Uyuni

I've just returned from a quick but productive trip to Uyuni in the South of Bolivia. Uyuni is the centre of quinoa real production and is where I will do my research. I left Sunday afternoon around 14.00 by bus to Oruro and arrived there at 18.45; my train for Uyuni left at 19.00 so I was quite worried. Nonetheless a very capable taxi driver got me to the train station on time. Actually, when I arrived all of the cars were locked up and so I had to ask for a worker to let me in, close call for sure. The train is quite comfortable and has a lot more space than the buses, only I had a screaming kid next to me for most of the time and a snoring dad for the rest. One interesting thing about the 7 hour trip is that one of the workers (who looks incredibly like the villain in the James Bond movie filmed in Bolivia) mopped the floor at least 3 times.

I arrived in Uyuni at around 2 in the morning, found an open hotel directly and checked in. Six hours later I started my day. First I met with a friend of my advisor who will be helping me in Uyuni. He is working on augmenting the trade of products from the Uyuni region in Potosi, and later expects to expand this to other cities. We chatted for awhile and then left to meet an intermediary. The meeting went quite well and she (most intermediaries are women) mentioned that I could go with her when she buys quinoa. She even said that I could be her driver! Imagine that! After this meeting we went to another intermediary, but she was not in so we broke for lunch and siesta. By chance, I ended up sharing a table with an Italian motercycle racer and so we chatted awhile while we ate. After lunch I went for a coffee where I talked to a 14 year old kid from La Paz who was working at the restaraunt. He has been working in tourism (and out of school) for 4 years and in Uyuni for 9 months. He said he was taking night classes, but didn't like school much. At 2 we started again and we visited a producer organization which buys organic quinoa. They aren't a cooperative, but a social organization; I honestly don't know the difference. Next we talked to an organization of buyers, producers and sellers of quinoa, but didn't learn a whole lot there.

After the last meeting Hugo and I seperated so that he could travel to work in Potosi and I went for dinner. This time I ended up eating pizza with a German botanist! Strange, no? So we chatted about agricultural development (he is quite confident in technology transfer as a means of development, not I though) and then I went to bed early. My train back left at 1.30 in the morning today (Tuesday). The train ride was much nicer than the first because part of the trip was under the illuminating light of the sun. I saw incredible views of land stretched as far as one can see and also a lake filled with flamingos. I arrived in Oruro at 9ish and walked to the bus terminal. I really enjoy walking through cities just to see what they're like, it's something that one can't understand by taking a taxi or bus. I walked through a few markets and enjoyed the beeming sun before boarding my last bus for La Paz.

Now I'm quite tired as it feels like I've done a week worth of activities in 2 days. It doesn't help that I haven't had a full night's sleep in a few nights. Below are just a few pictures. I didn't have a chance to take many, but  I assure that I will have more when I return in January. I'm now getting ready to come home for awhile; I leave Saturday morning for Minneapolis (here I come James!) and Monday I fly to Amanda.

This is from one of the main streets.

This is on the bus ride from La Paz to Oruro. 

Another one from the same street, just further down.

Thanks for reading, Andrew

French Fairytale (with subtitles)

This little girl is pretty adorable.

Signs

The following is a series of murals that I saw in La Paz last week, really beautiful drawings and important messages. La Paz is full of political messages on every surface that can be written on. Just another form of democracy I would say. 

On the left, it basically says that everyone has a right to work. On the right it says that the accused have the right to defend themselves and are considered innocent until proven otherwise.

Everyone is equal in dignity and rights.

No one should be exploited or be in slavery. No one should be tortured or be treated poorly.

Everyone has rights and liberty of religion, opinion and expresion

Andrew

Bolivian drought

There is some very worrying news coming from the Bolivian papers in the last few days. The dailys are focusing on a series of natural disasters hitting Bolivia at the moment. As I mentioned in a previous post, the climate is changing quite dramatically in Bolivia, increasing rains in the East, inducing droughts in the West and increasing temperatures throughout the country. Adding to this is the El nino effect this year.

Essentially what is happening now is that in the southeast, where I will do my research, precipitation levels are way down and the same is happening in several areas in the West of the country. The area in which Chakana works is also feeling pressure from the lack of rain. In the East, the lowlands, rain is also an issue, but it is that there is too much of it.

