The International Rambler

My Volunteering Profile in Guatemala

2012-01-11T20:40:00.002-05:00

Well, it looks like that I'm moving up in the world. As some of you know (and probably more don't know considering there are 6 billion people in the world), I have been volunteering with Habitat for Humanity Guatemala for about three months now as a Profiles volunteer. I will soon be promoted to the Profiles coordinator. The new job will mostly be office-bound, so I figured I should get some of my recent photos out there before they become obsolete.

Habitat's main goal is to provide people with adequate housing. They offer no interest loans and support throughout the whole building process. Since 1979 they have been involved in building over 35,000 homes in Guatemala. Check Habitat for Humanity Guatemala's website here for more info: http://www.habitatguate.org

Being a well-known organization, Habitat gets many volunteer groups from mostly North America and Europe who generously donate their time and money to come down to Guatemala and help out with all types of labor on a Habitat building site. The groups are usually only here for a week and, therefore, never have the opportunity to see the completed house. This is where the Profiles volunteer comes in.

A family in front of the one-room shack where they used to live and their new house:

After the groups are long gone, the Profiles volunteers are sent out to interview the families and to take photos of the finished home. In theory, the homes are supposed to be completed and the family happily living in them, but I would say only about 70% are done by the time I arrive. I visited one rural home where they told me that they would be able to move in when the government arrived to hook up the electricity. In this area it can take up to eight months for them to come out there -- think about that the next time the cable guy tells you it will take a couple days! The info and photos are then sent off to the groups so they can see the finished product and stay connected with Habitat. We also visit families whose houses are part of the dedication program and families who have received emergency housing assistance after natural disasters.

Houses donated to people who lost their homes during Hurricane Agatha:

Now these Habitat homes are literally anywhere and everywhere around the country (B.F.G?) which makes the Profiles volunteer job, at times, physically grueling, a real endurance test. The Profiles volunteer is accompanied by a Guatemalan promoter from the local office who drives us around on a motorbike to meet the families. Habitat, unfortunately, does not have the funding for pick-ups and SUV's, so motorbikes it is.

Some homes way out in the countryside:

An extreme example: I left my house at 6 AM to take a chicken bus (chicken bus = Guatemalan inter-city transportation = old, American school buses jammed pack with people driven at breakneck speeds) for three hours to the city, El Quiche. Then from 9:30 AM to 6 PM minus an hour for lunch I was on the back of the motorbike to visit just four families. For the last family that day we had to walk up a huge dirt hill for twenty minutes because the bike couldn't make it. The next morning I woke up early to visit a family who wasn't there when we went the day before. Then that afternoon it was another two and a half hours on the back of a motorbike to get to Nebaj to visit three more families. We leave at 6 AM the next morning-2 1/2 hrs back to El Quiche- and after lunch I meet two more families and then chicken bus for three hours back to Xela, my hometown. A serious butt-kicking Profiles mission.

So here are a few of the photos that I've taken over the past few months. It is definitely not ground-breaking photography - basically just interior and exterior photos of the home and some portraits. The houses are always simple cement block homes. The families are always friendly though sometimes deathly shy, but almost always do their best to accommodate me and my invasion of privacy. I have found that taking photos of the kids first is the best way to break the ice. They definitely don't share their parents inhibitions.

They'll probably never see this, but I would like to say thanks to all of these families (and those not shown) for letting us take photos which in a way helps to keep the program going.

The $5 Shopping Challenge in Xela

2011-12-29T18:14:00.001-05:00

Some Guatemalan quetzals

The $5 Shopping Challenge
One of the best things about traveling and living in other countries has got to be the never-ending game of price comparison with where we are from and what we know. Whether it's oohing over the twenty-five dollar watermelons in Japan or aahing over the obscene amount of bananas one can get for $1 in Ecuador, I think everyone likes to play.

So with that in mind, what I have done for this blog post is to go out to a typical market on a typical shopping trip in my current hometown of Quetzaltenago (better known as Xela) and record what I can get for around five US dollars which equals about 39 Guatemalan quetzals. Admittedly, I am not the best bargainer, but most of the ladies here are honest enough, and they almost all offer the same prices anyway. Usually my shopping conversations go something like this:

Me: "How much for a pound of tomatoes?"
Seller: "3.50, but for you 3."
Me: "2.50?"
Seller: "No."
Me: "Okay, give me a pound. How much for a cucumber?"
Seller: "2.50, but for you 2."
etc, etc

But before we get to the results of my shopping challenge let's look at some background info...

Welcome to the Market
There are four markets that I know of in Xela. One is small, easily managable, indoors, and near the Parque Central, another small one is Mercado Las Flores (Flowers Market) near the large municipal cemetery which could be how it got its name, the third is Minerva Market near the bus terminal which is huge, normally chaotic, and has a large section dedicated to secondhand clothing. The final market, La Democracia, sits right in the center of town and competes with Minerva for title of 'Xela's largest'. The indoor market part of La Demo encompasses an entire city block with everything sold here from pigs feet to push brooms and from pastries to hand-woven tapestries. The market than spills out onto the surrounding streets in every direction with specific blocks dedicated to clothes, food, and pirated CD/DVDs. La Demo also happens to be only four blocks from our house so the market of choice for our fruits and vegetables shopping.

A street outside La Demo market. Normally there is traffic access, but for the holiday season the street has been completely covered in temporary stalls selling even more stuff

Use the Sales Force
In most all Guatemalan markets there are three types of fruit and vegetable sellers (98.8% female):

The fixed stall sellers who use tables or stalls and carry either the widest selection of items or a mountain of one particular item.

The on-the-ground sellers who sit on tiny stools or the ground with their goods in baskets or on a blanket. They'll have anywhere from one item-one bucket to getting very ambitious with a lot on offer

The ambulatory sellers are the rarest type, who walk around selling just one item. This could be a good chance to see a guy selling something.

A very ambitious on-the-ground seller

The Results Are In
My shopping formula:
Quantity of Item = price in Guatemalan quetzals = price in US dollars

1lb of Tomatoes = Q3 = $0.38
1lb of Onions = Q3 = $0.38
Half dz. Carrots = Q2.5 = $0.32
3 Avocados = Q7.5 = $0.96
2 Cucumbers = Q4 = $0.51
bunch Spinach = Q4 = $0.51
bunch Radishes = Q3 = $0.38
Pineapple = Q7 = $0.90
3 head Garlic = Q3 = $0.38
Today's Total = Q37 = $4.72

The results coming in at $0.28 under $5

So how'd I do? Not bad, right. So now it's your turn to take the $5 challenge and let us know in the comments below what five bucks gets you at your favorite local (super)market.

Chicago Nobody

2011-11-22T14:31:00.001-05:00

Having traveled for a while in South America and Asia I am used to uncomfortable travel. Long bus rides, delays and just waiting around is pretty normal to me which is probably why I booked a terrible (cheapest) flight ticket from Denver to Guatemala without even thinking about the consequences. However, as I soon discovered, this type of travel does not translate well in the USA. Airports are too big, everything is expensive and the ever-burning flourecent lights wreak havoc on my natural bio-clock (think casino without gambling or slot machines).

My flight from Denver to Chicago arrives at 11:15 PM and my connection to Guatemala is at 5:30 AM the next day. No big deal, I'll sleep in the airport, right? Usually my concern with sleeping in any public place is that someone will walk off with my stuff if I doze off, but in Chicago (the third largest city in the USA) this should not be a problem. I am sure plenty of fellow travel zombies will be out. Boy was I wrong, there was nobody.

According to statistics from 2010, Chicago's O'Hare airport is the third busiest in the world. Almost 67,000,000 passengers passed through in 2010. And from 1 - 4 AM, I saw maybe five of those 67 million plus a skeleton crew: cleaning toilets, hanging Christmas decorations, waiting for no one to pass through security and manning the open-24hrs Dunkin Donuts at the food court in terminal H.

Some photos from the world's third busiest airport:

Meanwhile at 4:30AM, when the airport begins to come alive again, my airline tells me that I have to stop in Houston for a plane change even though it is the same flight (I am confused also). Anyway, me and the other seven passengers headed to Guatemala from Chicago get screwed because we have to circle in the air for an extra hour waiting for clearance to land. Because the airline did not give us enough connection time we all miss our same flight (but not same airplane) connection and have to take the 7 PM flight to Guatemala which gives me 10 more hours of hanging around an airport.... and I thought bus travel in Bolivia was bad.

The International Rambler Travel Tip:

I do not want to get into a rant about how there isn't free wifi at US airports, so I will just say this: Guatemala's airport has free wifi throughout and free PS2 stations. Why can't major US airports do it too? Anyway, if you find yourself in Houston airport and not wanting to pay for some stupid internet provider feel free to loiter outside the United Airlines club in terminal E and use their signal.

My view of doors to United club

Life Changing Fast But Still Rambling

2011-10-09T20:28:00.004-05:00

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
-- Ferris Bueller

If you have been following my travel blog you'll know that I haven't written in a while. I am not sure why, but I think it is writer's block. I have been stuck in the sand dunes in Huacachina, Peru which was already a long time ago, a lot of kilometers ago. Meanwhile, now I am sitting on my bed in a single room in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala about to start a six month minimum volunteer gig with Habitat for Humanity. I do promise to eventually finish writing about Peru. I think I owe it to myself and my dedicated readers (yes, all four of you) to complete the South American journey. I just think the final posts from Peru will have to be interspersed with new posts about Guatemala.

As you may figure life has changed quite dramatically - my South American sojourn ended a bit abruptly, I will not see Mika, my life/travel partner, until we meet again November 6th at the Fort Lauderdale airport of all places, and I am about to accept something which I have been very good at avoiding --- responsibility. How did I end up here?
Well, a few weeks ago we were in Lima, Peru and in one of those funks that will occur at times when traveling - especially for rolling stones like us who travel for so long and do not know when or what will be at the end. At that time we did not even know which country we would be in this December. Mika gets this more than I do, it is basically a creeping doubt of "what am (are) I (we) doing with my (our) lives?" It is in one of these moments that I decided to check idealist.org to see what is out there. Something caught my eye. It is a volunteer opportunity in Guatemala that requires traveling around the country, writing and photography for Habitat for Humanity, a huge American NGO that builds homes all over the world. If I enjoy the work and the work enjoys me it could lead to something else. Furthermore, my travel expenses will be paid while I am out and about for the job which for me is like winning the lottery because usually I travel, write and take photos all at my own expense.

A quick email revealed that they are currently interviewing. I whipped up a resume and cover letter (for volunteer work, I know, right!), scored an interview via Skype and a few days later our lives changed completely. I had to do a lot of shuffling with our travel schedule. We have plans to go to the USA on Nov 6th from Bogota, Colombia. I changed my flight to leave from Guatemala. My wife, however, is not so lucky. First of all, tickets are expensive Lima - Guatemala one way is a whopping $850. I used frequent flier miles. Secondly, about ten months ago Mika, ignoring the wise advice of her husband, left a suitcase full of stuff in Bogota which she has to go pick up and which is hopefully still there.

So after two weeks more of traveling up the north coast of Peru we came back to Lima where I caught my flight to Guatemala while Mika headed off to a vegetarian yoga commune in Peru to kill some weeks before she must head north again to Bogota. As mentioned, we will meet in the USA to spend three weeks there visiting family then head back down to Guatemala to find an apartment and settle in for a while.

With life usually crawling at a snail's pace away from the rat race reality of the real world these changes seem like they have come at breakneck speed. As I turn a new chapter in my rambling life blogging will give me the chance to slow down and appreciate where I have been and to possibly see where I am headed. Thanks for reading!

View Larger Map

A) Lima, Peru
B) Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

Vamos A La Playa - Sort Of

2011-09-19T09:36:00.000-05:00

Backtracking

In Bolivia I became quite lethargic with traveling, however, crossing the border into Peru completely rejuvenated me. I know it is just mental, but it's like the ink in the custom officer's stamp was mixed with magic fairy dust. I get back on the bus telling Mika that it feels like we are starting a new trip. It is a good thing to that I am reenergized because we are about to do some heavy duty traveling.

The first thing we have to do in Peru is backtrack. Nobody likes backtracking, but it is as good excuse as any for me to add links to my older blog posts. The first stop is Puno on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. If you remember we were there during large protests (click the link to read about Puno). The central plaza was completely occupied by campesinos and the town was a mess. This time around the place seems to be pretty normal: the plaza is empty, stores are open and bank windows are not smashed. With no sight-seeing on the agenda we go to a Chinese restaurant that we went to before and go to bed early to catch our next bus to Arequipa.

Bring back the Classics: Watching Splash dubbed in Spanish on the bus

The ride to Arequipa passes through a national park with mountain views, alpaca herds and vicuna spotting. This is the third time we have passed through here by bus. We also know Arequipa (click the link) and have no sight-seeing agenda. The only thing we plan to do is to go to the central market to eat salteñas (a stuffed pastry) for 1 Soles (US $0.36) which are the best we have found in South America. But Arequipa is a beautiful, safe town and there could be worse places to have to backtrack to. By chance we run into some friends that we know from Sucre, Bolivia and meet them for dinner. Packing up to leave the next morning I learn that my suitcase zipper is broken which means one more day in Arequipa to go suitcase shopping.

Hello again alpacas in the national park near Arequipa

Our salteña lady

The tourist info said that we can't leave Arequipa without trying ricotta relleno (stuffed pepper), and we didn't.

To the Beach and off the Trail

From Arequipa we make the very conscious decision to get off the tourist trail. While in Bolivia we never left it, and that scene can get tiring. We are commodities and a human-to-human element is lost during interactions with locals. Most tourists don't seem to care because either they have limited time with a "must-see" list, or they like guide books, hostels and restaurants that simplify backpacking to a sterile English-speaking environment, or they are Israeli.

The first place we go is Camana. During the summer this beach town is full of Arequipeños, but now is Peruvian winter and we might just be the only tourists international or local. The people at manning the tourist info desk inside the central library seem surprised to see us. To say that nothing is going on in Camana during their low season might be a grave understatement. An example: Our first night coincides with a woman from Camana being a contestant on a nationally televised game show. What's the big deal, right? Well, absolutely every single street level television in town is tuned into this program while the government is showing it on a giant screen in the central plaza to an audience of about fifty people. This is a huge event for Camana.

Camana market

We settle in town not far from the plaza and take a long walk to the beach. Beeeeeaaaaaachchchchch! Ocean, waves, wind and ~~sand~~ rocks. Rocks. Camana does have one sandy beach a few kilometers away that we could reach by taxi, but it is too cold to swim anyway. I accept the rocks. We made it to the Pacific coast. Mission accomplished... sort of. Without much to do we just spend our time figuring out where to eat. Camana has a small, active market with people eating ceviches and chilcano (a fish soup) in the morning and at fried rice and noodle stalls at night. People in Camana are very nice to us. Tourists are rare but not totally uncommon. We are a mild curiosity not a commodity.

