happy new year!
our bus journey from cusco to la paz was surprisingly uneventful. i managed to sleep for the majority of it, thankfully, so the 13 hours passed quickly. the border crossing was the worst part. we basically stood in a queue in the rain for 3 hours, waiting for our passports to be stamped, which took no more than 60 seconds.
i have yet to get used to the constantly changing weather at altitude. in cusco, it's freezing in the mornings, but as soon as you go outside - as long as the sun's out - the coat and fleece that are necessary for keeping warm indoors are shed within about two minutes. it's similar in la paz.
la paz is chaotic. i've never seen so many minibuses (tiny vans with sliding doors) in such a small amount of space. the ladies who hang from the sliding doors shouting their destinations (probably) do so in such a perfectly monotone fashion that the collection of those continuous monotones builds up to some kind of marvellous - if slightly cacophonous - chord, which morphs slightly with every new arrival and departure. they have chicken buses here, which are more or less identical in appearance and sonority to those in guatemala, save for the fact that they are half the length. they aren't half the volume - although they don't seem to use their ferry-like foghorns quite so gratuitously.
there is also a vast number of police officers. i'd read that there is a police officer on every corner in cuba, but that was an exaggeration. and while that's still not the case in la paz, i've seen packs of officers wandering around together, all seemingly in slightly different regalia, which causes me to question whether there's some sort of police league or something.
it was great to see will and ellen, and to stay in one place for more than a couple of days. we visited the 'moon valley' - a curious formation of sandy rocks which somehow hasn't collapsed yet, and the zoo, in which most of the animals seemed either to be depressed or to have gone mad. indeed, as sally pointed out, most of the big cats retraced their exact same steps, such that they had made quite visible paw marks in the ground.
we spent christmas day the only way a christmas day should be spent. that is, eating lots of food and watching lots of films. one passer-by proclaimed, "come on - it's christmas!", but i´m not sure what more he wanted from us. we WERE doing christmas, after all. we rounded up with a hearty monopoly game, and i learnt that if you're hard-up for cash, you should go to jail.
the day after will and ellen left was pretty much a write-off, since i spent much of the early hours becoming intimately acquainted with the toilet and (thankfully) nearby basin. i´m not sure what has been the cause, but it´s been a long time since i´ve felt as utterly drained as i do now. my first meal in about 36 hours was a banana, followed a bit later by some chips. the 50-hour mark saw another half-banana, half a bowl of pasta and some pringles. still, sally is taking very good care of me.
there have been countrywide riots taking place in bolivia over the last few days, due to evo morales' (president) decision to rise petrol prices by 73% overnight. at first i heard that this was in direct response to some bolivians smuggling petrol to neighbouring countries, where petrol is considerably more expensive, and where a hefty profit can therefore by made. i've since learnt, however, that the government had been subsidising petrol for the last decade, meaning that petrol prices are unusually low for the area - but that the price was set to change around now (10 years later).
either way, there is a large gap between rich and poor here, and the vast majority are understandably furious at this price-increase, because they simply can't afford it. our bus to cochabamba, for example, took 3 hours just to get out of la paz due to a toll gate at the outskirts of town being completely blocked off by thousands of banner-wielding and firework-throwing protesters. the military-like riot police, replete with helmets, shields and nasty-looking guns, seemed to be doing something along the lines of retaliating, and we had to try a couple of other routes before being able to leave the city. watching the news the next day, we would see this same toll gate up in flames.
we'd decided to stay in la paz for a couple of days after will and ellen left, mainly due to these riots and roadblocks. but i was happy to wait it out a bit as it also meant that my stomach had a bit of time to recover, and i didn't much fancy the idea of another 8-hour bus journey to cochabamba while i was waiting to feel better. i still felt rough when it came time to leave la paz - having eaten wholly insufficient amount in as many as 50 hours - and a couple of hours into the journey i felt as though i'd slipped into the seventh circle of hell... or something equally melodramatic. we'd paid about a third the cost of our bus from lima to cusco for this bus, so the posh seats and televisions were replaced with smelly old ladies and a driver who would stop so that he could buy food, but not so that we could go to the toilet. eventually an older local demanded that i was allowed off the bus, because he knew that i needed a jimmy. the same bus driver refused to draw the curtain at the front of the bus because the passengers in the two front seats hadn't paid for the 'panoramic view' - yet they weren't allowed to pay for it when confronted with this response.