The ministry of development has declared that 2.5 million cattle, sheep and llamas are in serious risk of dieing of hunger and thirst. Also in Uyuni, farmers are currently planting quinoa and quinoa requires a certain amount of rain within it's first month or two in the ground to germinate. These two factors add up to quite a dangerous situation for the farmers in the Uyuni area who depend on llama production and quinoa production. This is especially serious due to the drought that occured last year in the same region, which seriously reduced quinoa production (100% loss in some places). Let's hope that the situation radically improves soon.

I will be traveling to Uyuni on Sunday so will be able to ask there about the effects and their thoughts on what's going on.

http://www.laprensa.com.bo/noticias/06-11-09/ultimas.php?n_a_c=nacional_061109_133930.inc&seccion=0&titulo=M%E1s_de_2,5_millones_de_ganado_a_punto_de_desaparecer

http://www.la-razon.com/ultima.asp?id=905928

A good article on Todos los Santos

There is a very nice article in La Prensa today that explains Todos Santos better than I can. Of course it's in in Spanish but if you copy it translate it with translate.google.com you'll be alright. Click on the title of the article to read the whole thing.

Fiesta, sobriedad y recojo espiritual marcaron la despedida de las almas

Fiesta, mesas y altares, flores y oraciones marcaron ayer la despedida de las almas en tres cementerios de la ciudad de La Paz y El Alto.

Mientras que en el camposanto Héroes del Gas, en Santiago I, en El Alto, se escuchaban las melodías de los grupos musicales que eran contratados por los dolientes, en el Cementerio General de la hoyada paceña la gente armaba mesas para sus difuntos y en el cementerio Jardín de la zona Sur, colocaban flores en las tumbas.

“Tenía tres años y medio cuando murió por falta de auxilio”, lamentó Yolanda Escóbar, al referirse a su hija, cuyo cuerpecito descansa en el Cementerio de Santiago I, mientras que al son de la banda Los Papichulos marcaba un paso de baile y su esposo ofrecía cerveza para acompañar lo que llamaron la “despedida”.

Aunque no había una mesa colmada de panes, fruta y comida sobre la tumba de la menor, su madre dijo que “los tres primeros años (luego del fallecimiento) hay que ir al cementerio en la fiesta de Todos Santos, porque el alma espera la visita; después ya depende de cada uno”.

Como es el caso de la viuda de Aldo Velásquez (protagonista de la serie La bicicleta de los Huanca) fallecido hace diez años, Rocío Escóbar, quien, pese al tiempo transcurrido, aún acude al cementerio y cumple con la tradición. “Siempre hay dolor, pero creo que hay que acordarse con alegría”. .....

More if you follow the link....

Copa, Copacabana

Hello all,

I’ve just returned from Copacabana where I spend my long weekend. We had Monday off for Todos los Santos (All Saints Day).

Copacabana is about four hours from La Paz by bus and boat so is quite a well-known spot for Pacenos (people from La Paz) and tourists alike. When I arrived I had a list of hostels and hotels that the Lonely Planet recommended, but no reservation and map so I began my search. I walked around for about 45 minutes before a found a hotel that matched a name on my list so I went in. It was pretty simple, consisting of a shared bath and nothing else but a bed, but the price was right ($3) and everything was nearly spotless so I was happy with my selection.

As I went to Copacabana with little more than an idea of what I would see, I am writing this with the help of the online Lonely Planet. In fact, now I’m learning what I saw this weekend. My first stop was the Copacabana Cathedral. The Cathedral was built in the Moorish style and is a destination for pilgrimages to see the famous black Madonna.

I then spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach (although it’s much too cold to swim. The next two days I mostly did hiking around the town and surroundings and did a lot of relaxing. I hiked up a hill to a kind of tribute to Mother Mary with a beautiful view of the town and beach. I suppose I spent most of my time relaxing on the beach and enjoying the sun and good food. One day (I hope Amanda doesn’t get too jealous), I had lunch with a very cute Bolivian girl. I was reading a book while waiting for my meal and a girl of about 4 years came over and sat down with me at the table, I think she was the owner’s daughter. So we chatted, she hid my pencil and I shared my fries; it was a very welcome chat for a lone traveler.

That’s about all I did I guess, now that I’m writing it down it seems like I didn’t do a whole lot, but it was a nice chance to relax a bit.

