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