although the scenery en route to cochabamba was impressive in places, most of the settlements were decidedly hole-like. from memory, my analysis of this area will have been fairly unforgiving due to my being on the brink of vomiting for more or less the entire journey - so i will most likely revise my review of rural bolivia in the coming days/weeks that sally and i sally forth between the larger bolivian townships - health permitting.
cochabamba is fairly disorderly like la paz, if slightly toned-down. at roughly 1000m lower than la paz, and being noticeably flatter, it's also decidedly more navigable, and that periodical urge to take a huge gasp is gradually dying down, much to my gratitude. there are also far fewer people, and i feel as though i can actually walk places and think things without being pushed past or bumped into.
despite its size, though, there isn't a great deal to do here, and the riots haven't helped that. sally and i were walking back to our hideout for the next few days and stumbled across an advancing band of what must have been hundreds of locals, carrying more banners and flags and chanting something or other. three ladies who were standing in a shop entrance to one side of us advised that we would do well to go the other way because - as my spanish interpretation skills have it - of our colour. although, that may have been wrong. either way, we circled about and took a hurried re-route home, experiencing along the way an unpleasant sting in the nostrils and the back of the throat that we later deduced must have been tear gas. we later saw on the news the amount of tear gas dispersed by the police, in retaliation to the fairly impressive violence from the protesters. i would enjoy the opportunity to ask locals how they feel about this situation.
one thing cochabamba does seem to have a curiously large number of is hair salons. i would like an explanation for this - such as cochabambinos' hair groes at thrice the rate of other bolivians - but i have yet to receive one. another thing that this place has a few of is large cafe/diner places. we've been to two such diners, with their brightly coloured interiors and extensive menus. they sell a huge array of icecreams and cakes, each of ridiculous colours, which look unbelievably sickly but nonetheless curiously delicious. this illusion was swiftly shattered upon the actual tasting of the colourful foods - although they do make a good omlette, even if it is way too much for one man.
another large procession of protesters was advancing along avenida heroinas (more or less where we're staying) as we were eating breakfast in 'dumbo', one of the aforementioned large diners. the protesters turned their attention to the restaurant, and promptly starting shouting and throwing fruit as they passed. the dumbo staff quickly pulled down the shutters, and soon enough, we were nibbling on our over-sized omlettes in the midst of a lock-in.
my most recent update was scribbled hurridly at the base of the the world's largest statue of jesus:
"sally and i are currently huddled beneath the cristo de la concordia statue atop a large hill in the east of cochabamba. with his arms outstretched in typical statuesque fashion, christ himself looks as though it is he himself who commands this decidedly large thunderstorm from which we are hiding. the 30 or so lookout holes that scale this great white statue are currently lending themselves as the counterparts of a giant wind orchestra which, coupled with the thunder, are creating a particularly dramatic, constant rumble. the iron gate behind which we are hiding is offering little shelter, and the floor just inside the doorway is now covered with water. we're wearing tshirts, shorts and flip flops, so we're ill-equipped for the mad dash we're about to make!"
we were promptly soaked. thankfully, the cable car to and from the statue opened up again even though 4pm had passed, and we were taken back down to the city. after taking a taxi home, during which time we saw the water rise over the pavements (apparently it hasn't rained here like this in years), we decided that we would stay in for new years so as to avoid the danger of any further violent protesting. we don't know anyone here anyway - we've seen maybe 5 other travellers since arriving. we later saw on a count-down-to-new-year show that morales lifted the price increase at 10pm.
it seems, then, that both the national fuel crisis and my health have resumed to normality in time for the new year. following an 'aspirations for 2011' conference over a putrid coffee this morning, sally and i both appear to have come to the conclusion that we are interested in furthering our education come the time of our return to england.
