Wow, the time just flew by here. Friday was my last day of work; I presented the chapter on indigenous self-determination I wrote for a book that will be published here in April, called Pluralismo y Deslinde Jurisdiccional (Legal Pluralism and Jurisdictional Demarcation). It was a really interesting experience, and the people at the think tank deserve an award for agreeing to publish a so-called legal analysis from a 21 year-old with no experience in law nor Bolivian issues.
Apart from finishing my internship, the most exciting thing going on here for the last two weeks have been the strikes. Bolivia has, to say the least, a culture and history of protest and mass mobilization. This, as well as the ubiquity and power of unions, has been explained to me as a result of the historic lack of the State’s presence or help in marginalized sectors of society. The most recent, and ongoing, incident of collective action has been the conflict over public transportation. The transportistas, bus drivers, decided to raise the price of passage from 1.50 to 2 bolivianos, (some context, that is a 7 cent increase in dollar terms, and the bus tariffs haven’t been raised for several years). Cue: people going crazy.
First, bus riders protested the raise by going into the streets and banging on the buses. They successfully communicated their anger, so the drivers’ union decided to respond and pulled all of the buses from the street. Well, the buses were still in the street, but as bloqueos, blockades. This is a Bolivian protest favorite, along with fireworks, and can take several forms: parking vehicles across the street and playing soccer in front of them, oil drums (you can light fire in them if you’re really feeling upset), or just sitting in the road. Because of all of this, everyone everywhere decided to stop working and we had a de facto vacation. This continued for several days during the week until last Saturday, when all of the buses started going again. “Great!”, all the naive gringos thought, we can start going to our jobs again.
Not so fast. Apparently, everyone took the weekend to break from striking, and though normality had seemingly resumed, we were back on strike on Monday. As this was my last week at work, I just started taking taxis because I needed to finish up my article. However, we had to take all sorts of creative routes to get anywhere because of the blockades, which isn’t good given my horrid sense of direction without people creating large obstacles in the streets and shooting off fireworks. A couple of days ago, there was an announcement that they had come to a compromise: tariffs would be 1.80 bolivianos. This, however, was still not satisfactory for some, and thus the strike continued. Upon hearing about the agreement, I was ready to go light an oil drum on fire so I didn’t have to deal with 20 cent coins. The buses are running now, but I’m unsure if that’s because it’s the weekend, and thus off-limits to strikes, or if they have actually figured things out.
This confusion has all been compounded by the rain. We’re in the rainy season now, so I’m not surprised by the frequent precipitation, but this place is horrible at getting wet. Though Bolivia really is pretty, the ground here does not absorb water, so it all runs off right away. Additionally, drainage systems, especially in poor neighborhoods, aren’t good or don’t exist, so the streets flood in minutes. What’s more, Cochabamba is situated in a big basin, so all the muddy water from the mountains just flows right down. It’s been a party.
Anyway, I leave on Wednesday for Santa Cruz, the city I originally flew into. I was going to take the bus but, alas, the highway fell into the river because of the rain. This, I’ve been told, happens every year, so people haven’t been acting too worried. I’ll thus be flying all the way to Brazil from here, where I’ll be for two weeks until I home come on the 16th.
Since I’ll be traveling around from now on, I think this will be my last post. I want to thank everyone who has read and given encouragement these past eight months, I’ve truly enjoyed writing for such a great audience and your support and interest is very affirming.
Hasta la próxima,
Cam
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Salty Travels
Late last night I got back from an amazing five-day trip with thirteen other volunteers from all over the world to Uyuni, home of Bolivia´s legend salt flats. Here is some commentary and pictures of the trip. All of my pictures can be found on Picasa.
Friday, February 4th
It was raining super hard when we all awoke, met up, and made our way to the bus station for our 9 o’clock bus. From Cochabamba, we traveled four hours to Oruro, getting there by lunch time. We ate, then boarded our train to Uyuni, a seven hour trip. The highlights of that afternoon were being forced to listen to Hotel California five times and watch several different Jackie Chan movies. Bolivian public transportation makes sure to provide you with very, very loud entertainment the entire time you travel. We got to Uyuni late at night, found out that our hostel had decided to ignore our reservation, found another, and crashed.
Saturday, February 5th
We got up early to look for tour operators. The standard procedure for exploring the salt flats and surrounding area is to book jeep tours that come with everything included for about 100 dollars per person. We ended up cramming fourteen people into two jeeps, which was super uncomfortable for the people in the back. We first went to a “train cemetery,” which is a spooky way of saying an abandoned train, a remembrance of the mining boom in that area. Our guide also let us in on his life story; how he survived a mining accident, why he has no teeth, and why his nickname is llama (because both he and male llamas have over fourteen females).
We then ate llama meat for lunch at a little outpost on the road.
We then drove some more before coming to these cool rock formations. One of the most entertaining parts of this was a huge group of gringos that had formed two circles and were chanting “pachamama,” which means Mother Earth in Andean traditions, while playing Native American drums from the States as well as a didgeridoo. Meanwhile, all of the Bolivian drivers were sitting on rocks laughing at the spectacle.
We spent the night at a little house in the middle of nowhere, where we were treated to traditional music by school children.
Sunday, February 6th
We got up and went to the Red Lagoon, so named for the color that it takes when sunny. All over the tour we saw tons of flamingos, and this lake was no exception.