In another bit of news, I have very short and quite possibly inaccurate explication of the Aymara afterworld. This is related to this post because it deals with the day of the dead here. To begin, this belief is kind of a mix of Christianity and Aymara beliefs. When people die, they go to a place (which I forget the name) where the good people go to one side of a river and the bad on the other. All of the people spend every hour constructing houses, but when the house is nearly complete, the roof always falls in. It is said that once someone completes a house, Judgment Day will arrive. Meanwhile, every year starting at noon on Nov. 1^st the people on the good side of the river are allowed to go to their homes for exactly 24 hours. For this, their surviving relatives prepare their favorite foods and a nice shrine to welcome them back. This is my understanding from what I’ve read.

More pictures of Copacabana are at picasaweb.google.com/alofstehage/

See the boat named Titanic? Great advertising.

This is a view from the hill I hiked.

These monuments tell the story of Mother Mary.

This is me at the lake.

During one of my long dinners at the beach.

Another one during the day.

These next two are the church.

UPDATE:

I've just found a traditional Andean song in honor of Copacabana. It's an amazingly meaningful song written by a man (surely a traditional healer of some sort) named Manilow.

Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl
With yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to there
She would merengue and do the cha-cha
And while she tried to be a star, Tony always tended bar
Across a crowded floor, they worked from 8 till 4
They were young and they had each other
Who could ask for more?

At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana (Copacabana)
The hottest spot north of Havana (here)
At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana
Music and passion were always the fashion
At the Copa....they fell in love

(Copa Copacabana)

His name was Rico, he wore a diamond
He was escorted to his chair, he saw Lola dancin' there
And when she finished, he called her over
But Rico went a bit too far, Tony sailed across the bar
And then the punches flew and chairs were smashed in two
There was blood and a single gun shot
But just who shot who?

At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana (Copacabana)
The hottest spot north of Havana (here)
At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana
Music and passion were always the fashion
At the Copa....she lost her love

(Copa. . Copacabana)
(Copa Copacabana) (Copacabana, ahh ahh ahh ahh)
(Ahh ahh ahh ahh Copa Copacabana)
(Talking Havana have a banana)
(Music and passion...always the fash--shun)

Her name is Lola, she was a showgirl
But that was 30 years ago, when they used to have a show
Now it's a disco, but not for Lola
Still in the dress she used to wear, faded feathers in her hair
She sits there so refined, and drinks herself half-blind
She lost her youth and she lost her Tony
Now she's lost her mind!

At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana (Copacabana)
The hottest spot north of Havana (here)
At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana
Music and passion were always the fashion
At the Copa....don't fall in love

(Copa) don't fall in love
Copacabana
Copacabana

Thanks for reading, Andrew

Traffic again

Coming from two of the most boring traffic countries in the world (everyone follows the rules in the US and everyone has their own lane in Holland) La Paz is quite a shock. Many busy intersections have no stop lights or signs and so, of course, people make do. I believe there are three strategies to get through a busy intersection.

1. Fly through honking and yelling - the fast, honking car ALWAYS has right of way.
2. Edge your car out into the middle until no other cars can get past, then go once traffic has stopped.
3. Wait patiently for the intersection to clear (this is quite unheard of).

I do think there is a certain understanding regarding right of way, despite the various methods of getting around it. I think certain roads have right of way, for example the busier road seems to have right of way usually. Also, of course, the first car there usually has right of way. But these aren't constants, everything depends on how fast the other car is coming, how expensive your car is and if there are pedestrians crossing (although usually pedestrians don't really matter). It's quite a chaotic system, but it works. It's very very rare that I see cars with damage from a collision or otherwise. I think that the fact that rules are not really enforced means that everyone has to be aware of the other cars on the road and this reduces crashes. For example, in the States it's much easier to just follow the rules and if there is a crash you know that it's the other person's fault, here that's not possible. Drivers are super focused on everything going on around them (except me when I want to cross the street I guess).

Traffic might actually go faster as well here. Instead of stopping completely every other block, one just slows down enough for the other person to go past. Even better, one might speed up to get through! It's a bit chaotic, but it's how it is and it works well here. It would probably be a disaster in Holland or the US, but that just means that I'll never drive here.

One other benefit is that traffic increases employment, just ask the zebras (see older post).

Fair trade month is coming to an end soon, so we don't have to spend extra for over-priced goods to clear our consious. Just kidding, I hope everyone keeps buying fair trade now and then. I'll remind you on World Fair Trade Day in May!