Chilcano: A typical breakfast in Camana

Lapas in the market.
We eat these several times without knowing what they are. One internet dictionary says 'lipset' a type of mollusk. Another said 'barnacle.'

The Pacific Ocean

Having our morning coffee in the market

It's All About the Shrimp

Serious about their crustaceans: Camana's shrimp statue in the middle of town

Mention to any Peruvian that you went to Camana and the first thing they'll say is "shrimp." This town is famous for its flourishing shrimp populations and this is the real reason we are here because we kind of new the beach would not be ideal. After three months of eating fish from Lake Titicaca in Bolivia we are ready for some proper seafood. Camana does not disappoint.

Popcorn shrimp sold on the street

Sudado de camarones: a creamed tomato-based soup with a mountain of shrimp

Cholesterol count? Chicharron of seafood and fish

Last Stop

View of Chala and the ocean from our hotel

From Camana we take one more short bus ride to Chala. As the bus comes into town on the coastal road immediately we are thinking of why are we getting off here -- this will happen sometimes when off the tourist trail. The idea is to go see some nature outside of town, but it seems a bit difficult without our own transportation. Chala is a dirty town, every side street or alley heading down to the ocean smells like urine, and the food situation is bleak and weather sucks. We make plans for a quick exit the next day without knowing that we are about to plow head-on into the tourist trail.

View Larger Map

A) Copacabana, Bolivia B) Puno, Peru C) Arequipa, Peru
D) Camana, Peru E) Chala, Peru

Could somebody please tell me why the police officer in this cardboard cutout in front of Chala's police station is holding a lightsaber?

Copacabana - The Hottest Spot South of Havana

2011-09-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

The Hottest Spot South of Havana

Ever since early June when we were freezing our tushes off in the Uyuni salt desert I have said that I want to go to the beach. It is now the end of August and we are still in Bolivia, a landlocked country. But the travel wheels have been set in motion and we are finally on the move. It is strange, I really liked Bolivia and I could even imagine living there doing volunteer work or something, but I just did not feel like traveling. I think it was the one month in Sucre, which was great, but killed my desire to backpack around the country. Anyway, you will never see everything and now we have a whole list of places to hit next time we are in Bolivia. But before getting to Peru we have one more stop at the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca.

Lake Titicaca at sunset from our hotel window

Singing Copacabana in Sucre

I am ready to zoom into Peru on horribly long bus rides, but Mika prefers to break up the trip so we make one last stop in Bolivia at Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. Which in itself is not so bad because Copacabana also happens to be the name of one of my top karaoke songs though I doubt that this town is the inspiration for the Barry Manilow hit.

From La Paz it is a nice ride that winds around around the lake and includes getting off the bus for a short ferry ride. For the Lonely Planet toting tourist a trip to Copacabana is avoidable without making the trip to the islands on the lake. Visiting Isla del Sol is just one of those tourist things that everyone does. At the moment, however, Mika and I are really not in the mood for sight-seeing. Chalk up these islands as something else we will need to see on our next visit to Bolivia.

Waiting for the passenger ferry while the buses get their own.

A detail from a monument at the ferry town. This really has nothing to do with our travel but I find the excessive gore quite amusing.

Copacabana itself is not a bad place to be for a few nights if you find the right hotel, preferably one with a lake view. Because of the nearby islands the town has been a backpacker destination for a while and there is a main street lined with travel agencies, dingy hostels and English-menu carrying tourist restaurants to prove it. Yet it is starting to develop into a big destination for Bolivian tourists too. New hotels are sprouting up near the water offering views of Titicaca's deep dark blue waters while blocking the smaller, older hotels behind them. On the shoreline are a fleet of swan paddle boats for good family fun and a row of twenty-four tents housing trout restaurants all with the same menu. Criolla trout (one of the largest types) is farmed and famous here. I would not dream of visiting the lake without eating it.

row of trout restaurants

Before

and after

Pushing out our swan boat

Paddling our swan on Lake Titicaca

God Bless This Car

Copacabana has a beautiful old cathedral that for some reason has become the place to go to bless your car or truck. In front of the church are stalls selling flowers and assorted ornaments all for vehicular decorating. We are here in the last weekend in August which also happens to be a great time to get a blessing. Cars are lining up for several blocks to be able to park front of the cathedral, buy some decorations and spray the car with beer. And many of these people have come from Peru to do it. Many decorated vehicles can add a general feeling of merriment to any old drab city. Maybe the mayor of and car makers of Detroit should look into it.

In front of the cathedral

The next afternoon I eat delicious trout again by Lake Titicaca while Mika with a shaky stomach chooses a gringo restaurant for a safer option and ends getting the worst pizza on the continent. As we board the bus to Peru after lunch these meals serve as a wonderful metaphor for our entire experience of being travelers and tourists in Bolivia.

Cholitas Way

2011-09-13T21:31:00.000-05:00

Hola Cholita

There is nothing that symbolizes La Paz, Bolivia more than the "cholita." Cholitas are the indigenous Aymara ladies who dress in the traditional style of big skirts called polleras, shawls, pigtails and the iconic bowler hat. The word "Cholo/chola" (cholita is diminutive) stems from a derogatory term used by the people with Spanish ancestry when referring to the Indians. Racism in the country still exists, but it is slowly changing. The Cholita has become an iconic image representing all of Bolivia.

Street art homages to the Cholita:

If you are wondering how the British male Bowler hat ended up perched atop Bolivia ladies' heads, the most common story told is that in the 1920's a shipment of the hats arrived to Bolivia for the European railroad workers. These hats were too small for the men's domes but one entrepreneur sold them to the locals and a tradition was born. Hats vary by height, brim widths and colors. Every year new styles dominate the Cholita fashion scene.

The Bowler hat

A help wanted sign. Usually in Spanish they will use a term like "senorita, young lady, waitress, etc." but in La Paz "cholita" works fine.

The hotel where we stay in La Paz sits next to a large market covering several blocks with Aymara ladies selling every type of food item available all wearing a similar type of apron. The Bowler hats are not for work. A few blocks from that is a street which I have named the "Cholita's market." Everything is sold here that one needs to get in full Cholita regalia from expensive, colorful skirts to simple hairbands worn between braids.

Wrestlemania - Cholita Style

Every Sunday locals and tourists head uphill to watch Cholitas Wrestling. They advertise this event as off the tourist trail, but the six busloads of gringos would say otherwise. Tour tickets sold by every agency in La Paz include entrance, snack, a little souvenir and two guide-escorted trips to the bathroom outside because the neighborhood around the arena is supposedly dangerous. It is possible to go to Cholita's Wrestling by yourself but you will not save that much money.

View of La Paz from El Alto

Outside the wrestling arena

I know that we will see women wrestle, but at first I think it would be competitive. I soon learn that we are going to a show - lucha libre- like wrestling on TV. We arrive at the arena and line up to go in - foreigners on the right and locals on the left. We are seated ringside in plastic chairs while the locals sit on bleachers a little further from the action but with better views.

The arena

We have several matches throughout the night. The first one is laughably amateurish with wrestling skills no better than that of any respectable ten year old WWF fan. With costumes that look homemade I am worried about what we have signed up for and wonder how soon we will bolt for the exits. But as the matches progress so does the talent of the athletes (actors?) and the built-in drama full of leading ladies, dastardly villains, crooked refs and a midget.

Really Catman? The first match

It is not until the third match that we get our first Cholita coming out wearing a full traditional outfit. She enters the ring to the cheers of the crowd, removes the Bowler hat and shawl and gets ready to rumble. Surprisingly she is fighting a man - a masked villain that might be able to beat her in strength but never in charisma nor on tonight's script. You can feel the crowd's involvement starting to pick up also. Rabid insults are slung at the bad guys who respond by screaming at everyone to "shut up!" Not just insults, popcorn and water are flying too. I wonder if some of the Bolivians in the audience are in on the joke.

Her grand entrance in tradional clothing

As the matches continue we get just one with two Cholitas squaring off. A darling starlet versus a true baddie who pulls pigtails, chokes with hair ribbons, verbally abuses the audience and conspires with the evil ref. The men's talents are also improving as the night goes on. It is not the steroid-induced wrestling of North America, but they do get tossed around quite a bit and take it like a man when losing to a lady.

The final bout features another star of the ring who has brought along her cholita friend - who happens to be a midget. The little lady does not fight but she seems quite adept and head-butting men in the groin. Of course the leading lady wins the bout taking out both her opponent and the evil ref.

Talking trash before the fight: Lady in yellow is the villain while the one is red is the darling

A masked luchador watching the entrance of his Cholita opponent

About to toss her male opponent into the crowd

and then beat him with an empty water bottle

The star of the main event dancing before the match

High flying act

Cholita wrestler in training

Overall, the night is fun. There is a raucous crowd and everyone falls head-over-heels for the charismatic Cholita wrestlers. If around La Paz the Cholita image is of a woman timid and stoic it is in El Alto where that stereotype gets literally smashed to pieces.

Cholitas fighting for their rights by marching on the streets of La Paz

To see my blog post about La Paz click here

A Walk Through La Paz

2011-09-08T00:57:00.000-05:00

Welcome to La Paz

No trip to Bolivia would be complete without a visit to the capital, La Paz. The city sits in a large bowl that was carved out by a river with large buildings of the city center in the bottom of the bowl and houses dotting the edge of the bowl all the way to the rim. The city is most famous for its altitude - 3660 m (12,000 ft), and huffing up the hills is not uncommon, but it does have some other things to offer. Overall I think we end up staying longer in La Paz than most tourists and I cannot really say that we did all that much. But the city kind of grew on me and I enjoy our time walking through La Paz.

La Paz with the ever-present Mt. Illamani in the background

The city was founded in the 16th century and has grown ever since with an influx campesinos (rural, mostly indigenous folk) coming relatively recently. So while parts of the city are staring to develop with clean, modern architecture there is still a layer of grit, graffiti and garbage. If I was mayor for a day the first thing I would do is power wash the whole place. But there are still numerous, well-maintained colonial gems to be spotted around town. There is also a blend of all classes of people: men in suits, men chewing coca leaves, teens in the latest fashions and many women wearing their traditional skirts and bowler hats.

A sculpture dedicated to an Aymara leader

Contemporary art museum in a mansion designed by Gustave Eiffel

A theatre

The bowler hat

A fruit seller having a nap

We have two different stays in La Paz one week apart. We first stay in the main tourist area with numerous hostels, travel agencies, tourist restaurants and souvenir stalls. At the end of this gringo ghetto is the witches market selling trinkets, offerings and llama fetuses. I feel kind of bad for these ladies because their traditional market has been surrounded by tourist services and not many tourists that I know of are in the market for llama fetuses. It would probably serve these witches better to be moved to another part of town

Dried llama fetuses for sale

Our second hotel is also near the tourist area, but just outside and feels part of a different world. We are on the sixth (and top) floor of one of the biggest buildings in the neighborhood giving us great city views. The hotel sits near a large local market giving us bad city smells, but there is local character, cheap avocados and some small, cheap fish restaurants right outside our door.

The street outside our hotel is closed on weekends for the market

At the Plaza

Like all Latin American cities La Paz has a plaza, several in fact. They are the places of history, gatherings and to meet friends, feed pigeons and to people watch.
Plaza Murillo is the historic city center and is surrounded by the presidential palace, cathedral and congress building. The old buildings are beautiful, but the most noticeable thing to me, however, is the thousands of pigeons flying around this plaza. But I seem to be the only person bothered by this infestation. Everyone else seems happy feeding the winged rats.

Hitchcock inspired plaza

The cathedral from the plaza

Right near the plaza is the national museum of art in a beautifully well-kept colonial mansion. The art spans from colonial to modern with some works by Bolivian maestros, but the contemporary section is a bit sparse and left me wanting to see more.

Only photos o the courtyard are allowed

A modern wing attached to the old mansion

The church of San Francisco was started in 1549, but the surrounding plaza is quite new. It has gotten a face lift recently when they constructed the new thoroughfare through the middle of the city. There is a new three story market, lots of cement and organized crosswalks. In a continent full of churches that tend to all blend together, this one is worth a peek. The high-domed stone interior walls are quite impressive and I have not said that about a church in awhile.

San Francisco plaza, church and La Paz

The Plaza Avaroa sits in the well-to-do Sopocachi neighborhood surrounded by high rise apartment buildings and nice bars and restaurants. In the center of the plaza is a statue of Eduardo Avaroa, Bolivia's hero during the Pacific War with Chile that ended in 1884 with Bolivia losing its land on the Pacific coast. One hundred twenty-seven years later Bolivia is still miffed about its landlocked destiny. When surrounded by Chilean troops and asked to surrender the injured Avaroa gave the now legendary reply, "Surrender? Your grandmother should surrender, you bastard!"

Plaza Avaroa

And so it doesn't get stuck in history La Paz also has an ever-growing number of modern day plazas for the people to gather.

2-for-1 Wednesday at the movie theater

Everyone Loves a Parade

If it's true that everyone loves a parade, then it is safe to say that Bolivians take the adoration to a whole other level. We seem to be running into parades wherever we go, but the one that greets us on our first day in La Paz dwarfs them all. It is a colorful parade of folkloric dancing by university students. Each group has its own band which means that La Paz must have the highest rate of tuba players per capita in the world.

The fun begins around 9:00 AM passing in front of our hotel while we are having breakfast. Twice we go out and come back and the parade has not stopped. Tired from our night bus the day before we crash around 9:00 PM even with the parade still going strong outside our window. We learn that it finally ended around 12:00 AM. Fifteen hours of non-stop parading. That's hardcore!

A few days later is Bolivian Independence day - like they need an excuse to parade in Bolivia. I catch one passing in front of the presidential palace and cathedral with lots of schools and lots of flags. Everyone loves a parade.

And though technically protests are not parades they do consist of marching, blocking the roads from traffic and the Bolivians seem to love it. Hang around Bolivia long enough and you are bound to run into some type of manifestation. Blocking roads and disrupting the natural flow of transportation appears to be one of the only manners that the people can get their voice heard. Just walking around La Paz I see several random protests taking up lanes on the main thoroughfare. While when we leave a huge one is forming with thousands of indigenous people marching for weeks towards the capital to protest a highway that will cut through their land.

Marching in protest on one of La Paz's busiest streets

Food Glorious Food

Eating in markets and typical restaurants is a great way to immerse yourself in local culture and does do wonders for the travel budget, but the food does get repetitive (especially in South America that lacks the variety found in Asian countries). So one of the good things about being in a big city is having a few more food options like sashimi, veggie lasagna and chocolate cheesecake.

