Bolivar and Buses! May 30th, 2011

Big, big day! The four of us interns went with two of the bx boys, Vampi and Darko, to watch Bolivar v. La Paz Football. They are both from La Paz but Bolivar would claim the Bolivian Championship Title if they won this game. It was a game that couldn’t be missed so even though we had a bus to Uyuni to catch at 8 o’clock that night, we headed out to the game at 4.

Parades in the street; baby blue everywhere; jerseys, flags, scarves, fried foods all down the sidewalks. The first half was pretty slow, but that didn’t stop the bottle rockets, screaming men and confetti throwing. When we entered the stadium, the boys were both carrying fast food soda cups and my friend was holding a water bottle. Security stopped her and took the bottle before letting us all in the gates. I asked why they didn’t take their cokes – Darko told me that they only take things solid enough to hurt someone when thrown.

When Bolivar ran onto the field, blue smoke spewed 50ft into the air from the inner corners of the stands and cut-up newspaper confettied the entire stadium and its surrounding dozen blocks or so. 

And when La Paz Football scored the first goal of the game a few minutes into the second half, maybe 20 people cheered, everyone else looked-on horrified. Tension built. Finally, Bolivar got a penalty kick right in the box. Nina and I held hands as we watched the little blue player kick the ball straight over the goal – not even on target. They got it back a few minutes later and did score that time, though. You wouldn’t believe how long South Americans can drag out the word ‘goooal’. The parodies don’t even come close.

Bolivar scored once more and secured their championship title. It was around 6:30 that we left the stadium. We were cold, happy, hungry and not at all packed. We decided we needed to get hamburgers. After some really greasy, mayo covered Pacena hamburgers, we got in a taxi, drove maybe two minutes before coming to a tunnel. We drove inside it and came to a complete standstill. Ninety-five percent of La Paz was either partying in El Prado or on their way to the party via this tunnel. We got out of the taxi and hiked it up to the flat at 7:15pm.

Somehow we all showered, packed and edited an article each by 8 and made it off to Uyuni for three days in the salt flats!

Cochabamba: Part II

Cochabamba: Part II                                                May 19th

You know how I said, “get out a sleeping bag and a pill and enjoy the 8 hours home”? Well, we did just that. Except 8 hours went by, my pill wore off and I woke up in my sleeping bag to Camilla excitedly saying something about a protest. This was about 8am, and we had already been stopped for three hours. I got up and off the bus to find that our bus was 12^th in a line of possibly 80 stopped busses all in a row down the dirt highway.

 I walked up to the front of the line to see what was causing the hold up. There it was. A maybe, two-to-three foot tall pile of rocks covered the width of the road. A burning truck tire, one of those big, thick, ridged ones, sat in the middle of the blockade along with a flag perched in the smoke of toxic burning rubber.

The Blockade

The girls and I watched as the police walked towards the front and, on their way to approach the protesters, they stopped to ask us where we were from and recommended a church up the hill with nice paintings in case we got bored. They told us it would be about an hour until the clearing of the rocks commenced. As we waited, two cholitas came up to shake our hands and see how we were doing. Some of the protesters also came to tell us there was another highway unblocked (not like our bus could magically hop out of line and on to another highway) and one of them even wanted a little dance with Camilla and Georgia.

The girls with one of the surprisingly lovely protestors.

Over all, I was just so impressed with how friendly and approachable everyone was out in the countryside. We were in a village called Calamarka about 50km outside of La Paz. Two women came out to sell quinoa topped with salsa and grated goat cheese – really good actually. This was around 9:30 and this was also around the time that Maryam and I realized how bad we needed to pee. The bus bathrooms were unavailable for use because the buses were all turned off. People were just wondering around everywhere… but it was an emergency. Thank God Maryam found some wet wipes in her bag. We walked about 10 meters off to the side of the road and ducked behind a crumbling mud wall. It was “epic”, as they say.

