my trip this week to the department of Santa Cruz, was filled with adventure, up and downs, heat, bugs, organic gardens, rainforest burnings, bolivian conflict, yucca, platano, bread, stomach issues, popsicles, dirt and delicious fried dough. also a small side now, i am tanning in from of my window of my apt right now, have maybe been sitting here for 5 minutes and my skin is turning pink. THE SUN IS SO STRONG HERE.
the journey began at 4:30 am on thursday morning when i woke up to get ready to go to the airport. my two friends on the program slept over at my house the night before because i live closer to the airport making getting there much easier. so we woke up at 4:30, had some tea and went downstairs to wait for the taxi that we had called the day before. he never showed up so we just found another taxi driving roaming the streets of la paz at 5:20 am and he took us to the airport. when we got to el alto, the city above la paz where the airport is, i nearly turned into an icicle. i thought la paz was cold? holy S***, el alto is frigid. anyway, we got on the plane safe and sound and i had a window seat facing illimani ( the famous mountain) from the plane. i have some prettty sweet pictures that can be seen below.
we got into santa cruz at around 8:00, the flight is an hour, and were picked up in a huge white van and driven to our first hotel. there we took a nap and then headed out to lunch. my lunch consisted of homony off the cob and a stew of flavorless peppers onions and potatoes. first warning sign that i was going to be miserable food wise on this trip. later that day we went to a b'hai university to have a lecture with other students from the university. my attention span equaled that of a fly so for 2.75 hours i learned nothing besides how bolivian students act in class and that my pen wasnt of good quality ink. the students came in about 45 minutes late, chatting, sodas in hand. santa cruz is very very diffferent from la paz, it is in the low lands, tropical, VERY white, the "center" of economic development for the country and snooty. so the students were all dolled up, the girls had their mirrors out to do their makeup in class, passed notes, etc. i think you get the picture. after the lecture i wanted to punch a wall because i was so bored, but instead we went to dinner with the professor who gave the lecture. i sat farthest away from him so that i didnt have to as questions or pretend to be interested. i had a salad for dinner with a side of steamed vegetables. my last delicious meal for 4 days. that night we also went to a "parade" for the 200 year aniversary of the city. it wasnt very interesting or fun so we went to a bar instead. then we went to sleep.
in the morning, we left for San Julian, a small town about 2.5 hours away. the town was started in the 1950's after the revolution in bolivian. agrarian reform tried to give large plots of land in the low lands to campesinos from the high lands ( potosi, sucre, la paz, oruro). so the town of San Julian is made up of people from the high lands, living in the low lands. as you can imagine, this makes for some interesting conflict. i interviewed the owners of the place we had breakfast at every morning and the wife is from the low lands and the husband is from the high lands. they dont live near the wifes family because her family does not approve of the husband. the reform was meant to give land to people so that they could grow their own food and live off of what they grew, instead, because of pressures and the need for an income planted large plots of soy, sorgum, corn and rice. this is all exported to brasil now. there are also TONS of menonites that live in san julian and they ride around in their horse and buggies and have enormous plots of land to grow on. the most incredible thing about the drive in was the "chaqueos." this is when they take huge plots of rainforest and burn it down to make space for growing these raw materials. the entire city ( of santa cruz and san julian) smelled like fire and you couldnt see very far away. it looked like the world was ending. the airport was closed for a few days because visibility was so bad. here are some pictures:
when in san julian we met with the local government, put on a workshop about the environment: water, trash and burning of the rainforest, which turned into a 3.5 hour discussion and talk about the problems with all three of these items in san julian. it was incredibly interesting and incredibly hot in the room. it was maybe 98 degrees with 200% humidity and no fan. i almost fainted several times. but anyway, the conclusion is that access to water here is a huge problem and that with global warming is has gotten much worse. it was so so so dry there that my eyes were burning from the dirt that the wind swept up. there are little ponds all over that are filled with trash and pigs taking naps. a bottle of water in san julian costs 8 bolivianos and in santa cruz it costs 4. water is a huge issue. we also got the chance to go to a small "chaco" which is like a small farm of one of the women from the local government. we drove for 30 minutes and walked through her plot filled with cows and a banana tree to her well and small "huerta" or garden. there is a bolivian ngo called renase that is working with local people to help them start small edible gardens. so dona lorenza showed us hers. she is growing some kind of kale, potatoes and onions. she was telling us about how her neighbors on both sides have huge plots of land from growing sorgum and soy and that they use planes to drop pesticides and that these pesticides get on her plants. basically it turned into an incredibly interesting discussion about food sovereignty and organic produce. the next day i went to a workshop in a SUPER small pueblo, about 1.5 hours away from san julian called san miguel de puerto rico to see what this co-op of women is doing. they are growing organic produce in their backyards to feed their families and make their children healthier. they offered us food, which for people who basically have nothing is a HUGE gesture and we ate lunch with them. they are all originally from the high lands but have lived in the low lands for 20 something years. we walked around and they each showed us their gardens in their backyards filled with cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes, kale, lettuce, herbs of every kind, celery, watermelon, squash. water is a very big issue here as well. all the plots were extremely dry and im not quite sure how anything was growing. on our way back there wasnt any transportation to bring us home, probably because we were in the middle of nowhere, so we found a neighbor with a car to drive us. 12 people fit into a 5 seater car. my friend jenny and i were in the trunk with 2 full grown men and a large woman. i loved every minute of it. i felt like i was really getting to experience bolivia and see the reality of life for most people here.
the next day we headed back to santa cruz and got back a little late because of traffic and a popped tire. i had never wanted protein more in my life, because the entire time we were in san julian i ate french fries, tomatoes bread and apples. i ran over to the super market and shoved a bunch of brazil nuts, walnuts and almonds into my mouth and then went into a protein coma. it felt great. the rest of the time in santa cruz we kind of just hung around, slept a lot and interviewed a leader from the el alto of santa cruz called plan 3,000. he told us about conflicts in 2008 in which people with darker skin were beaten in the streets, bombs were sent to community leaders in the mail and death threats were a part of every day life. the conflicts have cooled down a little bit now, but the tensions and memories will always be there. that night for dinner we went to a funny restaurant with typical food from santa cruz. the waiters were wearing costumes. we ordered this drink called chiccha which is fermented corn with cinnamon and cloves. SO goood. the rest of the menu was basically meat so i had steamed carrots, peas and beets with yucca for dinner. i also had some "chuno" which is dehydrated potato and super delicious. at this restaurant our bus boy was the most attractive person i have ever seen. also the shyest. the next day we explored around for a few hours and then left for the airport. now altitude is a reality again and i have become semi-pacena (someone from la paz) with my wad of coca in my mouth to help ease the effects of altitude. it feels good to be back at home and frigid. 