The first thing we do is go to Ken-chan. With food between US $5-7 this Japanese restaurant is not cheap for Bolivia, but it can get busy with locals. Also, it is the cheapest Japanese-owned Japanese restaurant and a must-go destination for Japanese travelers. We meet one homesick woman who has eaten there every day in La Paz. We end up going twice and eating Ken-chan's famous trout sashimi fresh from Bolivia's Lake Titicaca.

Set menu with trout

Trout Chirashi - Sushi rice in a bowl with goodies on top including trout sashimi

We find another place built inside an old carriage house that has set lunches for 28 B (US $4). Again, this is quite a lot for Bolivia, but the place is always busy with locals and we have the luxury of thinking in dollars when necessary.

A former carriage house from colonial times

Vegetarian lasagna, soup, salad bar and dessert for $4

Now I would be lying if I have given you the impression that we are wining and dining every day in La Paz because the truth is that our most common meal is fried ispi. Ispi is a little fish that lives in Lake Titicaca. The street on the side of our hotel has a row of ladies selling fish with woks of bubbling oil and always with the bite-sized ispi. The crispy ispi are served with corn, potatoes, chuño (a freeze-dried potato created in a five day process of sitting out in freezing mountain temperatures and then the hot sun) and spicy sauce. The plate costs 10 B (US $1.44).

A fish fry stall

Ispi

Life As Normal
One of the things I love best about the traveling lifestyle/life choice is being free from all the banalities of the real world. We have just two bills to pay every month, our mortgage (which I would happily do without) and a very reasonable credit card bill - both of which I guess do keep me from completely floating away from society's norms on a bouquet of helium balloons. Yet we have no gas, electric, water, sewage, phone, cellphone, cable and internet bills to think about. Our four big box store credit cards with their endless zero-interest temptations have been rendered useless on in South America. Annoying neighbors, telemarketers, coworkers and bosses have no place in our life. Neither do car payments, car insurance, car maintenance and fluctuating prices at the pump. We have no weeds to pull, snow to shovel, an empty refrigerator to fill, credit scores to count nor kids that need to be picked up and dropped off. And as much as I do enjoy living without these responsibilities of modern society, being on the road long enough it is inevitable that something will catch up with me. That time is now in La Paz.

Street art

The first thing I need to do is make a doctor's appointment. After a few phone calls I end up going to an office in one of the fanciest parts of the city. When it is time to pay the 150 B (US $21) visit, we find out my credit card/ATM card has expired at the end of July. Uh oh! We are kind of low on cash and I have to arrange the new one to be sent DHL express for US $52. Denver - La Paz only takes 48 hrs, and those two days were spent trying to spend as little cash as possible.

View from our hotel room window

Meanwhile I learn that somehow my website domain name has been hijacked (or also expired and someone else grabbed it) which means that I have been giving people an incorrect website address for who knows how long. To sort out this mess I have to make numerous phone calls to the web host techies to get a new domain name and my website up and running again. Another meanwhile, I head over to La Paz's electronics store street to shop for a new computer since I dropped mine a few weeks ago in Sucre. I learn that the hard drive isn't damaged. I find a guy who can scrounge up the necessary part and replace my cracked screen by if I plop down US $120. Ugh the real world stinks. I miss my helium balloon bouquet.

La Paz Bus

Life As Normal: Bonus

One of the normal things missed while traveling is just being able to meet up with family and friends. Sure on the trail you meet nice people and can have pleasant conversation over drink or dinner and it is quite possible that you'll run into people again. One couple that we met in Sucre, we ran into again on the streets of La Paz and Arequipa, Peru and met up for dinner. This is good fun, but it does not make up for those missed connections with family and old friends and facebook just doesn't always cut it.

While in La Paz a friend of mine who I have known since I was thirteen and have not seen in ages happens to be arriving to Bolivia for his PhD research. It is great timing and we have the opportunity to meet twice to catch up just like we would do back home. It just happens to be La Paz, Bolivia.

The River Wild from Rurrenabaque

2011-08-26T23:06:00.001-05:00

The pampas

Into the Wild

When making our Bolivian travel plan we always knew that we would be headed to Rurrenabaque. And we knew that in Rurrenabaque we would be able to do a jungle tour, a pampas (Amazon basin swamp) tour or both. The general knowledge is that jungle tours are more adventurous and less touristy while tours to the pampas will offer much more opportunity to see animals. We choose the swamps because Mika is determined to spot and swim with the pink river dolphins.

From La Paz there are two ways to get to Rurre, by plane or by bus. The short flight takes just 45 minutes while the bus ride takes a gruelling 18 hours off of your life. Going we choose airplane. The one way flight costs 372 Bolivianos (US $54.60) each. Traveling eight months in South America and this is our first flight. On board the forty-seater we get coffee and chocolate. It feels like real luxury, even if Mika has to change seats because hers does not have a seat belt.

Happy to have safely landed

The altitude difference between La Paz and Rurre is about 3500 m (11,500 feet). Within the short time we are in the air the landscape changes drastically (or what I can see of it through the dirty window) from harsh brown mountains to a thick carpet of forest. The plane lands and then taxis us to the airport - I use the term 'airport' loosely- over a road of dirt and grass. The hot, humid weather hits us immediately. We are surrounded by lush green, tree-covered hills. After many cold nights in the mountains it feels like we are on vacation.

from mountains

to jungle

On our return to La Paz we choose the bus. For 70 Bolivianos (US $10). This is purely an economic decision lest we forget our monthly backpacking budget. I do not need to go into all the gruesome details, but lets just say the roads are horrendous, seats are uncomfortable, it is long and miserable.

The toucan on this bus to La Paz is a reminder that we'd rather be flying

Welcome to Rurrenabaque

View from our Rurre hotel

Rurrenabaque is a little town sitting on the Beni River and surrounded by green hills. It is the first town in Bolivia we have seen with very few cars. It is small enough that everyone gets around by motorbike or on foot. The effects of tourism are noticeable everywhere, but it has not completely swallowed the town. There are still plenty of restaurants, markets and shops catering to locals, but who will also gladly accept our money.

Two wheels are preferred in Rurre

Not Tourists: locals dvd shopping

If you've been following the blog regularly you have probably figured out by now that Mika and I tend to avoid foreigner-geared places that have names like Mosquito Bar or Monkey Bar (yes, these places do exist in Rurre), so the first place we head to is the central market to have lunch with the locals. I eat a delicious sliver of fried pacu (a type of fish found in the Amazon) which arrived directly from the Beni River.

Found our weakness: At a French-owned pastry shop for a quiche and chocolate croissant breakfast.

Decisions Decisions

For such a small town hotels and tourist-geared eateries abound while the number of travel agencies is off the charts. This is due to the proximity of the jungle which is reached by boat from the River Beni and to the pampas which is reached by a bumpy, two hour jeep ride.

If there is anything I hate about traveling it is having to choose a travel agency in exactly this type of situation. We know that we want to do a 3day/2night pampas tour, but who to choose? The fact is that here they all offer the same tour. Also, the majority are just not completely honest. They all say "eco" but some tourists return from tours saying that the guides handled or even fed wild animals. You buy with one agency promising this or that and they then sell you to another agency to form larger groups. On top of it all the prices are exactly the same except for the few who charge more.

Tour prices in this area have skyrocketed recently due to a government mandate. A 3 day/2 night trip now costs 900 B (US $130) minimum per person where just a few months ago the price was as low as 480 B (US $69) per person. The price does not include 150 Boliviano park entrance fee. What we are told as to why there is price control is that in the past companies would offer dirt cheap tours and then cut costs every which way, including hiring any shady character to be a guide. There were many reports of drunkenness, theft and even a tourist was raped. With the price increase the guides are now supposedly licensed, better educated about conservation and receiving better wages all of which are a good thing.

This warning sign is all over town about the risks of discounted tours

We choose Dolphin Tours mainly because they promise that our group will be a maximum of six people and that they will not push us off onto another company's tour. In the end we have a group of five people (the other three sold to Dolphin by other agencies) which is a good size. Their facilities and food are decent enough though considering that the five of us are paying over US $200 per day -- a huge sum in Bolivia-- it probably could be better.

Our river lodgings

Downtime

The biggest problem with our tour is that our guide is so boring, uninspired and just going through the motions. I can learn more about the flora and fauna of the area with two hours on the internet than three days with him. And to be honest. since all the agencies offering pampas tours are pretty much the same, it is the guide that makes or breaks it. But that being said his lameness cannot take away from the beauty of the area and the plethora of animals that we encounter.

Boooorrrrring!!!

The River Wild

I would like to first start out this section with a disclaimer: I stink at wildlife photography. I do not have a long enough zoom lens to get good close-up shots of the animals, so many of the following photos have been cropped (cropping is usually a no-no) so you can have a finer glimpse of the critters, but quality has suffered somewhat.

Our launching point

We finally reach the river, load up our boat and shove off. One good thing about our company is that they do not race down the river like other agencies who then just have to kill time at the cabanas. We take our time cruising down the muddy river and get a great look at lots of animals.

The river

We are not in a national park. The river and just 50 meters on each side is protected by a municipality. After that it is all private property. I am not sure the animals know how to calculate 50 meters, but being the dry season most of them seem to be hanging out down by the river. Wooden cabana compounds for tourists dot the edge of the river in the protected zone.

On our first cruise we see a whole host of critters - mammals, birds and reptiles - along on the river bank and in the trees. It feels like a river safari. So come on and take a ride with me down the cafe latte colored waters of the mighty Yacuna river.

Crocs Rule: There are so many crocodiles and caiman

A pregnant capybara - the world's largest rodent

A capybara family

A hoatzin, but I call them swamp chickens

As the boat approaches this bird is chased down river only to be again chased down river only to again...

Big bird

Sticks poking out of the water are the turtles turf

A capuchin monkey. There is also a gang of them living by our cabana

A heron

Another big bird

Did I mention there are a lot of caimans and crocs?

Sunrise, Sunset

Sunset

Catching the salida del sol and the entrada del sol - literal translation is sun's exit (sunrise) and sun's entrance (sunset) - seems to be a thing to do on this tour. The first night we catch the sunset from a bar attached to our cabanas. Next morning the sunrise is witnessed from a field after a short canoe ride and sunset that day is seen on the property of a family who happens to have hammocks and sell drinks.

Sunrise

Sunset

We say goodbye to the kids and the sun and hop back into the canoe for our night ride with flashlights in hand. The purpose of this trip is to ride slowly while shining our lights looking for crocodiles and caimans. The reptiles eyes will shine red when in the path of the light. When I pop my camera flash the eyes sparkle like deadly diamonds. The problem we soon find with cruising slowly at sundown is that we have become a human buffet for the mosquitoes. Even with deet slathered everywhere none of us can stand the pests so we tell the guide to drive faster. An abrupt end to our night river caiman hunting cruise.

On the river with the last drops of daylight

The Eyes: The lighted spots in the photo are crocs and caiman

The final morning we are allowed to sleep in past sunrise but I am awoken early anyway by a cacophony of hoots created by the swamp chickens which sound like roosters that have swallowed an industrial fire alarm. There is also the loud wails of the howler monkeys which can be quite eerie. They come off like the moans of a Scooby-Doo villain that would scare only the most paranoid, pot-smoking mystery solver. These monkeys sound pretty close so I leave the secure confines of my mosquito net to have a look and a listen.

Can you spot the four howler monkeys in the tree?

What Lies Beneath

Sharp teeth

Beneath the muddy waters is another notorious creature, the piranha. We spend one early evening fishing for the sharp-toothed fish using chicken meat for bait. I snag the first fish of the day which is my only catch of the day, a tiny one that gets another chance at life. Two larger ones are not so lucky and end up on our dinner plate.

Our fishin' hole

My big catch

Piranha dinner

Hunting Anaconda

Searching for anacondas is one of the big advertised activities of the tour. Though all companies warn us that it is unlikely we will see one. Their populations have dwindled drastically in recent years. This is in large part due to tourism.

Before, when not finding an anaconda, a guide would move on ahead to look for one while the group waited. And of course he would see one because he has kept the snake hidden in a bag for who knows how long. The guide then brings his "find"over to his group so they can pose for photos holding the reptile. Now if living in a bag is not enough to shorten the lifespan of an anaconda then coming into contact with the repellent on tourists hands should do the trick. We are told that this cruel practice has been stopped, but it would not surprise me if it is still done by a few unscrupulous guides.

To begin our hunt we literally cross the river by canoe and get out to start walking about twenty minutes to a swamp. Our guide cuts us walking sticks with his machete and gives us some quick instructions. Only a small part of the anaconda, like the head, will be sticking out of the water. This exposed skin will glisten in the sun. We need to spread out and walk slowly. What he does not tell us is that a couple years ago a tourist on the anaconda hunt stepped on a crocodile and got her kneecap chomped to pieces. Or maybe that is what he means by "walk slowly."

I am sure there must be an anaconda here somewhere

As we are slowly trudging along through the mud and the others are getting further and further away I start wondering if I really want to find this snake. I keep imagining the trash compactor scene in Star Wars when Luke is dragged under the water by a serpent-like beast. Anyway, no need to worry because there are no anacondas in sight. Regardless, I find it fun, yet exhausting, to be slogging around the swamp for an afternoon.

Swamp n' Boots

We finally get out of the muck and walk on dry land to a shaded area with hollowed out trees where the anacondas sometimes might be. No reptiles here either, but we do see a large porcupine who has wedged himself into the crook of a tree trunk.

Just to prove that heading out to search for animals can be futile we set out on another journey to hunt for a sloth ('lazy bear' in Spanish). This activity is prompted by the French couple and of course we do not find one. We do, however, see and hear the sqwuaks of four yellow and blue timid macaws that fly away as soon as we near their tree trunk eventhough they are about seven stories over our heads.

Hunting Sloths: You are looking for an animal in the trees the size of a small dog that is the color of the tree bark and does not move. They do come down every now and then to go to the bathroom, so if you're lucky...

Meet the Dolphins

A "good" photo of flipper

Besides scary things like pirahnas and crocodiles there are pink river dolphins swimming in these waters. It is a treat to see them and those that brave the brown waters can swim with them too.

To photograph these dolphins is nearly impossible. First of all, you have no idea where they are going to pop up. Secondly, they do not leap out of the water like ocean dolphins. They just sort of come up for a puff from the breathe hole without ever bringing their faces or bodies out of the water. Only one time do I see a pale pink tail. But it is these brief flashes of dolphin flesh that add to their mystique.

My best dolphin photo

A pair of young dolphins. They will turn pink as they become older

The last activity of our tour is to swim with the dolphins. I know what you must be asking, aren't there tons of crocodiles and piranhas roaming these waters? Well, what they tell us is that these meanies are scared of the dolphins and will swim away when they are around. Lots of people have swum in this river, but I cannot muster the courage to enter this murky water with zero visibility. While in Indonesia last year I heard too many stories of people getting eaten by crocodiles and on this tour we have seen lots of crocodiles and caimans. I chicken out and stay in the boat.