Thanks for reading, Andrew

Noticias y inauguraciones

Hermanos y hermanas,

It's been an interesting couple of days of news in Bolivia. First, I read yesterday that the newest presidential polls are in and Evo is favored to gain 52% of the votes and Manfred Reyes Villa 21%. It is still a month before the election, but I doubt much will change unless Evo does something disastrous. In related news, the Uruguayan election last weekend did not result in a clear winner, although the leftist candidate has a big lead; the election will go to a runoff now (I don't know when). Also, I've been talking to a few people here and it seems that Evo's friendship with Hugo Chavez is seen as a negative thing with most voters. The irony is that most of Evo's projects would be impossible without financial support from Venezuela (as far as I can tell).

Also, I've read twice that representatives of the US and Bolivia have met and are in the process of re-opening relations between the two countries. I think this would be a great thing for Bolivia because it depends a lot upon trade with the US. In related news, ex-ambassador and persona non grata in Bolivia, Philip Goldberg has been enstated to a very high government post in Washington and this is not very well percieved by the media here.

Finally, last Saturday I was able to participate in the inauguration of two irrigation projects in communities nearby. Both inaugurations were quite similar. We arrived and shook everyone's hand then heard about five speaches. The speaches were usually about the importance of maintaining the irrigation equipment, using the water well, thanking Chakana, and so on. After the speaches the directors of Chakana cut the ribbon and then we ate, drank and danced. In most communities, what you bring to a fiesta is a status symbol. For this reason most people brought beer and very little juice or water was available. Thus, we had a good time.

Next weekend is All saint's day here so we have a long weekend. I think I will travel to Copacabana and Lake Titicaca to relax a bit as my mind is getting full of ideas about my thesis and the evaluation and I need to clear my head a bit.

Ceremonial cerveza, the Chakana-Holland director and Chakana-Bolivia director

The directors of Chakana and local leaders

Cutting the ribon

Listening to the speaches

Giving the speaches

Saludos, Andrew

Fall in Boston

The trees are finally starting to change here, but unfortunately they don't turn out nearly as vibrant in photos as in person. Saturday was awful weather -wise, but today more than made up for it. I've been getting quite lazy lately. I go to class, to work, do homework and thats about it so I decided to get out today and do something different. When I step out of my apartment I face this:

the Museum of Fine Arts, so I finally ventured over to check out the special exhibits. I saw a little Picasso:

a little Gauguin:

the artifacts excavated from an Egyptian tomb:

and a Viva Mexico exhibit:

I'm definitely have to go back and see what else there is to see but I had limited time so I just hit the main displays. Luckily I get in free with my student ID. Saturday was spent at the Haymarket buying groceries for the week (these pictures are from Sept) and later at the library doing homework. Tuesday I register for classes next semester and Thursday I have plans to go thrift store shopping with a friend from MN, but other than that it should be a pretty quiet week.

Mi amor

It’s three weeks only until I’ll be back to the States and things are beginning to wind down here with my internship. I’m doing a lot of work on my thesis proposal and reading some interesting papers and books on the subject. I’ve even found a bookstore that is fully stocked with really interesting anthropology and sociology books.

There is something very interesting about the people of Bolivia that I’ve forgotten to mention. In the States we don’t use many pet names for friends and in Britain it’s only slightly more common when people refer to each other as mate or love, but this is usually on with people who one is very close with (especially in the case of love). Here, it is quite different. I’ve been called ‘hermano’ (brother) by many people; ‘mi amor’ (my love) by others; and even ‘mi corazon’ (my heart) once. Another very common pet-name is tio or tia which means uncle or aunt, usually reserved for older, respected people. It’s quite a charming tradition I think, though a bit surprising for me and most Americans who aren’t used to be called ‘my love’ by strangers.

Another thing that I’d like to mention quickly is climate change in Bolivia. All Bolivians I’ve spoken with have no doubt that the climate is changing in Bolivia. It is becoming much hotter and drier in La Paz, colder in Santa Cruz and rainfall patterns are changing everywhere. The people are absolutely sure that the climate is changing here. I am not saying why it’s changing (greenhouse gases or otherwise). I tend to believe the scientists who say it is caused by greenhouse gases, but in reality I don’t really know. Regardless of the cause, the climate is changing. There is a group of professors at Wageningen who are working on methods of adaptation to climate change and are bypassing the debate altogether. I agree with this position. Even if we remedy what is causing climate change, it will continue to occur. For this reason, I think the first priority is to research methods of adaptation to climate change and to dessiminate these lessons to those affected most by climate change. This seems to me to be a much more practical approach.

Thanks for reading, Andrew