Sam coined the phrase “Bolivian Party Trick” our first day here, at the annual festival in Carmen Pampa. It basically means something that is very commonplace here in Bolivia but seems crazy or unexpected or even unbelievable to an outsider. I’m going to talk about three today, this is not an exhaustive list, just the first three I came up with.

This first one is where the name came from.

They love their parties here, I’ve said that. I love their parties too. They are so different from how we do things in back in the US. Many of the differences are really just twists on customs I’m familiar with from home. They still dance - just in long awkward lines, they still talk to each other in really friendly ways - but by about 10 pm even the old people are a little more “handsy” than I’m used to, and they still bring drinks for everyone to share. But whether it’s a liter bottle of beer or a warm milky alcoholic mix served from a gas can it comes with the same plastic cup as it is passed/carried around. The thing about it is it’s just one cup per beverage, not per person. The ratio is probably around 10 to 1, ten people for every one cup. Don’t worry it’s still hygienic. After you slam a cup (you have to hurry others are waiting) you vigorously flick whatever is leftover on to the ground – that should take care of the bacteria right?

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You know how when you buy mayo in the states it comes with this little warning on it that says "refrigerate after opening." And you know how when you don’t refrigerate it and like leave it in a warm place for a while it goes bad really fast. And how if you ate if when it was bad it would sort of make you sick. Yeah, well not surprisingly all that is true in Bolivia too. Mayo goes bad fast, can make you sick, and really should be kept in the fridge instead of the sun. One of the first weeks I was here I got burned by the most dangerous of all party tricks. I was sitting down to one of my first plates of street vender fried chicken. I had a sheltered, weak stomach and I was trying to stay on guard. I asked for it with no condiments, because I didn’t trust them. Anyway, it was dry and too salty, the fries were soggy and I lost resolve fast.

Before I know it I was reaching for the most harmless thing on the table, the mustard. It was warm to the touch, and sticky on the outside. Who cares I thought, it’s mustard, no one gets sick from mustard. I tipped it upside down and a runny stream of 85 degree, weeks old, yellow and white, bacteria heaven bathed my chicken - like a protester on the wrong end of a fire hose. It took me a few seconds to realize that this wasn’t just some weird Bolivian mustard I would have to get used to but learn to love like hotdogs or low fat ice cream. That this was MAYONASE improperly cared for and thoughtlessly disguised as a much more benign condiment. A veritable Trojan Horse of e-coli, selmenella, or whatever deadly bacteria would thrive there . But what could I do? There I was 22 years old, a little scared, really confused, and so concerned about not offending cultural norms that I ate it and even called it RICO twice.

P.S. I didn’t really get any sicker from that than I was in general for the first three months.

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So I have this hotel I always stay at in La Paz, the Angelo Colonial. It’s alright. Pretty cheap, with friendly staff that stays up all night watching dubbed Simpsons episodes in case someone comes home late and needs to get in. They still manage to afford extras like a guest kitchen and hot water. They cut some corners of course, like clean sheets and toilet paper, but life is about compromise. Anyway one of the best things about this place is the liquid soap they give you when you check in. It comes in this clear heavy duty plastic pillow shaped bag. It’s really heavy duty, any reasonable amount of tugging or tearing doesn’t even leave a scratch. It is sealed perfectly with no intentional imperfections to ease opening. The only reliable way I have found to open these things is with my teeth.

Anyway I don’t know where they are made but somewhere at a lower altitude because they come really pressurized, (stop me if you have heard this one before), but of course as you are tearing the plastic with your teeth the watery soap sprays out with considerable force, right into the back of your throat, every time.

It would be silly to expect these soaps to come with a “contents under pressure warning” in fact they come marked as “baby shampoo” with a picture of an adorable little kid on them – it’s cute but very misleading. By now this shouldn’t surprise me, this isn’t the kind of place where nothing comes with a warning.

Thanks for reading,

LOVE

andy

Toady we will be discussing ruins from the Bolivian Altiplano to the Sacred Valley in Peru. These Incan and pre-Incan wonders have captivated generations of American and European tourists while representing indigenous pride and history shared across the Andean Region. Today the pride is as strong as ever, and why shouldn't it be. The nobleness of the pre-Columbian Incan Empire stands in stark contrast to the humble life of an indigenous person in Latin America today, and it is completely incomparable to the lives they lead as property only a few generations ago.

A new trend is emerging that has drastically changed the face of tourism in this part of the continent. In the recent past only the wealthiest Latin American nationals were able to afford to travel and see attractions like the UNESCO World Heritage Site: Machu Picchu, but continuing economic development in countries like Brazil, Chile, and Argentina has brought a lot more regional tourism to the hotspots that used to be out of reach.

But what does heritage really mean, and what is its significance in this context?