Mika on the otherhand has a lot of faith that her fellow mammals will protect her and she jumps in several times after we spot the dolphins in an area. Mika is basically the only one in our group to go in. Mika splashes the water to attract the dolphins and claims to have gotten a couple bumps from them under the water. A wonderful end to our tour to the pampas

Dolphins come out to play-yay

The International Rambler Travel Tip:

If you abide by the theory that says "well since all the agencies are pretty much the same I might as well pay as little as possible," then I suggest that you book your tour in La Paz where deals can be made. I know a couple that paid 690 B for the 3 day/2 night pampas trip with Fluvial tours. I should mention that they have the largest groups (we saw a group of twenty-four) and I know for a fact that they handle wildlife (anacondas) even though the lady in their office promised us that they do not.

Working for Change in Sucre - Part 2

2011-08-24T21:03:00.004-05:00

Shoeshine boys - a common sight in Sucre

Working children are seen everywhere around Sucre, Bolivia and it is a very accepted part of the culture. The majority of the children around town are from migrant families of little economic means and parents that do not have the capacity nor the skills to acquire adequate income. To help support their families the children, sometimes as young as five years old, are then forced into earning income mostly in the informal sector such as shining shoes, washing car windows or other menial tasks to earn some change from people's pockets.

A car window washer

A newspaper seller

The organization Ñanta introduces me to social workers from a different, yet connected project. This project, funded by TDH Suiza, is only a few weeks old when I meet them. The idea is that the social workers, Judith and Ludmila, walk around town to interact with and offer assistance directly to the working children whether it is to play games, give basic first aid, or just to chat and check on how they are doing.

Working at such a young age can have a tremendous psychological and physical impact on a child's development. Working kids are usually out on the streets by themselves or with other working kids without a real support network, access to nutritious food or any healthy adult guidance. The social workers are trying to fill this void and they have kindly let me tag along with them for a few days.

Applying lotion to a child worker's face

There are several areas around Sucre where one is more likely to find children working. Our mornings usually start at the central plaza where there are sure to be some shoeshine boys and little girls selling birdseed. On weekends there will be even more because kids do not have school and there are more potential clients hanging around the plaza.

Playing in the central plaza

Selling birdseed and taking care of her little brother.
There is some competitive backlash against child birdseed sellers at the plaza. The adult sellers say 'why do we have to be licensed while the kids sell freely?' Therefore, the girls hide their bird food in bags like the one seen at the bottom of this photo.

Having a class of working children is just an accepted part of Bolivian society. Here a girl with her mother enjoying an afternoon in the plaza is paying for their shoeshine.

One Saturday afternoon the kids take a short break from working to play soccer

From the plaza we walk to the central market and peatonal (pedestrian area) where we are sure to run into some girls selling newspapers and some older shoeshine boys. Establishing contact with these older, teenage boys has been more difficult for Judith and Ludmilla. Maybe it is because I am a man (these boys are usually lacking any positive male role model), a goofy gringo, I am offering them free photos, or a combination of all three but I end up having some luck breaking the ice with this group.

Working on the peatonal

From the central market they will either walk over to another market to look for kids, or hop on a bus and head to another neighborhood. The problem is that finding the kids can be difficult at times. They do not punch time clocks nor work fixed hours or days. But in my experience it is never a bad thing to not find children working.

Selling newspapers outside the central market

I meet this boy on the peatonal one day. He tells me he lives in the countryside and came to Sucre to sell candy. His bus home is at 8:00 PM. However, later that night I see him and his younger sister alone in the central market begging for change. I doubt that they caught their bus home.

Every Sunday at 6:00 PM Judith and Ludmila go to the main cemetery to check on how the kids working there are doing and to talk to them about any upcoming events or free swims at the public pool. They always arrive near closing time. If they go earlier the kids will be distracted and miss out on income earning opportunities. I am not quite sure of the numbers, but there seems to be a lot kids and adolescents working here. They are busily in the process of growing their association of NNATs (boys, girls, and adolescent workers).

A meeting of NNATs held at the cemetery chapel.
Parents were invited but very few showed up.

Working almost all his life he is now President of Sucre's association of child workers. Recently, he represented the entire province at a national conference of child workers in La Paz.

In the cemetery in Sucre (and many parts of Bolivia) people are not buried in the ground. Instead coffins are placed in a wall sometimes stacked six high. I am guessing this is to maximize space. On the outside of the wall is a personal space in front of the buried coffin in which the mourners can decorate with a personal touch. When people visit the cemetery, mostly on Sundays, they may hire a kid with a ladder to help them change the flower arrangements for the deceased. The sound of the children- always wearing their easily recognizable blue vests - saying, "escalera, escalera" (meaning 'ladder' in Spanish) can be heard as people enter and at other busy places around the cemetery. If hired, the child or teenager will get their ladder and walk with the clients to the grave site and help them take care of the space. Working all day at the cemetery they can earn between 20 and 80 (US $2.90 and $11.60) Bolivianos (80 is a fantastic day). I visit the cemetery several times to see what type of work the kids are doing and then later to hand out photos.

On a ladder helping a family to maintain the grave

Ladders at the ready near the cemetery entrance

The social workers are also starting to have contact with kids working outside of town mainly at the airport and in the neighborhood, La Jastamo. At Sucre's airport there are a group of kids (almost all boys) who shine shoes, help carry luggage or wash parked cars for small tips. The day I visit the airport we are there to pass out invitations for the upcoming field trip. About nine of them end up going on the excursion and having a great time.

These boys normally would be working at the airport today

On another day I head out to La Jastamo. This is a very poor neighborhood about twenty minutes by bus from the center of Sucre. Most of the houses do not have electricity or adequate water supply, but there is an army base and hospital run through donations from a German organization. This place is also the turnaround point for one of the bus routes from Sucre. Here in the dusty parking area kids earn 1 Boliviano (US $0.15) for cleaning the inside of the bus before the vehicle heads back to town.

This green muck is used by some residents of La Jastamo as a water source for things like washing clothes.

The kids in this area are also more hostile than those in town, and it has been much more difficult for the social workers to develop a rapport with those in La Jastamo. This in part is due to the fact that there is a fourteen year old ringleader that has a distrust for strangers and won't let the others interact with Judith and Ludmila. Also, the parents are the problem. These kids are invited one Saturday to an all expenses paid field trip with Ñanta, but the kids say that they will be beaten if they go. They have to stay and work.

It is pretty quiet the day that I visit La Jastamo. The fourteen year old ringleader is not there when we arrive, so the three boys who are here today feel freer to chat with us, make fun of my North American accent, and play some board games in between cleaning the buses. I think with some time and perseverance Judith and Ludmila will be able to really help the kids and families here.

Playing board games in the bus parking area

Besides taking photos for the organization, I have also decided that I will try to take portraits as a gift to the kids. Just by the sheer numbers of kids working in Sucre this ends up being a daunting and impossible task to complete. I think every other day that I am out I see a new kid performing some task for money. Since my hotel is in the center of town every day I am passing some of the main areas where kids are working. Because of timing and the kids erratic schedules I have contact with some that the social workers have not met yet. When I leave town I hand Judith and Ludmila a stack of photos that still need to be handed out.

Looking at their new photos

Some Links:
If you have not had the chance yet, it would be great if you could check out my post about volunteering with Ñanta, an organization helping working kids in Sucre click here

To see my previous photography work about child labor in several other countries click here

Working for Change in Sucre

2011-08-13T17:52:00.005-05:00

Editor's Note: I have already mentioned in the past couple blog posts that we spent a month in Sucre and that I was volunteering with an organization helping working children. A few years ago I was doing something similar for a photography project called Working for Change: Child Labor and the Fight to End It which brought me into contact with numerous organizations around the world working to end child labor. You can see this project by clicking the link above.

Social workers talking with a newspaper seller in Sucre

Volunteer Time

It just so happens that we arrive to Sucre around the same time that we are ready to take an extended break from traveling. Click here to read about Sucre. I see a flier from Cafe Amsterdam that they are having a pub quiz where the proceeds will be donated to an organization that is helping working children (in Spanish they use the acronym NNATs - niños, niñas y adolescentes trabajadores - which means boys, girls and adolescent workers in English). It has been my experience that every organization likes to have photos and that usually nobody has money to pay for it, so I figure that I could offer my services voluntarily.

When I first meet with Centro Educativo Ñanta I assume that I would just spend a couple of days photographing the daily activities of the organization and seeing what type of work the children are doing around town. However, the timing of my visit to Sucre happens to coincide with school winter vacation, so several excursions are planned. Also, Ñanta's birthday is coming up. Plus this organization just seems to have a lot going on including: an education center, daily lunch program, a magazine, swimming lessons, computers, attempting to make a movie from scratch and a home for teenage boys. Then there is a new independent project (but working closely with Ñanta) that has just started a few weeks ago with two social workers doing outreach work to the NNATs all over Sucre and the outlying suburbs. So as you can see, I stay quite busy while here.

Linda from Cafe Amsterdam gives cooking lessons at the boys' home

Centro Educativo Ñanta

I do not have the exact numbers, but I can tell you that there are a lot of children visibly working in Sucre. Many of these children come from poor migrant families that do not have the capability to provide them with the basic necessities, so family income is supplemented by child labor. Ñanta works to limit the psychological and physical effects this hard life has on the children.

Education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty

Eleven years ago an organization opened a place where Sucre's working kids could come to get a nutritious meal. A few years later this organization expanded to become the Centro Educativo Ñanta. Today Ñanta is an independent NGO that is working to prevent child labor by giving kids the tools necessary to escape from extreme poverty with the main emphasis being on education. Ñanta receives financial support from Oxfam Canada, donations gathered through Cafe Amsterdam in Sucre and they publish and sell a quarterly magazine. They also welcome assistance from foreign volunteers and have a god-parent program between individual children and families abroad.

Every weekday the kids of all ages can get tutoring help for their homework

One of their main goals is to give basic services to the children like education, health care, nutrition, social and recreational activities. They also provide a safe, caring environment where the children have the opportunity to grow naturally outside of the pressures of their daily lives.

Computers

A volunteer nurse treating an injury

Studying English from one of the books in the library

Lunch at Ñanta. They charge 1 Boliviano (US $0.14) so that
the children will not get accustomed to handouts

Happy Birthday Ñanta

In July 2000 the organization that would eventually become Ñanta began. This year they are having their birthday party at an open play area in town. The kids from Ñanta will be putting on a talent show, but this party is open to everyone. Many working kids who do not normally go to Ñanta also come in off the streets to share in the festivities.

Doing a miners dance and the talent show winners

Everyone gets a gift on Ñanta's birthday

The kitchen staff and volunteers work hard to provide lunch for everybody


Amateur Photographer: The kids love borrowing cameras and snapping photos. Though having almost just lost my camera at Machu Picchu mine stayed safely around my neck.

Besides the party mentioned above, there is another disco party later at Ñanta. All the girls wear fancy dresses and the boys try to look their best too. This party is a very serious operation with DJ, lights, smoke machine and obnoxiously loud speakers. Though anywhere in Latin America you really couldn't call it a "party" without obnoxiously loud speakers.

Now one thing I do learn is that Bolivians cannot dance, well salsa dance anyway. Shame on me for stereotyping all Latinos. I assumed that they would all be little salsa maniacs. I remember going to family parties in Central America where eight year olds were dancing salsa better than I could ever dare. The Bolivian kids, however, really need to be egged on to step on the dance floor though this is mostly due to shyness.

Once they are finally coaxed onto the dance floor (sometimes by playful force) the kids stand in two horizontal lines facing eachother and moving to the beats. This organized line dancing lasts throughout the party.

It took a lot of coaxing to get the kids out on the dance floor
(notice the stick)

Bolivian line dancing?

By the time I leave the dance party is in full swing.
No grown-ups necessary.

Field Trippin'

Everyone loves getting out of the city

While in Sucre I get invited to two field trips. The first one is to a recreational area in Yotala - a town outside of Sucre. This trip is for the children working around the plaza and market and for the kids working at the cemetery. For many of the working kids in Sucre this is a rare opportunity for them to get out of the city. They also get the entire day to just be a kid and not have any income generating responsibilities. Early in the morning I meet one of the buses at the central plaza along with a gaggle of shoeshine boys and a few girls. The boys, mostly aged 9-13, are a rambunctious group. Just from the number of times we have to tell them to NOT entirely stick their heads out the windows I can tell that it will be a long day.

Ready to make mischief

We go to a place that has an open lawn, soccer field, a snack bar and two swimming pools. The trip goes well, but with only a few local staff and a couple foreign volunteers we are greatly outnumbered. It is not easy keeping the boys focused during the planned activities, and we have to break up a couple fights. Everyone just wants to head to the pool.

As part of the staff this trip was exhausting, but I think the kids had a great time. Walking in town a few days later I run into one of the shoeshine boys at the plaza. The first thing he asks me is where they are going to go next year.

The older kids do some bonding exercises

while some of the younger kids play games like this volleyball-soccer hybrid balloon game

Look at the concentration of this volley-soccer goalie

Some intense foosball matches


And let's not forget the three-legged race

Games are fun and all but everyone really just wants to get in the pool. For a group of kids that actually do not know how to swim, they sure do have a great time jumping in and out of the freezing water.

The second field trip is with the kids from Ñanta to a river surrounded by small mountains with a sandy beach and a nearby soccer field. The kids working at the airport and those washing buses outside the city are also invited to come. A good group of boys from the airport arrive, however none of the kids cleaning buses can come. They say that their mothers will beat them if they go on the excursion instead of working. This is a sad reality for many child laborers.

We meet at Ñanta and there are two truckloads full of kids and adults. I think almost every staff member and volunteer are coming so it is really well-staffed. Plus these kids have much less energy to burn-off then do the gang of shoeshine boys. This trip is pretty smooth and again everyone has a great time.

The truck ride out of town

Right away the older boys get a soccer match going

while others hit the beach and river

Playing in the sand

Playing in the sand too

Enjoying his day off from working at the airport

Swimming, Swimming in the Swimming Pool

One of the ongoing activities offered by Ñanta is swimming lessons and free swim at a public pool located near the Parque Bolivar. I am not sure of the exact schedule, but I know that it is several times a week. They offer swimming times in the mornings and afternoons depending on when the kids go to school. I also know that every other Saturday there is a free swim for the working kids. The kids who just roll in off the streets can borrow bathing suits and towels. I think it is safe to say that without this program many of these kids would almost never have the opportunity to learn how to swim or even just jump in a pool.

