they remain the poorest on the continent. they are land-locked, along with paraguay, due to a war that happened over 130 years ago with chile and peru (although it still feels like yesterday to many in the country). long story but bolivia never had a port and chile was able to use that greatly to their advantage. bolivians i met seemed to wear their heart on their sleeve. some are quick to tell you chile has robbed them, that they don't like the politics of the united states and that their newly re-elected president (evo morales) will alievate them from poverty and protect the pachamama. although, no doubt, political opinions vary where income and personal wealth do (just my personal opinion).
even the beggars seemed different. those panhandlers in largely capitalistic countries like chile (and argentina) would try to give you something for your spare change, something stolen, something gross looking, whatever OR they would run a standard "dame moneda, dame moneda" (give me money) to no one in particular. beggars in bolivia would almost personally come right at you, stick the hand right out and hit you in the knee, the plea (mostly in aymara or quechua- not spanish) was almost like "you owe me".
highlights of the trip include: a bike ride down death road. advertised as the most dangerous road in the world- only on the way back up in a bus we were told that three tourists had died just last year on bikes as one lost control and bumped into a second and then a third. bump. bump. bump, off the cliff, into nothing, im not kidding, you're so DEAD if you screw up on this trail. so aside from being dramatic, no one died, and we had a lot of fun! (i asked our guide which company had the three who bit the dust and i looked them up... their new advertisement says they offer search and rescue, at not additional cost!)
uyuni salar trip- we traveled with a guide who was VERY upfront about his political feelings- "no quiero ver a un chileno, ni quisiera trabajar con un chileno". he wouldn't look at me directly and would always consult scott for clarification of what my argument was during a conversation about politics between 2 bolivians, 2 americans and 2 swiss. needless to say, the swiss were the peacemakers, the minds of reason, the grandparents of the conversation. actually, their main concern was that bolivia could face a dictatorship of sorts, given the closed doors mentality the current president could be accused of advocating. we saw beautiful sights, the salar is incredible, 120 meters deep and 12,000 sq. km!!! really incredible. pictures will come in time.
sucre- incredible, actual capital city of bolivia. delicious food, beautiful plaza, fantastic museums, friendly people. really a nice time.
tupiza- we met a family, a kind, kind woman named teófila who let us camp on her roof, she made us humitas (tamales) and her son (sergio) was our personal guide around town. after getting off the train from the border town (villazon, a rather unpleasant place where we bought scalped train tickets by a police officer who was using a tazer wand against customers) we were so happy to find them- camping for free helped us compensate for the toll the bribe amount took on our wallets.
isla del sol- birthplace of the incas, beautiful, amazing place. amazing sights. our last night in bolivia we spent on this island camping on a terrazed farming plot just below a major footpath/highway of donkeys and laboring bolivians. i think i counted 10 brilliant smiles and we cooked our food and set up our tent. maybe they were touched that some tourists made some kind of personal contact with their land that one could see they treasured and valued so much.
bolivia is such a confusing place. they have the wealth of the world, minerals mostly, lithium, the largest navigable lake in the world, the largest salt lake, incredible indigenous history and incredible views, but they remain the poorest on the continent. they are land-locked, along with paraguay, due to a war that happened over 130 years ago with chile and peru (although it still feels like yesterday to many in the country). long story but bolivia never had a port and chile was able to use that greatly to their advantage. bolivians i met seemed to wear their heart on their sleeve. some are quick to tell you chile has robbed them, that they don't like the politics of the united states and that their newly re-elected president (evo morales) will alievate them from poverty and protect the pachamama. although, no doubt, political opinions vary where income and personal wealth do (just my personal opinion).
even the beggars seemed different. those panhandlers in largely capitalistic countries like chile (and argentina) would try to give you something for your spare change, something stolen, something gross looking, whatever OR they would run a standard "dame moneda, dame moneda" (give me money) to no one in particular. beggars in bolivia would almost personally come right at you, stick the hand right out and hit you in the knee, the plea (mostly in aymara or quechua- not spanish) was almost like "you owe me".
highlights of the trip include: a bike ride down death road. advertised as the most dangerous road in the world- only on the way back up in a bus we were told that three tourists had died just last year on bikes as one lost control and bumped into a second and then a third. bump. bump. bump, off the cliff, into nothing, im not kidding, you're so DEAD if you screw up on this trail. so aside from being dramatic, no one died, and we had a lot of fun! (i asked our guide which company had the three who bit the dust and i looked them up... their new advertisement says they offer search and rescue, at not additional cost!)
uyuni salar trip- we traveled with a guide who was VERY upfront about his political feelings- "no quiero ver a un chileno, ni quisiera trabajar con un chileno". he wouldn't look at me directly and would always consult scott for clarification of what my argument was during a conversation about politics between 2 bolivians, 2 americans and 2 swiss. needless to say, the swiss were the peacemakers, the minds of reason, the grandparents of the conversation. actually, their main concern was that bolivia could face a dictatorship of sorts, given the closed doors mentality the current president could be accused of advocating. we saw beautiful sights, the salar is incredible, 120 meters deep and 12,000 sq. km!!! really incredible. pictures will come in time.
sucre- incredible, actual capital city of bolivia. delicious food, beautiful plaza, fantastic museums, friendly people. really a nice time.
tupiza- we met a family, a kind, kind woman named teófila who let us camp on her roof, she made us humitas (tamales) and her son (sergio) was our personal guide around town. after getting off the train from the border town (villazon, a rather unpleasant place where we bought scalped train tickets by a police officer who was using a tazer wand against customers) we were so happy to find them- camping for free helped us compensate for the toll the bribe amount took on our wallets.
isla del sol- birthplace of the incas, beautiful, amazing place. amazing sights. our last night in bolivia we spent on this island camping on a terrazed farming plot just below a major footpath/highway of donkeys and laboring bolivians. i think i counted 10 brilliant smiles and we cooked our food and set up our tent. maybe they were touched that some tourists made some kind of personal contact with their land that one could see they treasured and valued so much.
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