When we got back to the buses, gringos and Bolivians alike were migrating across the blockade on foot. One guy stopped to tell us that there were taxis on the other side of the wall that were shuttling people to El Alto (about 20 minutes outside of La Paz) for 15bs a person. We decided to wait it out a little bit longer. But around 11am it was clear that the rock blockade would probably stay up all day. A really nice Bolivian guy with a guitar case on his back waited for all of us girls and crossed the wall with us. He even got us a taxi to share with him, his girlfriend and her sister. So the eight of us pushed our backpacks and sleeping bags in the back of the taxi and sped off leaving the protesters to their bottle rockets and activism. Our driver was absolutely mental. I’m from India and even I was a bit unnerved by him. He would swerve to pass by trucks but when he started overtaking them, he’d slow down. So we’re watching cars come come closer and closer to hitting us head on, and just when it looks like a collision was inevitable – he’d make it past the trucks and swerve back onto our side of traffic. This guy who got us our taxi was so great – he got the driver to take us all the way to the La Paz bus station, still at 15bs a pop. He was so nice and helpful and I don’t even think I caught his name.

At noon, we made it back to the seventeenth floor of our Edificio 20 de Octubre. The bus was meant to get in at 6am. I took the best shower of my life and washed 36 exciting hours of Cochabamba out of my hair.

Cochabamba: Part I

Cochabamba: Part I                                                            May 19^th

A guide to Cochabamba, Bolivia in 24 hours ---

• First and foremost – pack a sleeping bag for the bus ride.
• If you arrive before 7am, which, by bus, you will – don’t leave the bus station till at least 9. Nothing and no one will be out, yet.
• When waiting it out at the bus station, don’t go to Andy’s Café. If you do end up eating there, avoid the saltenas at all costs. And I mean all costs. They tasted like cat food wrapped in a yeasty, yellow sugar cookie. But – get Durazno con Agua (peach juice).
• When things do open up, change clothes. You’ll want to bundle up for the overnight bus ride there, but Cochabamba just gets hotter and hotter so put on shorts, a skirt, spanx…whatever, just not jeans. And wear a t-shirt. And sunscreen, comfy but airy shoes, and sunglasses.
• Once you’ve changed, check your bag and leave it at the bus station because carrying it around will not only get really old – you will be treated twice as touristy.
• Start at the markets. If you have a map, you can find it easily enough. It’s called La Cancha. Get yourself a meringue ring (you cant miss them, they look like marshmallow coated doughnuts). They are super sticky but light and not nearly as offensively sweet as they look.
• After La Cancha, go up and see Jesus and the fighting women. It will still be cool enough to walk around so go back to the bus station and from the exit, take a left and keep walking till you see a grassy, empty boulevard. Walk all the way up it and there will be a statue of Jesus surrounded by women brandishing weapons. This is to mark the bravery of the women in Cochabamba during the war for independence in 1812. The city was attacked while the men where off fighting elsewhere so the women protected the city.                                                             You get nice views of the city from up there. My friend discovered that you get even better views from standing on this meter high cement block by the statue. However, you also get embarrassing pictures taken of you when you awkwardly try to get back down. 

• At this point, it’ll be about 11:00 (give or take 30 minutes depending on how long you spend at the market). Perfect time to go to the Plaza 14 of September. It’s a lovely square with a fountain, shaded benches and mass amounts of pigeons. 
•  From here you can walk around the square till you find the corner with Café Paris. While the waiters act snooty enough to make you believe they’re actually Parisian – the crepes are fantastic. We went for a Banana Split crepe. Banana chunks, wrapped in a warm crepe that was smothered in chocolate sauce and whipped cream and then a big scoop of ice cream on the very top. Can’t go wrong.
• Once the crepes and coffee settle, catch a taxi to the Christ of Concordia statue (note – pay no more than 10 bolivianos). This is the biggest statue of ‘Jesuchristo’ in South America (yep, bigger than the famous one in Brazil). For 8 bolivianos ($1.15ish), you get a ticket up and down the cable car that carries you up a hill to the feet of the very massive, very white Jesus.  Take a rest and some pictures and that’s really all to be done up there. (Another note – try to keep wasps out of your cable car, one got in ours on the way down and it is just stressful.)