Swim class for a group of boys who shine shoes

A volunteer teaching the first jumps

What is not taught in swim class

Huddling around the shower after swimming. Ñanta provides soap and shampoo.

Changing area for these boys with their shoeshine boxes

Marble Madness

It is hard to believe that kids still actually play with marbles. I grew up in the USA in the 80´s and never played with marbles. I always had associated the game as something ancient from Little House on the Prairie or to be found in a Mark Twain novel. But the kids at Ñanta (and so we can safely assume children everywhere in Sucre) are gaga over marbles. Especially when the staff are handing out the marbles for free.

Very basically, the game is played by a person using their marbles to try to knock out and then keeping their opponents´ marbles. The kids who are good will have a pocket or bag full of marbles. The kids who are bad walk around like gambling addicts at the racetrack asking anyone and everyone to "borrow" some marbles which they promise to double in return. For the record, never once did a kid return to me any marbles that I loaned.

Handing out free marbles

Tossing free marbles

It is a rare occasion that I go to Ñanta´s office or event without at least one group of kids flicking about the small glass balls -- some with deadly accuracy. When there is too much action at Ñanta the matches will carry on outside onto the street. At the Ñanta birthday party they organize a marble tournament with the kids divided into about ten different groups of age and gender. To say competition is fierce would be an understatement.

Let the games begin

To visit Ñanta's website click the link

Another Editor's Note: This has gotten quite long, and there is more to tell. So for the next post I will write more in detail about child labor in Sucre and in Bolivia in general and also about my time walking around town with the social workers. So stay tuned and thanks for reading!

Sucre, Bolivia - A Day In The Life

2011-08-07T14:07:00.001-05:00

Welcome to Sucre

Leaving the old mining town of Potosi, we make the decision to go to another colonial town, Sucre. The town is known on the travelers´circuit for its cheap Spanish schools, but neither of us plan on taking language classes. We also do not plan on staying that long in Sucre and we end up being here one month without leaving once -- making it the longest that we have stayed anywhere since May 2010. Sucre is just kind of like that.

Sucre is now the third "White City" that we have been to in South America

So here it is, a town that really does not have an overwhelming amount to offer foreign visitors in regards to culture or a stunning array of bars and restaurants, yet quite a few travelers end up staying here for a while. People will come to study Spanish for a week and stay several more. Others volunteer for a month one year and come back for their entire summer vacation the next. Sucre is just a comfortable place to be, that's pretty much it. Long term travelers, like us, have been constantly moving all over the South American continent and this tranquilo Bolivian city ends up being a good place to unpack bags and take a break for a while from the rigors of the road. The nearest place that I can compare it to is Antigua, Guatemala, but with a smaller gringo scene.

A Spanish study session with flashcards

Founded in 1538, Sucre´s city center is steeped in history. Spanish royalty and wealthy families living off of the silver mines of Potosi lived here because they preferred Sucre´s temperate climate. The first "shout of freedom" against the Spanish in the entire western hemisphere took place in Sucre in 1809. In modern day Sucre well-maintained, stark white historic buildings, universities and colonial era churches line the streets. In 1991 it became a UNESCO world heritage site.

A university entrance

An Eiffel Tower? Yes, the famous French architect really did design this tower

A church entrance

This year we have been to so many colonial towns, and I always find something pleasant about strolling through the cobblestone streets lined with modern day shops while peeking into inner courtyards that are oozing with history. The one thing that can always get to me though are the narrow pedestrian-filled sidewalks and the congested streets designed for mules, not buses or cars. The Spanish city planners definitely did not foresee dramatic growth to their colonized towns and Sucre is no exception. The sidewalks here can get clogged especially at lunch time when school gets out, and the streets become crowded with cars and secondhand Japanese buses. Click the link to see my first Sucre blog.

An inner courtyard

Sucre is also proudly home to El Parque Cretacico (The Dinosaur Park). Around the city are homages to these now extinct reptiles. This awesome phone booth stands outside the airport.

Alasitas - A Miniature Festival

While in Sucre we happen to catch La Fiesta de las Alasitas - the abundance festival of the Aymara people. The largest festival takes place in La Paz in January and smaller ones are held in other cities at different times of the year. At this festival Bolivians buy miniature items of which they aspire to own and offer them to Ekeko, the God of Abundance. The items are blessed by a Yatiri (usually from whom you bought the small items) over incense and then brought to the church by the patrons to give their own blessing. This shows the interesting blend between indigenous and Spanish cultures.

The busy church entrance during Alasitas

Ekeko (meaning 'dwarf' in Aymara) is a household idol that represents good luck and plenitude. He is fat, jovial and loaded down with goods. You have to give miniature presents to Ekeko if you want to stay in his good favor. Building a house this year so buy him small construction items; graduating soon buy him a mini-diploma. He also likes miniature money, food staples and loves cigarettes.

Our Ekeko

Figuring that a little luck (and idol worship?) never hurt anybody, Mika and I decide to get our own Ekeko and load him up with goodies. The first thing we do is get him a mini stack of cash and pot of gold -- our true desires. It is then recommend by the ladies that we get our Ekeko some miniature food staples like corn or flour, but we get him some things more near and dear to our stomachs: an avocado, a shrimp and a tiny can of tuna which for us represents yummy maguro. Oh yeah, we also get him a mini briefcase chock full of US dollars, credit cards, airplane tickets and a passport. Every year we need to buy Ekeko a new miniature gift and attach it to him.

A few months back I wrote about the joys of minimizing my possessions and meanwhile I just bought the Aymara ceramic God of Abundance that I will need to cart around the continent until we reach the USA again sometime this autumn..

Market Order

Sucre's Central Market

The central market is a couple blocks from the main plaza and one block from my hotel which means that I pass by it several times every day. I am not sure why, but I like the place, even with the price gauging of foreigners by the tough vegetable sellers (sometimes the fancy supermarket is cheaper), the lack of vegetarian options for lunch and dinner, the smelly meat section and the occasional eruption of a street dog fight. Maybe I like the order of everything divided into neat, signed sections in a building the size of an entire square block. The bread section has all bread sellers; the cake ladies are in a nice cake lady isle; eggs and cheese sellers are huddled together; lunch stalls inhabit one area and dinner peddlers another. I know what it is...this place is tapping into my inner Container Store.

Cake Sellers

Fruit Juice Stands

Eggs and Cheese

Lunch

Clothing section open only in the evening

There is even a bananas/plantains section

A Day In The Life

So one might be thinking...if you are in the town for a month and not taking Spanish classes what could you possibly be doing all day in Sucre? I would say that most people here study Spanish, but some study things like Quechua or folkloric dancing. Spanish schools will also help people find volunteer opportunities in places such as, orphanages, pre-schools or hospitals. Some also figure out how to do their own thing. We meet one Australian who paints murals around town. Meanwhile, I end up being very busy all month as a volunteer photographer for an organization helping working children (which I will write about in the next blog post). Mika focuses her energy on the kitchen making Indian curries, gyoza -Japanese dumplings, and hand-made pizzas.

Pizza de la casa

We find a nice, clean, reasonably priced, European-owned hostel with a kitchen, reliable hot water and an impressive dvd collection. Most tourists quickly come and go, but there are a few who stick around with us for a while. I have reached the point where I will only exchange names with someone after seeing them for three consecutive days. There is something comforting about seeing the same faces every day for a few weeks in a row. Sucre does have a kind of attractive small town charm. After one week here, I cannot leave the hostel without running into someone I know on the street.

Our "home" for a month

This hidden gem (crepe with three balls of ice cream inside) is found at a cafe on the main plaza for just 12 Bolivianos (US $1.75)

I am enjoying volunteering and could probably stay in Sucre longer. Mika, however, is getting a bit bored (and frustrated by the lack of good coffee) and we are both gaining weight from all of the home cooking. We make the plan to soon leave to begin traveling again, but this is easier said than done. Our departure date always seems to get pushed back a bit and it only becomes a sure thing when we finally purchase bus tickets to La Paz.

Volunteer For A Day

An example of what can be done in Sucre: One day I go with a friend who has been volunteering at a daycare center in a poor neighborhood outside of town. The daycare center provides education and meals to pre-school children at minimal cost. Volunteers help the undermanned staff with the daily activities of the center and keeping the rambunctious kids entertained. I spend one fun day at a daycare center playing with, dancing with and taking photos of these ridiculously photogenic children.

Lunch - some of the kids older siblings also eat here after school

Dancing

A Ride through Sucre on Secondhand Buses from Japan

2011-08-03T19:03:00.007-05:00

People who have been following the blog regularly or keeping up with my updates at The International Rambler on Facebook will know that it has been quite a while since I have posted a blog. The main reason for this is that a few weeks back I dropped my netbook and killed it. The second reason is that we actually have not been traveling at all. We spent the past month in the colonial town of Sucre, Bolivia -- our longest time in one place since 05/2010. I was quite busy being a volunteer photographer for an organization helping working children (which I will eventually write about one day) and never borrowed Mika's computer long enough to blog about anything.

View Larger Map

Now that we are in La Paz my plan is to buy a new computer and get all caught up on my blogging. But there is a brand new development on the travel front which is that unbeknown to us until the most inopportune moment yesterday our ATM card expired at the end of July! Our cash-on-hand situation is not the greatest at the moment, so we have to lay low in La Paz (lay low = pay hotel at checkout and just eating) until the new card arrives in hopefully a few days.

With this extra time on our hands and Mika mostly caught up on her own blogging and engrossed in a new book I have convinced her to give up her computer long enough to do our co-edited Japanese Bus Blog.

I am not sure how it came about that these funcioning buses were deemed unworthy for Japanese passengers and got sent to the middle of Bolivia, but my guess is that it has something to do with failing emissions control tests.

Almost all of Sucre's public transportation system consists of used buses imported from Japan. La Paz does not have this type of vehicle, for example. They use a fleet of old, clunky Dodge and Ford buses. And these secondhand buses in Sucre come from a hodgepodge collection of private entities, many retaining their original markings. A bus that once transported Japanese kids to swimming school now brings Bolivians to the outskirts of Sucre and back. So let's take a ride through Sucre on these ghosts of Japanese transportation past..

Asking the bus destination

Shirakowa Kogen Country Club in Fukushima

East Itabashi Baseball Little League bus and the Bolivian Supreme Court.
They have been playing baseball for more than 40 years.

An airport bus headed around the park

Study Swimming School bus in front of the main plaza

"Suzurango" - a senior citizens' daycare center

A Hitachi bus

Swimming school in Kooriyama

School bus

Kayama Captain Coast Ski Mountain bus owned by the famous actor, Kayama Yuzo

A pre-school bus

Kamemitsu Corporation "The Village of Dawn." Making healthy food from tortoises and honey.
Editor's note: I am amazed that any company selling edible products from tortoises makes enough money to own their own bus.

Mr. Negeshi's steel business in the Isezaki housing development

Official driving school in Chiba

Satomi hot springs bus

Aomori pre-school

An ad for a driving school

Tahara - a fancy Japanese style restaurant

Waterfall and outdoor hotsprings bus

Megumi pre-school

Healthy Land bus at the outlying turn around point for the city buses

Marin Hotel - Sweetbrier in Nigata costs around US $100 per person with dinner and breakfast

These buses show that one Asian island's waste can be a landlocked South American country's treasure. And I guess the fact that these vehicles get a chance at a second life in Sucre, Bolivia is better than ending up at the junkyard in Japan.

Potosi II - A Miner Sacrifice

2011-07-07T21:37:00.001-05:00

Editor's Note: This is my second post from Potosi, Bolivia. I recommend reading the first part -especially about the mines - before this one (click here).

Editor's Note #2 - WARNING! This post contains graphic images of dead llamas killed for ritual purposes and for food. Though if you eat meat, wear leather shoes, feed your cat or use a down blanket then this really shouldn't bother you, now should it.

So we do our mining tour on Tuesday and could pretty much leave Potosi and then we hear about the upcoming miners fiesta. On the final three Saturdays in June the miners of Potosi sacrifice llamas. I do not know an exact reason for them doing this, but I believe it is connected to ensuring the safety of the workers. Miners are very superstitious and they want the llamas blood to satisfy El Tio, the demon/deity of the mines. Yet this festival is also for Pachamama - Mother Earth. Throughout the day we are leaving her offerings and the llamas final remains will eventually be buried in her bowels. This event will be happening in front of every mine entrance at Cerro Rico and with every cooperative of miners performing their own ritual.

Mine Entrance

Llama sacrifices. Sounds like a good enough reason to stick around town for a few more days. Now it probably seems strange that we would want to go see this, but then again it was only ten months ago that we attended funerals in Sulawesi, Indonesia to see them sacrificing water buffaloes. This is just kind of how the year has been.

At nine in the morning a large group gathers at our hostel, which is fun, but I am a bit worried about having a big gang of gringos crashing a fiesta. We first walk to the Miners Market to buy beer and coca leaves and to catch the bus to Cerro Rico, the mining mountain. We have some time so our Bolivian guides tell us that we can walk up the hill to check out where they are selling the llamas tethered to light poles and loading them into trucks. Right away I can tell that it will be a good day. The miners are in good spirits, smiling, chatting with us and shaking hands.

Guests of honor - unwittingly

We hop on the bus and ride to the mine mountain. Our guides lead us to outside the mine called May 1, but we have to wait for the boss to show up and see if he'll accept our motley crew of gringos. The only ones outside now, besides some llamas, and the first ones to greet us are the kids who appear happy to have this strange flock of camera toters crash their party. I am not sure how many photos the children posed for throughout the day, but I am guessing it is in the hundreds.

A jeep arrives carrying the miners and loaded down with beer bottles. We are kindly accepted into their group and honor this moment with a can of beer, a shot of their homemade cocktail of orange drink and Whiskey Boliviano - 96% cane alcohol and preferred drink of the miners - and a handful of coca leaves. I actually had not planned on drinking today, and it is still before 11:00 AM, but I can easily see that avoiding alcohol will be impossible. Miners like to drink and they are very good at it. The beer and Devil's Cocktail keep flowing until we depart around 6:00 PM while the miners kindness and generosity to share with us never ceases for a moment. This is not just with alcohol. I also said that I am not going to chew coca leaves today. I bought a bag in the market to share with people, but they are also sharing their stashes with me.

Sharing coca leaves

Yes, all day the beer and orange drink/Bolivian Whiskey cocktails keep coming and purposely overflowing. The tradition here is that one person holds the bottle or pitcher and just one cup and keeps serving others...and keeps serving others...and keeps serving... There is no nursing drinks because they need the cup to serve the next person. And always before drinking some alcohol is spilled on the ground. This is for Pachamama. I think it is safe to speak for all the gringos there that as the afternoon wore on Pachamama's share grew larger and larger.

