Sunday, October 31, 2010

Soroche and Bad English

One of the main guys from the Cochabamba Water Wars of 2003. 1 de Mayo Community. Showing us that there is no water here....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Cochabamba_protests

Vegetarian food in Cochabamba. All you can eat for $2. Can you smell cheap and delicious?

check point leaving Chapare making sure we didnt smuggle any coca leaves with us. i was really excited that we were going to have to get down and be checked but all they did was wave us through. on the way into the Chapare i saw a martial climb this bridge and then jump into the back of a truck to check it. we had to hide our cameras.

juice from camu camu. DELI!
coca leaves being dried and turned so that they can be sold at the market. the coca that is grown in the chapare region of bolivia is much moister but less sweet than the coca grown in the yungas region near la paz.


Cerro Rico, Potosi.
This bad boy was the seat of the $$$ the spanish robbed from Bolivia. They say that with all the gold and silver extracted from this mine during colonial rule by the spanish, a bridge could have been built from Bolivia to Spain out of silver.
A Church in Potosi.

I am standing in front of a famous mine. I cant remember why its famous or what its called but at the moment I was there I knew. Thats why I had my picture taken with it.

planet earth?? no, just the train ride from Oruro to 7,000 miles of natural salt flats. those are REAL flamingos!

Bolivian Altiplano


Salar de Uyuni!
the world's largest salt flat at 10582 square kilometers (4086 sq mi).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salar_de_Uyuni
llamas, islands filled with cactus bigger than cars, american students running around in their underwear at sunset, hotels made of salt and SALT!


Mining my own business. Miners leaving the mine. Me and Jenny pretending to be miners. Me Jenny and Eloise with a woman who sells coca and 96% alcohol to miners. They chew coca all day so that they dont feel nauseous or hungry and drink 96% alcohol so they dont have to think about how hard and difficult their work and lives are. We made a little friend named Alex who was about 8 and ran down the mountainside to sell us rocks. He came inside the mine with us and knew more about the mine than our guide. Makes you think about what education and knowledge mean, why do we give value to certain kinds of knowledge and not others?
This is real my friends. It looks fake, but its real. I know that youre probably asking yourself and the person sitting next to you " is this real? it doesnt look like it." But yea, its real. Traveling from Salar de Uyuni to Potosi by scenic route. Everything was breathtaking and beautiful. I almost threw up from the ZigZag road though. My head also almost exploded from altitude. The highest we were at was 15,000 ft. YIKEZ!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Should I Move to Bolivia? Its pretty incredible here...


here are some pictures of my saturday exploration in El Alto, we were on the radio there! Marco Quispe interviwed us and my friend Luke had to sing an irish song. The radio is called Radio Pachamama and its the most popular radio of El Alto. Super exciting.



here are some pictures of me and my friends marching for Pachamama ( mother earth). There was a big march from La Ceja ( el alto) to the Plaza Murillo ( where all the govt buildings are). It took us 2.5 hours and was a 5.5 mile march. one of the coolest things i have done here so far.