• It’ll be about 1:30 (again, give or take) and you’ll begin to realize that you got off the bus at 5:10 in the morning, it’s been over seven hours, and you’re tired. So take a taxi back to the plaza, walk straight down the road the Paris Café was on until you come to Mexico Café (they’re very creative with their names in Cochabamba). The burritos here are so good that we ate them for both lunch and dinner. I went pollo, but heard good things about carne, as well. I also recommend the Paradiso juice, which is pineapple, ginger, and crushed ice. All very cheap and very tasty. And the staff is very friendly and will recommend sites to see when asked.
• Take your time eating or go further down the street and you’ll find strings of antique shops with really cool Spanish and Amaryian leftovers.
• At about 3:30, get a taxi to La Palacio de Portales (palace of doors). The English tour doesn’t start till 4 (more 4:30) so head past the Palacio to the Natural History Museum. You’ll see some rusted, swung open gates and an over grown dirt road that leads to what appears to be a run down concrete homeless shelter with a single giant metal beetle sculpture on the outside wall – this is the museum, and yes, it is open. Really, you could miss this place, but it passes time, which is a valuable commodity in Cochabamba. If you do go inside, it’s basically three rooms. The first is filled with fossils, the second with tropical taxidermy, and the third, I don’t know because the three minutes around the taxidermy crocodile and sloth got me so panicked, I literally ran out of the museum with my own fingernail marks in my arm. I hate those things.
• By now, the tour should be ready back at La Palacio de Portales. It lasts about half an hour and takes you through the beautiful home that Simon I. Patino built for himself with his vast tin mining fortune back in the 1930’s. It is called Palacio de Portales because of the giant doors that guests would enter into the ballroom for parties. All of the décor, wood, marble, and artists were brought in from France and Italy, and it is beautiful. Patino never got to live in his palace, though. He died in Buenos Aires on his way back to Bolivia. The tour is definitely worth it. The gardens alone make the trip.
• And now, congratulations, you’ve conquered Cochabamba. Head back to the bus station and book your ticket back to La Paz. We booked ours for 11pm, but 9 or 10 would still give you plenty of time to go back to Mexico Café for another burrito or to Paris Café for a Ratatouille Crepe and some te con limon before you head out.
• Get a sleeping bag and pill and enjoy the 8 hours home.

‘scuse me monkey, I believe that’s MY pocket

Experiencing Christmas in Bolivia was a bit of a culture shock. Instead of kids being screamier than usual and orange C-grade celebrities singing Christmas carols on TV, we had our own nativity scene made up of cheeky monkeys, a bear, turtles, macaws and guineafowls (who look just about as funny as their name sounds).

OK, so it wasn’t a typical Bolivian Christmas. For the holidays we travelled to “La Senda Verde,” a funky little eco-tourism resort in the green little town of Coroico.

You can get to Coroico by minibus from La Paz (about three hours), or ride yer’ bike down the world’s most dangerous road – if you make it all the way down (alive).

Coroico was deliciously green, misty and muggy. It’s also deliciously flat around the town centre – a welcome change after a month of gasping my way around the wavy streets of La Paz.

Apart from learning the Spanish names of each of the animals, we also learned (or at least I did) that bears eat porridge in real life too! And consequently, that some Germans don’t know the story of Goldilocks – weird.

# of dead cockroaches found in our hut: 3

# of beers I consumed at night to attempt to forget about said cockroaches: 3

# of times I woke up in the hut thinking a monkey (or cockroach) was attacking me: 4
# of monkeys who attacked at once to attempt to reap the contents of my pocket: 3
# of moneys who I fell in love with and wanted to squish into my bag to take with me back to La Paz: muchos!

Our favourite Spanish phrase in Coroico: ¿Por qué no?

-Alana Faigen

"etno bar: everyone's favourite haunt"

We (Andrew and Lo) escape the ghosts of calle jaen for live music and beer in one of our favourite haunts

THERE!

Andrew Cummings

(andrew.c@bolivianexpress.org)

Brand New BX Blog!

Welcome to the brand new Bolivian Express blog. Bolivian Express is so much more than just a magazine, so we want to use this space to tell you more about what is happening off the page and behind the scenes of this unique Bolivian English-language publication...


Bolivian Express is a collaboration between Bolivian graduates and students from all over the world. We distribute on the ground, in the skies and online, and we cover culture, society, travel, and so much more.


Since launching in July 2010 we have welcomed over thirty interns to Bolivia's capital, La Paz, to explore the life and times of this country, develop their journalism skills, and relate the results to our readers in print and on the web. Now this blog will give them the chance to tell you more about what they saw, heard and ate, who they met, and where they ended up while living in the ever-surprising city of La Paz. So, it's over to you interns - and readers: enjoy!