We are also handed cups of beer and instructed by the miners to pour it on the llamas as another type of offering. This is done when the llamas are alive and dead. The four llamas are eventually pulled in front of the mine entrance which we all know is where the deed will be done, but there is still some build up. Next we wait pouring more beer on the llamas. Then the beasts are force fed beer and coca leaves - more offerings.

Meanwhile, more gringos have descended on this fiesta. It is actually amusing because they are coming from their mining tours, so they are the ones dressed as miners for a miners party. So it is a pretty large, festive group of gringos, guides and miners when the moment of truth arrives.

Moving the llamas to the mine entrance

Feeding llama beer

Three men hold down the llama while the man with the knife has his knee on the neck. This is the one part that bothers me: their knives are two small to kill the llamas quickly. He slices through the neck. The blood spurting from the neck is collected in bowls. He then moves to the next one until all four have been killed. From a foreigner's perspective it is very easy to lament the poor llamas brutal death, but they are part of a tradition much bigger than us and our Western sensibilities. It is by no means pleasant to watch, but would it be less humane than what is happening at any slaughterhouse in North America or Europe? I kind of doubt it.

This is the now the first time that we see women. The ladies retrieve the bowls of blood. One woman throws fresh blood onto the mine entrance while another sprays bottles of beer. I heard that at some places the blood is put on the faces of the miners and guests, but it is not done here. Four bowls are used to make another offering inside.

Everyone who entered this room spilled some alcohol
on each corner of this offering for Pachamama

When the llamas are fully dead the bodies are removed from in front of the mine to an open area so that they can begin dissecting the animal. People work in teams of three or four to hold the stiffening legs as one person works with a knife. First the wool is removed. Then the middle is split open and all the organs are removed.

The grilling meat is placed to the side until the fire is ready. The head, hooves and all internal organs are neatly arranged into wheel barrows. Normally other parts of the llama like the heart or liver may be eaten, but today all of this is for Pachamama. The llama parts (Pachamama's portion) are brought back to the mine entrance where they are decorated and will wait until holes have been dug and buried in the earth.

Time to butcher the llamas and most tourists are keeping their distance

While others prefer the hands-on approach

This is to be buried later for Pachamama

"Hey, no playing with Pachamama's llama parts!"

Ladies grilling the llama meat

The ladies give the signal that the meat is ready. The kids begin handing out plastic plates with potatoes, a piece of lettuce and a very large, meaty llama bone on top. I do not eat meat and try to refuse a plate. They do not accept my excuse that Mika and I will share. After the fourth time that someone comes by to offer me my own plate I have to accept it. Not wanting to insult my hosts nor upset Pachamama I take the plate and decide to try a bite. I can count on one hand the number of times that I have eaten mammals or birds the past eleven years and my soft, tree-hugging teeth are no match for this job. This meal harks back to neanderthal days when communities sat around fires, bones in hand, ripping off chunks of tough meat with their mouth.

My herbivore teeth are no good at tearing meat

It is near 6:00 PM with dinner over and the Whiskey Boliviano still coming with no end in sight. I am almost glad to hear that we should head down the hill if we want to catch the last bus back to town. I had a terrific time talking and laughing all day with the miners, guides and other tourists. This event was a much more personal encounter than is possible with the mine tours and I am still touched by the miners extreme generosity towards our group of strangers. And before leaving they all invited us to come back next year.

The Rambler's Rant

When reading writings about the mining tour in Potosi I see enough people questioning the ethics of doing the mine tour or saying how sad it is. Do the miners benefit from the tours? How can we take photos of people working in appalling conditions? Basically, it is first world tourists feeling guilty about going to see the poor developing world laborers as they toil away for paltry wages. To me these arguments are a crock of... well, llama poop.

Children are one thing. There should be absolutely no one under eighteen working in the mines and to see them doing so must be heart-breaking. But I am talking here about the adult miners who earn little wages risking their lives and long-term health in the hopes of striking it rich for themselves and their families. In the documentary film, The Devil’s Miner, the boy says that he is embarrassed to tell his classmates that he is a miner. Our guide, an ex-miner, told us that this part of the film made them very angry. The men who work in the mines of Potosi are proud and strong. The last thing that they want is people’s pity - especially from a bunch of gooey gringos who make it all the way to Bolivia without stepping outside of their insulated bubbles.

Maybe I am lucky. I had a whole afternoon at the fiesta to hang out and talk with the miners on a personal level. Drinking beer and having a laugh with the boss or being able to hear one guy’s story about how he overcame drug addiction and can now support his young family by working in the mines definitely broke the superficiality usually found on mine tours. I cannot reiterate enough how kind and generous these guys were to us. Not one of them asked for our sympathy and as visitors to their world this is something we should all respect.

So my recommendations for anyone considering doing the mine tours. First of all, if you think that you will feel guilty or sad and need to blog about your feelings afterwards then don’t go. It is disrespectful to these proud miners and does everyone a disservice, including yourself. Secondly, find a tour company that gives good opportunities to miners and their families. Ask if your guide worked in the mines. Our company, The Real Deal, was owned and run by ex-miners and I am sure there are others. Lastly, when in the mines give the people you meet gifts which they can use, take photos and speak with them on a human level, not as a tourist attraction, and sincerely thank them for giving you the opportunity to see them work. Just leave your pity at home.

The Giving Mountain: Into the Mines of Potosi

2011-07-03T15:00:00.003-05:00

We finally get out of Uyuni, Bolivia (with cash in hand) and take the six hour bus to Potosi. Before coming here I knew that Potosi is a colonial town and a mining town, but what I did not know is that it would end up being one of the most fun visits that we have had in a while. A lot of this is just due to luck and the good timing of our arrival in June.

Baby You're a Rich Man

In 1545 Potosi was conceived around one of the richest silver mines in human history. In its heyday Potosi was the largest city in the New World and bigger than Paris or London. Up until the late 18th century, 45,000 tons of silver had been extracted. Standing over the town is the mountain Cerro Rico whose veins have been giving out these minerals for centuries while millions of indigenous people and African slaves gave up their lives in return to The Mountain That Eats Men. The Spanish used to force workers to stay underground for six months at a time. Today, 466 years later, there is hardly any silver here but miners are still working in Cerro Rico to find zinc and tin.

Cerro Rico overlooking Potosi

Like many of the colonial towns we have been visiting in South America Potosi, is a UNESCO world heritage site. This is actually the first time where I question that distinction. Yes, the city center is full of old buildings with nice interior courtyards but besides the churches and Casa de Moneda not much seems well-maintained. Walls are crumbling and there is way too much grafitti. Traffic is also a problem. The narrow Spanish streets were designed for mules not buses. And being at 4060m (13,320 ft - making Potosi the highest city in the world) oxygen is hard to come by. Our first night here I definitely feel the altitude. The worst part is not the lack of air. It's that I am sucking in diesel whenever I need to take a deep breathe.

The center of Potosi still has several gems and

ancient churches sprouting above town

Despite the flaws there is some charm here. In the central market you can buy groceries, coca leaves, toiletries, pirated cd's, get a suit made and have lunch all within a few steps of each other. Modern Potosi appears to have everything, but an overabundance of nothing. There are a few ATM‘s, one cinema, one supermarket, some discos and small variety of restaurants.

The movie theater

The main sight in town is the Casa Real de la Moneda, a nice museum dedicated to Potosi’s wealthy silver past. It is housed in the former mint. In the mid 1700’s, it cost US $10,000,000 to build (that‘s in today‘s dollars). Upon hearing this outrageous sum, the king of Spain assumed it was built in silver. It’s not. The building is still well-maintained and houses the original silver coin-making contraptions and some luxurious art from back in the day.

A procession in front of the former Spanish mint

Here Comes the Sun

We happen to arrive to Potosi on Saturday June 18th, a few days before the winter solstice. We and some others in our hotel are invited by two of the Bolivian staff to go with them to a party on a hill to commemorate winter solstice by welcoming the sunrise. On June 21, we leave our place in the cold and dark of 4:30 AM and walk about a half hour with just a thermos of coca tea and a bottle of Bolivian Whiskey - 96% pure evil cane alcohol - to keep us warm.

Our first introduction to "Bolivian Whiskey"
is this fire demonstration on the sidewalk

We make it up the hill where people are gathering in small groups covering a fairly large area. People are building fires. Usually all year the sun keeps us warm, but today, the shortest day of the year, it needs our help. The fires will give the sun energy and warmth. There are many different small bands of musicians walking around playing traditional music. This party is a wonderful mix of urban folks and campesinos (rural folks). Everyone is huddled around the fires. It is cold, but people are in good spirits.

One of the many bands on hand

As light begins to climb over the hills to the east and the sun finally starts to rear its head, the fiesta stops and everyone turns to face the sun. It becomes very quiet. People raise their hands, palms out, to welcome the sun. Random individuals in the crowd make benedictions starting with the Quechua phrase "Hai Yai" and when finished everyone replies with "Hai Yai." I do not know what Hai Yai means.

Facing the sun

Facing the crowd

The sun is up. People give hugs and shake hands. The climax of the event has been reached, but the revelry continues. Now people are more generous than when it was dark sharing alcohol and coca leaves with strangers, pulling us into their dance circles and asking to pose for photos with our group of gringos and accepting our own camera requests.

Mika making friends

I Me Mine

Just like the boy in Shel Silverstein's book The Giving Tree, the people in Potosi over time have adapted new ways to get wealth from Cerro Rico. Today it is through tours to the mines deep inside the mountain. As usual, we do not know which company to choose and decide to go with a new agency created by a group of very nice guys who were ex-miners then ex-guides and now small business owners. Also, their tour is the only one that includes lunch.

Grilled llama for lunch

The tour starts with us putting on our mining outfit, boots and helmet then it is a shopping stop to the Miners Market. At the stores here the miners can buy everything they need for their work such as: clothing, tools, wheel barrow tires and dynamite. We are at this shop to buy gifts for the miners. Since this tour will take us to an actual working mine we bring goodies to show our appreciation to the miners that they are tolerating a group of foreigners with flashing cameras hanging around their "office." This market is the one chance in my life that I will have to legally buy dynamite, but I chicken out when I realize that I will have to carry it around the mine until we find someone to blow it up for me. Our guide suggests that we buy 2L bottles of juice for the miners. The mines can get incredibly hot and dusty and the miners will spend all day down there without proper hydration. They never eat in the mines.

In the miners shop our second encounter with Bolivian
Whiskey - the favorite drink of the miners.
We all take a swig of the 96% hell in a bottle and then our guide puts it back on the shelf

At the market we also stock up on coca leaves buying bags for 5 and 10 Bolivianos (US $0.72 and 1.45). The coca leaf is as important to the miners as their drills and helmets. Because they never eat in the mines the coca leaf is used to stave off hunger and gives necessary energy to the miners. We do not see one miner without a large coca leaf bulge in his cheek. Sharing coca leaves - by putting two pinches from your bag into someone else's bag or into their hands - is also a good way to make friends. Two Swiss guys in our group are coca leaf professionals. Pretty soon we all (apart from one woman) have wads in our mouths that last us throughout the morning. I later learn from them that chewing coca leaves will show up in urine tests as cocaine in the system. Oh well, there went my chances at the Olympics.

A coca leaf seller

After shopping we go to a refinery where they process the minerals. As soon as we arrive some workers are waiting and we hand out some coca leaves. They are like kids on Halloween with their bags open waiting to get a treat. We pass by the various whirling machines that finish at a pile of sludge that should hold some metals. This is where the process ends. The sludge at this refinery is sent off to Brazil where they pull out the precious metals.

Our guide showing us specks of metal in the strainer.
A lot of it is probably fool's gold

There's something of value in there?

After the refinery we go to the mine entrance, switch on our headlamps and walk into the unknown. The first part of the mine is constructed from stones dating back to colonial times which is not very reassuring. We go further and further sometimes through very low, narrow passageways and other times opening up into large cavernous sections. To avoid hitting my head I end up doing a type of duck walk while others prefer to bend forward or to the side. Headlamps are our only source of light and bumping helmets onto stone is not uncommon. The temperature has changed and it begins to feel much warmer. The dust in the thin air has increased and I can taste it when I am breathing.

After walking a bit and getting used to the conditions underground we arrive at El Tio to pay our respects to the deity of this underworld. Above ground the miners may pray to Pachamama or Jesus, but it is El Tio who rules the mines. We take a break as the guide talks to us about the history and present conditions of the mines. There are a countless number of mines and tunnels in the mountain and the history is ruled by tales of exploitation. Now the mines are run by small cooperatives. Some of these cooperatives share tunnels while others work their own. The miners only earn money from the amount of minerals they take out of the mine. The conditions are far from ideal but at least now in this century the miners have some control over their own destiny. Each mine has its own Tio who they pray to to bring a richness of minerals and ask for their personal safety.

El Tio

We leave offerings of coca leaves and spills of Bolivian Whiskey to Tio to ask for our safety for the rest of the tour and for that of the miners working far below us. We head further away from the entrance climbing deeper down a few rickety ladders and through one tight space on our hands and knees. There is the smell of gunpowder from recently blown dynamite and the dust has gotten worse. We climb down a hole and squeeze into a little cavern where three miners are taking a break. They kindly answer our questions for a while and we fill their bags of coca leaves before leaving.

Having a break

Sharing coca leaves

As we head back towards light we have to scramble out of the way and off the tracks several times as miners make their way towards the exit hauling excruciatingly heavy carts full of rocks.

Heavy load

There are so many mines and I am not sure how the guide chose ours. but we end up not seeing so many miners working today. Other tourists we talk to see dynamite explosions and drilling. Unfortunately, we seem to just catch the workers as they are taking out rocks or having a break. Other than that the tour is fantastic and a real eye-opener to a world very far from my own.

I leave my one day in the mine with a much greater appreciation for these miners who depend greatly on the generosity of Pachamama and Cerro Rico and the benevolence of Tio for their livelihood and safety. Our tour feels like we go far into the mine, but it barely scratches the surface of where these miners go daily. And since new mining routes are constantly being made it makes me wonder how much longer can Cerro Rico remain stable with its insides forever being dug out. Accidents are always a danger. However, the biggest threat to the miners is silicosis - a disease caused by the formation of dust in the lungs. Many miners are afflicted with this when they are as young as 35 or 40 years old.

Entrance to the mining area under Cerro Rico

Editor's Note: We have one more big event with the miners in Potosi (hint: llama sacrifices), but since this post is getting long I will save it for next time. So stay tuned...

It's ready. Click here to read my second post about Potosi.

The video below is the trailer for the 2005 documentary film The Devil's Miner about a 14 year old boy working in the mines in Potosi and the miners' relationship with Tio below ground and their god above. The second mine that the boy works at, Rosario, is coincidentally the same one that we visit on our tour. I highly recommend you rent this film. It gives very good insight into life of the miners of Potosi.