HERITAGE - "something that comes or belongs to one by reason of birth" (Dictionary.com 2009)

And it's important because based on this definition the changes occurring are extremely important and welcome. More people than ever are having access to their roots, access that has traditionally been limited to outsiders. That's a great thing. There is a catch, the poorest people still can't afford to take trips like this, can't even afford to take the time off work. I think you should all know by now that these people are also the most indigenous, and the direct decedents of the people who built these wonders. Spanish speaking or not a lot of white faces walking around Machu Picchu is not heritage, not yet.

I've got a story. Last year a group of my tourism students took a trip. They had been saving up money for a while and decided that if they were going to have careers in tourism they should know the tourist attractions in the area. They headed northeast to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca, and then north through Puno in Peru and on to Cuzco. They slept on busses and ate fruits and bread from markets. They had week-long budgets that would have looked more like the dinner bill for American tourists. By the time they reached Cuzco they barely had enough to make it home again, and a trip to the ruins was absolutely out of the question because after admission and transportation were calculated the number was equal to a Bolivian professionals monthly salary. So they went home after seeing some cool stuff (but nothing like the wealthy foreigners were seeing), openly acknowledging that they would probably never see the ruins unless working as a guide for foreigners.

Lets talk ruins now. Machu Picchu, pictured above is the most well know site in South America if not the world. It was unknown to the Spanish during their conquest of the Incas, and as a result is very well preserved. It wasn’t "discovered" by outsiders until 1911, but almost immediately it achieved massive fame. In 1916 National Geographic dedicated an entire issue to the ruins. No one knows exactly what the city was used for or even how many people lived there. Hypotheses range from fortress to royal getaway. Regardless the location is definitely secluded. Here’s the path that comes through the back door. It wraps along this cliff face for a long way and is extremely narrow, only a couple feet wide in some places. The drop-off is a lot bigger than it looks, hundreds of meters down to churning muddy rapids.

Regardless of it's precise usage most experts are pretty sure the city was important because of the high quality masonry. The stone blocks are cut to fit together PERFECTLY. The pic below shows what at first looks like shoddy construction. But its not, it's just unfortunate placement. The ruins lie on fault line in a very active geologic zone. Over the years the ground has been moving under this structure causing it to come apart.

Some of the blocks used in construction are huge, like the one featured at the bottom center of the above pic. The rock type came from relatively distant quarries and it is believed that stones like this were moved by hundreds of men at a time using some type of rope or lever. There are two lumps on the lower part of the big stone. People think they are leftover from moving, and were in the process of being sanded away.

The pic on the right shows a cut rock that is thought to have been used by the Incas as some kind of meteorological calendar. Which is cool enough but the modern story associated with it is probably more memorable.

So the local beer brand Cusqueña was filming a commercial. They were using a big heavy video camera suspended above the rock on the right. They were swinging it all around and getting real close then real far away. Anyhow someone didn't quite secure the camera and it fell during the shoot. It hit the corner of the stone and actually chipped a section (not shown) off. Sort of ironic considering the beer features a pic of the ruins on every bottle.

People have been very critical of the fees associated with seeing the ruins. At every turn one is paying prices that would be high in the US, usually what they are receiving is basically free anywhere else. The 2hr/3hr train ride is over $30 each way. Admission is $20-40 for students/non-students. Busses from the town of Aguas Calientes to the ruins are $7 each way, it's a pretty short ride, the rout can be walked in about and hour and a half. All told it can cost upwards of $100 just in admission and transportation.

Another criticism of the park is the damage tourism is causing both ecologically speaking and in terms of physical damage to the ruins. Simply too many people are being allowed into the park. The UN has declared it one of the most endangered historical sites on Earth.

Outside of Oyantaytambo in Peru's Sacred Valley are some ruins that are almost completely overlooked by tourists. They are all that is left of a city named Puma Marka that was built by the Incas. It was inhabited until the Spanish came and burned it. Its residents were enslaved and sent to nearby mines.

The construction quality though impressive was not like that of Machu Piccu. This area was obviously of more modest usage. Some of the buildings were three stories tall, the irrigation system is extensive. Water is brought from mountaintop springs through brick canals along hillsides where is it used (even today) to irrigate crops. Some of these canals are miles long.
No one knows much about the village, even its population would be a big guess. The name comes from the shape when viewed from above... a puma. Sacred to the Incas the Puma can be see by those with powerful imaginations in building shapes, rock formations, and even the shape of water bodies across Andean America.

The last ruins we will discuss today are found on the Isla Del Sol island of the sun in Lake Titticaca. This island is considered on of the most important religious sites in Inca culture. It is supposed to be the birth place of Viracocha or the creater god who would later make humans out of rocks found on the shores of the lake. His head is the pizza slice shaped thing in he middle of the following pic.

The 12 year old that took my family and I around the Island guided our attention to this God by hucking rocks at his head.

There are 800 families who live on the island. Tourism and agriculture support the economy. On the island there are about 180 individual ruin sites most from Incas and Tiwanakus. These ruins include massive terracing projects that cover the entire island and make agriculture possible even today. Jacques Costeau came here in 1979 and discovered ruins a few meters underwater. Some claim these ruins to be the lost island of Atlantis.

