La Paz: Pollution, Protests and Pretty

I wrote this in La Paz and didn´t post. This is a litle over 2 weeks old...

We´ve been in La Paz, Bolivia for a week and a half taking Spanish lessons. There seems to be a protest every other day, though they are nothing serious like violent riots. Simply marching for indigenous rites, or protesting the loco bus drivers for overcharging. Today, the day we were planning to leave, there is a blockade getting out of the city. No vehicals may pass. We hear the Peru border and buses to Cuzco are blocked as well. Not too much of a problem considering the farm we had been in contact with for the last 2 months overbooked and can´t accept us at the moment. Luckily another farmer happens to be in La Paz right now, and we are about to meet with him. His farm seems more organized for production and sale, however he is near the Argentina border near the city of Tarija, which is a lot more south than we planned on being for the moment. We would like to see the jungle, but that would require a lot of backtracking after the farm. We´ll see how plans go. Tarija is a 20 hour bus ride. Brutal.

As far as the protesting goes, it is constant and seemingly inefficient. The reason for protest is generally ambiguous to me. This week we have seen signs about dirty elections, unemployment, bad economy and all calling for ¨a solution¨whatever that may be. Of course I am not involved in the news here, so it is hard for me to understand exactly what is going on. However the protesting seems very controlled. For example, in Peru there were blockades to Cuzco, which of course blockes tourists from Machu Pichu, the number one economy in the area. The government allowed 2 days of blockades before they threatened to bring in the army, and the protesters withdrew. The controversy was (and still is) over water rights, a major issue with privatization of previously nationalistic governments, in South America. No further opinions because like I said, I´m never quite sure what the protests are all about and how the government actually responds in the long run.



Pollution - self explanatory. Cities are dirty and give me asthma attacks. Haven´t been able to get over a cold since Cusco since we haven´t dropped below 7,000 feet in a while. It is cold and dry. Oh, we both have parasites again. I´m getting used to those little guys. I´m fine with them until they decide to have a birthing party and give me gas and/or worse. We got more thorough testing this time and have more serious meds. The problem is that once we get rid of them, we´ll just eat something nasty again. Can´t avoid food and water. Just getting used to being kind of sick.

Aside from the pollution, La Paz is beautiful and probably my favorite city so far. I really like the people here. The only issue we had was being accused of theft at this huge market in the sky (literally, on the highest road in La Paz - 4000 meters or so). Apparently La Paz has the biggest market in South America. Let me change that to black market. One can buy anything from used t-shirts to a car engine. We bought some nicer clothes so we don´t look like scum bags for Andy´s family in swanky Buenos Aires. I learned a lesson about traveling and buying traveling clothes... don´t do it. When traveling I wear what I always wear... jeans, t-shirt or a dress. Sporting stores like REI talk everyone in to these lame hiking pants that you will never want to wear in a city... we sent home about 8 lbs of stuff in Peru, including the hiking pants. Oh well. Lessons learned.

One last thing about La Paz... most of the gringo tourists in their 20´s are looking for cocaine in Bolivia. There are even secret cocaine bars that cater to this demand. The Bolivianos know near to nothing of this cocaine use, as the entire industry is for the US and Europe. Rather, Bolivians chew coca or drink coca tea. The coca leaf is legal and chewed as a subtle stimulant by the campasinos (rural farmers). It is less stimulating than coffee or black tea, and helps with altitude sickness, stomach problems, works as an anesthetic and has other medical uses. It is far from cocaine, but the US and UN have implemented coca irradication policies which terrorize the coca farmers with areal sprays and illegalization in parts of south america. Obviously, the problem is the demand for cocaine, and not the growth of coca leaves for chewing and cultural rituals. The punishment is on the wrong end in my opinion. I wonder if all these white kids would want cocaine if they visited a production ´lab´out in the countryside somehwere, where it takes a whole room of leaves to produce a gram out of cocaine and the workers´ hands and feet degrade from mushing the leaves with acids and chemicals to prep the leaves for refining? Coke doesn´t seem so cheap then... (about $20 USD per gram in La Paz, as I found out from asking some people in our hostal).

Sorry, never took a picture of La Paz. We need to get better at the piture taking thing.