Tour in Photos to Salar Uyuni

2011-06-29T19:16:00.003-05:00

Salar Uyuni

I think that these past few blog posts I have complained enough about our terrible choice for a tour company to bring us into Salar Uyuni - the salt flats in Bolivia. However, I should not let their incredible suckiness get in the way of focusing on the positive. The positive being the incredible landscapes and the gifts given to us by mother nature. There are changing scenes of lakes surrounded by mountains, harsh deserts with no vegetation, hot springs, smoking volcanoes and the wide expanse that is the world's largest salt flats. The land is vast and the scenery never gets tiring. So for this post I am going to leave out most of the sordid details of the tour and focus on the images from start to finish.

Day 1
If you remember we started our tour in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. It is also possible (and maybe better and cheaper) to start a tour to the salt flats in Uyuni or Tupiza, Bolivia. Our tour starts with a bus trip to the Chilean passport control and then a half hour drive to a mud brick shack in the desert that serves as the Bolivian passport control. Here we are given hot drinks and sandwiches while we wait for our jeep to arrive.

A cheeky fox begging for some breakfast.
-These small canines should not be taken lightly
our driver tells us that one can take down a full-grown llama
photo courtesy of Hiro and Rena

Taking turns squeezing into
the back of the jeep

Our group consists of a woman from Wales, a German guy, a Japanese couple, us and our Bolivian driver. We hop in the jeep and are driven to the entrance of the national park where we sign in and pay our entrance fee - 150 Bolivianos (US $21.65). Back in the jeep to Laguna Blanca (White Lake). Here we see a large fox who quickly runs away and a small group of vicuña. Even though it is illegal to kill vicuña, they do not know that and scurry off as the humans approach. The white color of the lake is caused by borax - sodium borate.

Back in the jeep for a short drive and we get to the Laguna Verde (Green Lake). The green is caused by copper in the water. We are told that we are unlucky today because there is no wind. Wind blows causing the water to stir the minerals and create a shiny, bright green color. Today we only see one small spot of this effect.

Unfortunately, not a green lake today

Back into the jeep to go to the hot springs. But we first stop to see Dali's Rocks - a cluster of large stones which are seemingly sprouting out of the sand. The rocks name is inspired by the artist's surreal paintings. The jeep actually does not bring us anywhere near close enough to get a good view of this sight.

That tiny spot in the bottom left third of the photo is
Mika trying to get a better view of Dali's rocks

Next spot is the hot springs. They are not very hot, but comfortable. The mix of warm mineral water and altitude can induce light-headness. We stay in the pool for about a half hour. Today is not very cold so drying off and changing clothes outside is not so miserable.

After everyone dries off it is back in the jeep to stop at what appears to be inside the crater of an active volcano. Everywhere are natural small and large cauldrons of bubbling volcanic clay and steaming gas spewing from the ground. There is a slight smell of sulphur in the air. Walking around carefully not to step on any soft spots lest my shoes coated in hot volcanic mud I wish that I had a bottle to collect the mud which I am sure makes a great souvenir mud mask. This just might be my favorite place on the tour.

Check out this "hot" video!

The last stop for the day is at our hotel. Lunch is very late, not very good and the drivers do not want to bring us anywhere else so we are stuck for the rest of the day. We were correctly warned that it will be very cold here at night. After dinner with the temperature approaching freezing we go out to look at stars and I see the Southern Cross for the first time. To sleep Mika and I decide to maximize warmth and share one small single bed. This ends up being a mistake because our six wool blankets actually make me too hot. Six wool blankets are also very heavy. It feels like a llama is laying on top of me all night. Plus me and many others wake up all through the night with headaches. This will happen when you try sleeping at around 4500 m (14.764 ft).

Group dinner
photo courtesy of Hiro and Rena

Day 2

The next morning after breakfast we go to the Laguna Colorada (Red Lake) to see flamingos. The water's reddish color is caused by plankton that the flamingos like to chow on. There are very few birds here now because it is the wrong season. Most have flown to Argentina for the winter. The ones we see are too old to fly so far away and have to stick it out. I guess even for skinny, pink birds getting old sucks. In the summer months (Nov-Jan) this lake is teeming with flamingos (and tourists) and probably a great time to visit.

A flamingo retirement community

"Ugh! I should have stayed in Florida"

As we move along we pass more desert and more mountains stopping a couple times to take more photos. The next main point of interest is a group of stones that have been slowly eroded by water into odd shapes over time. The star of the place is the Tree Rock.

Tree Rock and Tourists
I never quite figure out why, but jumping photos
seems to be the thing to do

Good someone put this sign here to make sure
we are not peeing behind the wrong rock

Back into the jeep for more driving and more lakes. But first we go through a narrow, rocky pass to look for the vizcacha - which is something like a woolly rabbit with long whiskers closely related to the chinchilla. The driver honks his horn and two come out hoping for some treats. We do not oblige.

A vizcacha waiting for a treat

The next set of sites are the Highland lakes along with a stop for lunch. Here is also beautiful everyone is starting to get their fill of lakes (I am sure this includes you too just looking at the photos).

More lake and mountains

After lunch it is time to see an active volcano puffing away in the distance. This is the last stop of the day and we then still have to go a long way to get near the salt flats. As we drive and drive there are soon railroad tracks, our first sign of civilization. Our road passes along the edge of the salt flats and leads to our hotel made of salt blocks. We have a group dinner and everyone goes to bed early.

A smoking volcano

Salt block walls, table and stools

Day 3
So far all of the stuff that we have been seeing for the past two days is nice, but really it is just to keep us busy. Today, our visit to Salar Uyuni - the salt flats is really why we are here and why we made such an effort to get to Bolivia. We leave the hotel after breakfast and take a short drive to the entrance of the salar.

First view of the salt flats covered in water

Now we have a bit of luck. During the rainy season the flats will be covered in water creating a giant reflective pool. Usually at this time of year the salt flats are completely dry and barren, but a few days ago it rained. So at the entrance to the flats we get to see the water effect which we thought we were going to miss. It is gorgeous so we stop to take some photos.

We continue on and the salty ground slowly goes from being covered in four inches (10cm) of water to being wet to finally completely dry. And this is where our tour ends because of the accident. So, instead of seeing some other sites, such as where they process the salt, we head straight to town driving for about an hour through the vast salt land that is Salar Uyuni.

To read about the Uyuni accident and its aftermath click here.

I did manage to squeeze in a few more photos. Salar Uyuni really is stunning and I have run out of superlatives to describe it, so I will just finish off with my last few photos of the tour.

All the ground is edible salt which we are now using for cooking

The International Rambler Interesting Tidbit:

Salar Uyuni holds 50% of the world's lithium deposits. Bolivia, Argentina and Chile have 85% of the world's supply. Insteaqd of just exporting the raw material Bolivia has recently broken ground on a factory that will so soon be manufacturing. So digital camera batteries Made in Bolivia might soon be at an electronics store near you.

Chile Briefly

2011-06-26T20:56:00.002-05:00

This blog makes me sleepy

A Chile Introduction
Going to Chile was never in the master plan, but due to circumstances beyond our control we are forced to reroute which in itself is not a bad thing. I actually become quite interested in this unexpected detour because there is always something fun about seeing a new country. Plus everyone likes some extra stamps in their passport, don't they? We end up staying only about a week in Chile and for a country with 6,435 km (3998.5 miles) of coastline that short time hardly does it justice.

To get to Chile we take an early morning bus from Arequipa, Peru to Tacna - Peru’s southernmost town. In Tacna we hop in a shared taxi, pass both border controls and drive along the incredibly bleak, sand-filled landscape of northern Chile. The taxi takes us to the bus station in Arica where catch another cab to a hotel.

Arica is definitely not a must-visit locale in South America, but it is not the end of the world if you happen to find yourself here for a day or so. The town sits on the Pacific ocean and has a slight beach town feel that you might find in other cold weather countries. We are here in the southern hemisphere’s winter and are told that in the summer it gets very busy with local tourists.

The Rock of Arica

The city is not big at all and in the center of town is a pedestrian street that gives us a good introduction to Chile. And what we soon learn is that Chile is not cheap at all. Our hotel, local restaurant lunch and some groceries are almost double of what we paid thus far in other South American countries. Mika quickly decides that we have to leave this country soon before our monthly budget completely implodes.

Two more things we soon learn is that the Chilean accent is really difficult to understand. They speak much faster than Peruvians and Ecuadorians and swallow the ends of their words. We find ourselves saying, “what?” a lot. The second thing is that Chile loves 80’s music in English. Examples: taxi from bus station to hotel - ‘Come on Eileen’; cranked car radio on the street- ’Rock Me Amadeus’; supermarket loudspeaker- ’Get into the Groove’; restaurant - ‘Borderline.’ Now I am not sure if they are 25 years behind the US or if they are just frozen in time. Either way Arica rocks the 80’s.

In town there are also few things to see. There are two buildings, a former customs house and steel church, designed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel. You may have heard of this French architect. He is most famous for his giant steel structure in Paris --- of which the name has just slipped my mind. There is also a museum housing some of the oldest mummies in the world which I forget to visit before leaving.

The Eiffel Cathedral

Buses can take people to some nice beaches out of town, but we decide to just take a walk along the beach which is empty apart from a few diehard surfers and a gang of vultures lunching on a sea lion carcass. After witnessing this National Geographic moment we decide to turn around and find some live sea lions.

Sea Lion for lunch

To See the Sea Lion
We are directed to the fisherman’s pier which sits near the center of Arica. The pier is a grungy place home to unhygienic sea food restaurants, a gaggle of pelicans, mangy dogs and cats, sketchy looking locals, and tourists coming to see some sea lions (“sea wolf” in Spanish). At the pier is an observation deck right next to a clearing that has enough space for three sea lions to pull themselves up on the rocks and relax in the sun. The animals are very close, maybe less than a meter (3 ft.) away. Us land mammals and these sea mammals are only separated by a flimsy metal fence.

Pelicans

Seeing chubby, wild animals this close is actually really exciting. They are pretty much just laying there not moving, so everyone perks up when every now and then one will sneeze, sit up to yawn, or lazily scratch his back with a flipper. We also can spot some other sea lion heads popping out of the water.

Yawn

From this spot we find out that there is a short boat tour that will take us to see even more sea lions. Now
in my imagination I think that we will be passing some natural rocky island where a whole colony of sea lions come to bask in the sunbathe and do whatever else it is that sea lions do. But as we go further away from land there is no island in site and I cannot quite figure out where we are going to find these sea lions.

Sea lions observation point

Eventually we are directed to look in the direction of three large buoys approaching on our left. On top of these buoys are groups of lounging sea lions. The captain cuts the engine. We quickly float past briefly observing the creatures and snapping photos. This is it, and ’it’ is pretty lame. The only thing that I have time to think about is how in the heck do these large marine mammals with flippers for arms pull themselves up onto these clunky metal floating sun beds. A question that I am still asking myself today.

Really, how do they get up there?

Last Stop in Chile
Leaving Arica we decide to skip some other towns and head straight to San Pedro de Atacama on a long night bus. This is a small, cold, dusty desert town with adobe walled buildings and nothing else going for it except for tourism. Produce does not grow here and it is far from everything so food is expensive. Actually nothing here is reasonably priced. Dorm beds in unheated rooms are $10 per person.

There are several day excursions done from San Pedro de Atacama all of which are expensive. A trip to see geysers costs US $36 pp, snowboarding on sand dunes costs US $28, and transportation to hot springs costs US $20 and then you have to pay more than $11 for the entrance. Except for the sand snowboarding (we don't snowboard) none of these tours get rave reviews from other travelers, so we end up not doing anything. The only thing I regret skipping is renting bicycles and riding (w/o a guide) to the Valley of the Moon for sunset. I am not really sure why people come here -- it cannot just be for the sand snowboarding-- unless, like us, this is the most practical way to get to the salt desert.

The main cathedral

San Pedro de Atacama is overloaded with hotels, restaurants geared for tourists, tour agencies and some handicraft shops. It is another one of those places that makes you wonder if people were doing anything before tourism. One other noticeable thing about this town is that it is full of marijuana toking locals. Smelling wafts of pot smoke in the town’s small plaza, coming from people hanging out in front of a store, or emanating from the backroom of a tourist office is not uncommon. In our first hostel there is even a long-term resident/drug dealer who hooks up tourists and staff. I do not want to sound like a prude because recreational marijuana does not bother me and I think it should be legalized worldwide. However, if I am paying US $36 for a day tour the last thing I want is some stoner for my guide who is better suited as an extra in a Cheech & Chong movie.

To do the tour to Salar Uyuni, the salt flats, there are about six offices in town to choose from that take people on the three day/two night tour ending in Uyuni, Bolivia. Depending on the company and bargaining skills these tours cost between CP 52,000 to 75,000 (US $110-160) per person. All the tours pass the same sights, but vary in service. We pay on the higher end, but unluckily choose the wrong company - Atacama Mistica. Our tour with Atacama Mistica started with our jeep never coming to pick us up at the Bolivian border and us having to spend another night in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile and ended with a guy flying off the roof of our jeep due to driver negligence. In between they did not give us everything promised to us by the smooth talking tour sellers.

The Bolivian passport control outpost

Stay tuned: My next post will be about the actual tour to the salt desert.
To read about the dynamic post-tour battle with our lame tour agency click here.

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Arequipa the Off-White City

2011-06-21T20:37:00.001-05:00

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Welcome to the “Off-White” City

We did not really plan to come to Arequipa right now, but because of problems in Puno we are forced to detour through the city in southern Peru in order to get to Bolivia via Chile. This ends up not being so bad at all. Arequipa happens to be the launching point for nice trips to the beautiful Colca Canyon and condor viewing.

The cathedral

Arequipa is Peru’s second largest city, but it does not feel that large at all. This is probably because, as usual, we hardly leave the center which has the concentration of historic buildings and tourist facilities. Though rolling into town we can definitely see how the urban sprawl pushes all the way up to the edge of the massive active volcano, El Misti, that looms large in the background.

View of El Misti as we roll into town

Arequipa is called the “White City” because the old colonial buildings were constructed using light volcanic rock. For me saying ‘white’ is a bit of an exaggeration. To me everything looks grayish. In Popayan, Colombia, another colonial town also called “white city,” the buildings are painted a blistering bright white. But I guess calling Arequipa the “off-white” or “light gray” city does not sound as cool.

A library

Arequipa’s center has a nice blend of old and new. Colonial era churches and mansions dot the streets. The main plaza always full of people, palm trees and pigeons is highlighted by the gigantic cathedral while near by is a pedestrian street with many modern clothing shops. The very clean central market has ladies selling tasty saltenas (pastry filled with meat, chicken or potato), fresh fruit juice stands and people lining up to get healthy concoctions of noni and maca (Peruvian ginseng). Overall, Arequipa is really quite pleasant and a nice place to kick back for a couple days to get an urban fix.