That's all for this week be sure to tune in again soon when for when we discuss BOLIVIAN PARTY TRICKS.

Vicuña– a relative of the llama with the finest fur of any animal. It can only be sheared once every three years, and in Incan culture it was illegal for anyone but royalty to wear garments made from its fur.

After weeks on the road, and a welcome visit from my family I am back, with resolve to keep posts coming EVERY WEEK.

Summer classes are staring up, I am co-teaching a mixed level English class to about 20 tourism students who failed this last semester. English has been a major problem in that department where the upper two levels passed only small minorities of their students. Throughout the university many students and faculty view the English program as of secondary importance. The students especially have trouble grasping the role of English as a key language in the world economy and of the world economy's influence in Bolivia.

Some parts of this and other South American countries are extremely isolated. Communities where children still grow up speaking an indigenous language and have to learn Spanish as a second language are not unheard of. All the UAC-CP students I know of speak fluent Spanish, but many grew up in very isolated places. Though in some ways Bolivia is modernizing quickly (we have internet in Carmen Pampa) changes are recent and not occurring in all areas. Most students have little concept of globalization. Almost none have left the country and a surprising few have even traveled past La Paz. Needless to say they don’t see a use for English, especially the level of English they will have after the just two semesters they receive.

In most fields of study this isn’t the end of the world. In the field of tourism however we believe that English is essential for the success of the graduates. The first tourism class will be graduating in February (for many this is pending their completion of my summer term English class). It will be interesting to see where their degree takes them. Although tourism exists in Bolivia it is still an undeveloped industry. English or not these students have a fantastic opportunity to carve out niches and create the kind of new eco-tourism that, in theory, could help Bolivia grow in a more sustainable way.

I saw a lot of great stuff these last few weeks. Most notably ruins at Machu Picchu. I want to talk about them a different time, in more appropriate detail. I got to see Peru. A lot of stuff was really similar to Bolivia. One of the most important differences was how much more developed their tourisim industry is. As a result everything costs about 2x as much as here. There was a lot of English, most of the signs in touristy areas were in English, sometimes ONLY in English. Also most of their treasures have been preserved much better than those in Bolivia. All over the city of Cuzco are beautiful Incan walls, or portions of them.

Kate, her friend Chelsea, and I stayed in a town called Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley leading up to Machu Picchu. It had more of an old world feel than anywhere I have been. Absolutely pinched in a series of cloudy steep mountains the town had been destroyed and later rebuilt by the Incas in the 15th century. The streets were all narrow, and lined on either side by high tapered walls that dated well before the arrival of the Spaniards. There is a lot of rain this time of year, and after an especially heavy outburst we were treated to this rainbow.

Later we did some hiking and came across these corn fields.

Corn exists in Bolivia although we don’t eat much of it in my area. But in this part of Peru we saw it everywhere. It isn’t like corn in the US. As a plant it isn’t that different, shorter and not grown in as huge a quantity. But the edible part is novel to the point that Kate thought it was garlic when someone was selling it off the cob. That should give you a mental image, right? Garlic cloves with out the skins. Yellowish white, waxy, and BIG. I read a book that says as recently as 10 years ago (before recession of glaciers) the kernels were the size of AMERICAN QUARTERS. They aren’t a lot smaller than that now. They aren’t sweet and juicy like the corn you can get in MN. Eating it I thought that someone had found a way to grow yucca (starchy tuber, like a dry potato) on a cob. It’s filling, and probably nutritious, but not quite delicious. When they pop it becomes a substance indistinguishable from Styrofoam packing peanuts, which is sold to unsuspecting tourists all over La Paz and Cuzco. Here is Kate choking a bite down right off the cob.

The agriculture in this part of Peru (and Parts of Bolivia) is unique and a testament to the pre Spanish civilizations who lived here. Below are shown terraces (much different from those used in Coca production) that were built by the Incas. They are not on every hillside but they are on many and even some slopes that are essentially cliffs. The walls are high, 5-7 feet with flat areas of varying size depending on the grade of the hill. Not all are still used for agriculture but they are all still in GREAT shape. In some areas they constitute an enormous % of the hillsides. I can’t imagine the amount of work that went into their construction, even with modern tools it would be a monumental task to build them all.

Cristos – or big statues of Jesus overlooking cities from hilltops are really popular around here. The most famous is in Rio de Janero, Brazil (Christ the Redeemer – voted one of the NEW 7 WONDERS OF THE WORLD). Cochabamba has one too, the biggest on Earth at 46 meters. Kate and I hiked to Cuzco’s, which was only about 20 feet tall.

I thought this was such an interesting and contradictory image of Christ, surrounded by barbed wire he looked less like a savior and more like a Soviet-era political icon.

I hope you all had a good holiday season.

LOVE

andy