After lunch we saw some geyser and hot pots. Our guide got really excited by the whole thing, dropped his pants and underwear, and decided to warm his butt and genitals with one of the steam vents. I didn’t get a picture of him doing this, but you can tell he really likes steam vents from the picture below. The whole thing was like Yellowstone, without any rules or boardwalks. You could see some places where people had almost fallen into one of the formations.
Then we went to a hot spring where we got to bathe for about a half an hour.
We then saw more lagoons, including Green Lagoon, before going to our new “hostel.” We spent that night at 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) above sea level.
Monday, February 7th
We got up super early and saw more rock formations and drove through more desert.
The whole time we were really rushing so that we could have time to get to the actual salt flat. This time of year the whole thing is covered in water, which our driver was not super happy about because it’s hell on the car. It was incredible, the whole thing reflected the sky perfectly and I had never seen anything like it before.
Our guide got excited again and took off his pants...
Tuesday, February 8th
We got back from the salt flat that night, and waited in the train station for a couple of hours after eating since our train was supposed to leave at 1:20 am. We all boarded what we thought was our train at one, and just passed out we were so tired. We got up at like 6 am to realize that we hadn't moved. Apparently, the rain had kept the rest of train from showing up, which the car we spent the night in was supposed to attach to. We ended up leaving at 8:20, only a seven hour delay. We got back to Oruro at around four pm, and promptly boarded another bus. Two hours into that trip, however, the bus broke down. We waited and watched Jackie Chan for two more hours, until another bus came and picked us up. While we had planned on getting back to Cochabamba at like 2 in the afternoon, I was back at my house by midnight. It was, to say the least, a long day.
Hope all is well! I only have two and half more weeks here, which is out of control. This has gone insanely fast.
Abraços,
Cameron
Friday, February 4th
It was raining super hard when we all awoke, met up, and made our way to the bus station for our 9 o’clock bus. From Cochabamba, we traveled four hours to Oruro, getting there by lunch time. We ate, then boarded our train to Uyuni, a seven hour trip. The highlights of that afternoon were being forced to listen to Hotel California five times and watch several different Jackie Chan movies. Bolivian public transportation makes sure to provide you with very, very loud entertainment the entire time you travel. We got to Uyuni late at night, found out that our hostel had decided to ignore our reservation, found another, and crashed.
Saturday, February 5th
We got up early to look for tour operators. The standard procedure for exploring the salt flats and surrounding area is to book jeep tours that come with everything included for about 100 dollars per person. We ended up cramming fourteen people into two jeeps, which was super uncomfortable for the people in the back. We first went to a “train cemetery,” which is a spooky way of saying an abandoned train, a remembrance of the mining boom in that area. Our guide also let us in on his life story; how he survived a mining accident, why he has no teeth, and why his nickname is llama (because both he and male llamas have over fourteen females).
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
We then ate llama meat for lunch at a little outpost on the road.
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
We then drove some more before coming to these cool rock formations. One of the most entertaining parts of this was a huge group of gringos that had formed two circles and were chanting “pachamama,” which means Mother Earth in Andean traditions, while playing Native American drums from the States as well as a didgeridoo. Meanwhile, all of the Bolivian drivers were sitting on rocks laughing at the spectacle.
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
We spent the night at a little house in the middle of nowhere, where we were treated to traditional music by school children.
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
Sunday, February 6th
We got up and went to the Red Lagoon, so named for the color that it takes when sunny. All over the tour we saw tons of flamingos, and this lake was no exception.
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
After lunch we saw some geyser and hot pots. Our guide got really excited by the whole thing, dropped his pants and underwear, and decided to warm his butt and genitals with one of the steam vents. I didn’t get a picture of him doing this, but you can tell he really likes steam vents from the picture below. The whole thing was like Yellowstone, without any rules or boardwalks. You could see some places where people had almost fallen into one of the formations.
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
Then we went to a hot spring where we got to bathe for about a half an hour.
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
We then saw more lagoons, including Green Lagoon, before going to our new “hostel.” We spent that night at 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) above sea level.
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
Monday, February 7th
We got up super early and saw more rock formations and drove through more desert.
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
The whole time we were really rushing so that we could have time to get to the actual salt flat. This time of year the whole thing is covered in water, which our driver was not super happy about because it’s hell on the car. It was incredible, the whole thing reflected the sky perfectly and I had never seen anything like it before.
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
Our guide got excited again and took off his pants...
 |
| From Bolivia Blog |
Tuesday, February 8th
We got back from the salt flat that night, and waited in the train station for a couple of hours after eating since our train was supposed to leave at 1:20 am. We all boarded what we thought was our train at one, and just passed out we were so tired. We got up at like 6 am to realize that we hadn't moved. Apparently, the rain had kept the rest of train from showing up, which the car we spent the night in was supposed to attach to. We ended up leaving at 8:20, only a seven hour delay. We got back to Oruro at around four pm, and promptly boarded another bus. Two hours into that trip, however, the bus broke down. We waited and watched Jackie Chan for two more hours, until another bus came and picked us up. While we had planned on getting back to Cochabamba at like 2 in the afternoon, I was back at my house by midnight. It was, to say the least, a long day.
Hope all is well! I only have two and half more weeks here, which is out of control. This has gone insanely fast.
Abraços,
Cameron
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