Pigeons at the main plaza

Healthy drink stand

A Convent-ional Visit

The Santa Catalina Convent is considered the most important colonial structure in Arequipa. It was founded in 1579 and the nuns were selected from the wealthiest families. The ladies pretty much went about their business until 1970 when the mayor of Arequipa forced the nuns to open their doors to the viewing public. I actually find this part quite amusing because I am really not sure how you get a bunch of nuns to open their doors after 391 years. The only thing that I can come up with is that the mayor threatened them with a bill for four centuries of back property taxes.

Inside the walls four centuries later

It costs quite a bit to enter the convent 35 Soles (US $12) and more if you want a guide which is not entirely necessary because there is a lot of written information provided for those who prefer self-guided tours. It takes a few hours to get through the whole thing because the complex takes up a whopping entire city block. I spend over two hours wandering through the various cloisters and around the maze-like arrangement of cells where the nuns used to slumber giving an almost too-intimate look into their lives.

Prisoner of choice: A nun's cell

Some highlights include the cell of Sister Ana (still with a cult following) who died in 1686 and beatified in 1985, the giant kitchen with smoke charred walls where the sisters baked bread to make some dough and a large gallery housing an impressive collection of religious art.

An old painting

It’s An Alpaca World After All

Arequipa seems to have a lot of shops selling goods made from the fine wool of baby alpaca. So it makes sense that the city is also home to Mundo Alpaca - Alpaca World. With a stroke of luck our hotel happens to be just three blocks from Mundo Alpaca, a family friendly place (though I think kids will be bored senseless) that teaches us about the entire wool collecting process from the animal’s back to yours -- in the shape of a sweater.

Alpacas on display

After passing through the shops and browsing high quality alpaca wool products, the real fun starts. We follow a route that leads us through the entire wool gathering process. We pass a small pen housing seven llamas and alpacas. Then we are led to a sorting room where a woman is separating the dusty wool chunks by quality and then outside where two young ladies are weaving textiles.

The museum has some good written info about wool, all types of machines on display for processing wool, old photos of alpaca wool processing, and an art gallery with paintings that have nothing to do with llama or alpaca wool. Mundo Alpaca is free for all Andean camelid connoisseurs and the just mildly curious.

Sorting alpaca and llama wool

Our Last Supper

Since it is our last night in Peru we decide that we will pass on our usual less than US $2 meals and splash out for once. We choose a restaurant, ChiCha, that is owned by celebrity chef Gaston Acurio. He has fancy restaurants all over South America, but this is like his more casual place. The restaurant is located in a beautiful 18th century mansion, but I can never shake the feeling that I am in a Las Vegas locale. Maybe it is the modern decor and color scheme.

The menu is mostly Peruvian fare with many comfort food options making it kind of like the numerous restaurants opened across the USA the past decade selling fancier renditions of home-cooked favorites like mac & cheese or meatloaf. The meal presentation is beautiful which is fun. The food is good but not great. Even though there seems to be a wow factor missing this is still a nice way to end our first visit to Peru and tomorrow we’ll take our full bellies to Chile.

For those North Americans in need of their own comfort food
McDonalds is "now in Arequipa"

Tour War: The Battle of Atacama Mistica in Uyuni, Bolivia

2011-06-19T17:45:00.007-05:00

"Hell hath no fury like a [tourist] scorned"

First Things First
This is my 90th blog post and I have always gone in order of our travel. No matter how far behind on writing, I never jump ahead. This will be the first time that I skip some places and will have to write about them later. But having just left big drama in Uyuni, Bolivia I want to get it all down now with everything still fresh in my head.

During our almost thirteen months of travel, sure we have had our fair share of terrible tours, horrible hostels, broken down buses and rancid restaurants, but it has been my policy to never call out any business by name. That is until now. The flaws of our tour company to the salt dessert in Bolivia were so egregious from our false start all the way to our photo finish in the police station that I feel morally obligated to publicly call them out in the hopes that maybe at least one reader will be saved from giving them money. So for the official record if you find yourself in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile or Uyuni, Bolivia do not use the tour agency Atacama Mistica!!!

Editor's Note: If you happen to be holding a grager (or any noise making device) feel free to shake it every time the name Atacama Mistica is mentioned.

Now if I really wanted I could go on about how on our first day our jeep never showed up and we had to return to Chile for the night, or how there was not enough food for eighteen people on the tour, or how our lazy drivers made us skip seeing the sunrise over the salt desert, but for this post let's just focus on the car accident and its aftermath.

Tour Interrupted!
The tour through the Bolivian national park to the salt desert is really quite beautiful. For three days in a jeep the endless scenery is stunning. I will definitely write about it and post photos one day - hopefully soon. But for this post I am only writing about our calamity. We all know accidents happen. That’s why they are called ’accidents,’ yet what happened on our tour was entirely avoidable and what happened after the accident was also entirely avoidable had our tour company, Atacama Mistica, just accepted their responsibility.

So it is early Tuesday morning, June 14, our third day on tour and we are have stopped to take some photos of the salt desert. Before getting back in the jeep the driver asks if anyone wants to go on the roof. There are six of us, but only Mika and a Japanese guy accept the offer. As we are chugging along our driver suddenly leaves the slow moving vehicle and joins the people on the roof. The car is now moving without a driver. Of course we are in the middle of a salt desert so there is no fear of hitting a tree or lamp post, but still we have no driver! Now I am not exactly sure why, but the tourist in the front seat moves to the driver’s seat and soon our driver climbs around to the passenger seat. Again I am not sure why, but the tourist accidentally hits the brake. The Japanese guy flies off of the roof hitting his head on the way down. Mika, very luckily, is holding onto something and just ends up on the windshield with only a few minor bruises.

Broken Windshield

We clean his wounds as best we can and decide that because he hit his head we should get to a doctor as quickly as possible. It is a very long drive across the salt flats to get us to town and his girlfriend is doing her best to treat his injuries. Mika and I stay with them at the hospital because they need help translating from Spanish to English to Japanese. He ends up needing nine stitches in his mouth, pain medication and cannot travel for several day for observations to make sure his condition does not get worse.

The Blame Game
Just yesterday I heard a story about something that happened about month ago to a friend of a traveller we meet while waiting for the bus to leave Uyuni. The morning of the last day of his friend’s tour, their jeep was found smashed up and their driver was drunk in bed with a prostitute. The discovered driver then ran away and they had to wait all day to get back to town. This friend, understandably, demanded that their company compensate them for the lost third day of the tour. The company did not want to pay. The driver couldn’t or wouldn’t pay either. This company then brings the driver’s parents to try to get them to pay the tourists. The friend tells the owners that they do not want the driver’s parents’ money. It is the company that has to reimburse them. ..and this is exactly what we are dealing with now.

So after this jeep fiasco on the salt, we go to the Atacama Mistica office. At this time I actually feel a bit bad for our driver and have no intention of mentioning to his bosses that he invited people to go on the roof (which we learn is prohibited) and that he left a moving vehicle and then let a tourist behind the wheel. The problem is that the company of whom we gave a lot of money to take us on a safe tour feels absolved from all responsibility whatsoever. We, however, strongly feel that our contract is with them, not our driver. They keep pushing blame every which way which gets everyone very angry and soon we must reveal exactly what happened. They make our poor driver pay for the Japanese guy’s medical bills and their hotel in Uyuni.

Day 3: In the clinic waiting room

After lunch we have another meeting at our hotel. The bosses tell us what great guys they are for even being here discussing compensation with us and that if they wanted they could just throw their driver under the bus and let him deal with this by himself. After this speech we say that this is not acceptable. I lecture them on employer responsibility. I really do not believe it is cultural, these guys are idiots. Now of course the Japanese couple have much greater demands than we do and at first they are offered 50% compensation. The thing is that they have future medical expenses and will quite possibly lose their train tickets and hotel in Cuzco, Peru while getting further treatment in La Paz.

Mika and my demands, however, are very simple. Like the friend in the story above, we just want one-third of our fee returned (US $45 per person) for the lost day on the tour. In our opinion a very normal and fair request. The agency offers us a redo of a one-day tour on the Salar or US $20 cash. I definitely do not want another tour and Mika does not want another tour with them. Our lines in the sand have been drawn and the difference is only US $25 per person.

The Battle of Atacama Mistica
Now do these people at Atacama Mistica really believe that we are putting up such a big stink for just $25 dollars or that the Japanese couple is trying to nickel-and-dime them for every cent? In the USA, I cannot buy a pair of jeans or fill a gas tank for US $25. In Tokyo a single movie ticket costs US $22. We are dealing strictly on principle and getting the company, Atacama Mistica, to accept responsibility for the actions of their employees and reckless culture of their drivers and agency. I believe that this is something that, even today, the clowns in Bolivia just quite don't understand and in the end it is their downfall. This is where The Battle of Atacama Mistica is ultimately decided.

Tourists on top of moving vehicles is "strictly prohibited'

History will show that apart from believing money to be our only motive, the bosses of Atacama Mistica made one other grave error: to underestimate the resources of their enemy. When these matters arise, which they inevitably will, most tourists do not have the time nor desire to fight with unscrupulous companies. This is where we are different. First of all, we have very good Spanish language skills - how can you argue with an agency you do not understand? Secondly, we have the time (87 days left on a Bolivian tourist visa with absolutely no type of travel plan), the war chest (Uyuni is dirt cheap less than $20/day for our hotel and food) and the resolve (Mika at least) to stay in Uyuni for an extended campaign.

On these types of issues when Mika feels like she has been wronged she will fight like a pitbull for her just compensation. Once on the jugular she does not want to let go until the opponent’s complete submission. In Denver, I have seen her duke it out with carpenters, handymen, our health insurance carrier and a hospital. Traveling it has been with a hotel, a bus company and now this one really dumb tour agency in Bolivia. I, on the other hand, am like a very lazy viper. You really have to poke me with a stick many times to arouse my anger enough for me to be bothered to strike. For the record: these guys were really annoying.

Since we are not getting anywhere with the office in Bolivia, we decide on Wednesday to contact the office in Chile. They easily offered to refund our money before (which I will talk about in another post) and US $25 is actually not a lot in Chilean Pesos. Maybe they can talk sense into their Bolivian counterparts. I write a very nice, concise email laying out the reasons for our demands but never hear back. The Japanese woman also tells our driver that she does not want him to pay for their hotel. The company has to do it. He does not quite seem to get it, and we feel sorry for him. He is caught in the crossfire between his clueless bosses and scorned foreigners.

Blood and salt do not mix

We call Chile again on Thursday to try to get them to talk sense into the Bolivia office. The Chileans seem to have a better sense of where their clients are coming from. When almost 100% of your business is foreigners from Europe, North America, Israel, Japan and Korea you should have an idea of how they do business and their expectations.

Meanwhile, the Japanese couple has decided to go to La Paz. The doctor in Uyuni recommends not traveling, but he is feeling a bit better and it is imperative to get a CT scan to check for internal head damage. They do not have the machine in Uyuni. That evening the bosses return to our hotel to tell us that apart from already covering medical bills and hotel in Uyuni (the driver actually, not them) they will only compensate everyone US $20. The Japanese couple are understandably irate and leave Uyuni very stressed from the whole situation. Mika and I stay in Uyuni to battle it out. Really, I swear, we have nothing better to do.

On Friday afternoon, I make one last phone call to the office in Chile to see if they have accepted our offer. I tell them bluntly that I really do not understand. One negative blog post or many bad reviews on the backpacker internet forums could easily cause much more damage to the business than the compensation we are asking for. The woman tells me that this is up to the Bolivian office and that they are not budging from their position. We can go to their office if we’d like and get our $20. Lines in the sand.

The tourist police office is inside the clock tower

Upon hearing this not completely unexpected news Mika and I decide that it is time to launch Operation Go To Tourist Police And File A Report Against Atacama Mistica. Mika's wish now is that hopefully they will lose their license. Pitbull. Interestingly, we discover that someone has filed an accident report but left out details about how it actually occurred and any vehicle damage or personal injury. We are now eye witnesses to the accident and the photos we give to the police are material evidence. We also stress that our beef is with the company and that we think the driver has suffered enough.

"I'll be the judge of that"

The tourist police call over a Licensur (sp?). I am not even sure what the English equivalent of this guy's title would be but he is something like detective, lawyer, arbitrator, jury and judge wrapped up in one intelligent person. The closest thing I can think of is Judge Dredd from comic book and Hollywood fame. We tell him our story. Meanwhile they have summoned the owners of Atacama Mistica to tell their side of the story. And this is where our Spanish skills become very helpful. We easily refute all of the bullshit told by the bosses and explain again to the Licensur that for us (and the Japanese couple) that this is not about money, but about responsibility.

Dredd Picture & Judge Dredd Images

And just like that after hearing both sides, the Licensur, siding with good over evil, lays down the law and tells Atacama Mistica that they need to reimburse us one-third of our tour. Vindication. He also says that our Japanese friends should go to the tourist police in La Paz to file their own accident report and show all their receipts. Everything will then be forwarded to him in Uyuni where Atacama Mistica’s auto insurance will cover all the future medical and lost travel expenses. As of this post he is feeling much better. I really, really hope it works out for them to get there money back. A positive of all this is that we have made new friends and will definitely see them again one day in Japan.

So if up until now you still do not believe me how dumb these bosses are this final bit will hopefully seal the deal. At the police station the night before we agreed that we will meet at their office at 8:00 AM to get our compensation. We will then show our receipt to the police and have plenty of time to make our 9:00 AM bus out of town. We go to the office at 7:55 AM. All other tour companies on the block are open except Atacama Mistica. They are very late and we do not make it to the police station -- where Mika is strategically waiting for me -- until 8:55 AM. We miss our bus because of Atacama Mistica’s further incompetence so as a final insult the police make them drive us to the bus station and buy our new tickets on a ten o’clock bus out of town thus concluding The Battle of Atacama Mistica.

Of course our internet campaign has just begun...

8:15AM -Waiting for the office to open

The International Rambler Travel Tip: If a problem ever arises with a local company do not be afraid to go to the tourist police. The worst they can do is tell you is that they cannot do anything.

Also, in case I forgot to mention it above: Do not use the company Atacama Mistica a.k.a. Tierra Mistica. Our unique incident aside, the fact is that most other agencies are cheaper and all tourists we've spoken with received the similar or much better service than us. If you have friends going to do a tour to Salar Uyuni please forward them this blog post.

To read about our quick jaunt into Chile, click here
To read about and see photos of the actual tour to Salar Uyuni click here