and with that, i bid thee all a happy 2011!
i have yet to get used to the constantly changing weather at altitude. in cusco, it's freezing in the mornings, but as soon as you go outside - as long as the sun's out - the coat and fleece that are necessary for keeping warm indoors are shed within about two minutes. it's similar in la paz.
la paz is chaotic. i've never seen so many minibuses (tiny vans with sliding doors) in such a small amount of space. the ladies who hang from the sliding doors shouting their destinations (probably) do so in such a perfectly monotone fashion that the collection of those continuous monotones builds up to some kind of marvellous - if slightly cacophonous - chord, which morphs slightly with every new arrival and departure. they have chicken buses here, which are more or less identical in appearance and sonority to those in guatemala, save for the fact that they are half the length. they aren't half the volume - although they don't seem to use their ferry-like foghorns quite so gratuitously.
there is also a vast number of police officers. i'd read that there is a police officer on every corner in cuba, but that was an exaggeration. and while that's still not the case in la paz, i've seen packs of officers wandering around together, all seemingly in slightly different regalia, which causes me to question whether there's some sort of police league or something.
it was great to see will and ellen, and to stay in one place for more than a couple of days. we visited the 'moon valley' - a curious formation of sandy rocks which somehow hasn't collapsed yet, and the zoo, in which most of the animals seemed either to be depressed or to have gone mad. indeed, as sally pointed out, most of the big cats retraced their exact same steps, such that they had made quite visible paw marks in the ground.
we spent christmas day the only way a christmas day should be spent. that is, eating lots of food and watching lots of films. one passer-by proclaimed, "come on - it's christmas!", but i´m not sure what more he wanted from us. we WERE doing christmas, after all. we rounded up with a hearty monopoly game, and i learnt that if you're hard-up for cash, you should go to jail.
the day after will and ellen left was pretty much a write-off, since i spent much of the early hours becoming intimately acquainted with the toilet and (thankfully) nearby basin. i´m not sure what has been the cause, but it´s been a long time since i´ve felt as utterly drained as i do now. my first meal in about 36 hours was a banana, followed a bit later by some chips. the 50-hour mark saw another half-banana, half a bowl of pasta and some pringles. still, sally is taking very good care of me.
there have been countrywide riots taking place in bolivia over the last few days, due to evo morales' (president) decision to rise petrol prices by 73% overnight. at first i heard that this was in direct response to some bolivians smuggling petrol to neighbouring countries, where petrol is considerably more expensive, and where a hefty profit can therefore by made. i've since learnt, however, that the government had been subsidising petrol for the last decade, meaning that petrol prices are unusually low for the area - but that the price was set to change around now (10 years later).
either way, there is a large gap between rich and poor here, and the vast majority are understandably furious at this price-increase, because they simply can't afford it. our bus to cochabamba, for example, took 3 hours just to get out of la paz due to a toll gate at the outskirts of town being completely blocked off by thousands of banner-wielding and firework-throwing protesters. the military-like riot police, replete with helmets, shields and nasty-looking guns, seemed to be doing something along the lines of retaliating, and we had to try a couple of other routes before being able to leave the city. watching the news the next day, we would see this same toll gate up in flames.
we'd decided to stay in la paz for a couple of days after will and ellen left, mainly due to these riots and roadblocks. but i was happy to wait it out a bit as it also meant that my stomach had a bit of time to recover, and i didn't much fancy the idea of another 8-hour bus journey to cochabamba while i was waiting to feel better. i still felt rough when it came time to leave la paz - having eaten wholly insufficient amount in as many as 50 hours - and a couple of hours into the journey i felt as though i'd slipped into the seventh circle of hell... or something equally melodramatic. we'd paid about a third the cost of our bus from lima to cusco for this bus, so the posh seats and televisions were replaced with smelly old ladies and a driver who would stop so that he could buy food, but not so that we could go to the toilet. eventually an older local demanded that i was allowed off the bus, because he knew that i needed a jimmy. the same bus driver refused to draw the curtain at the front of the bus because the passengers in the two front seats hadn't paid for the 'panoramic view' - yet they weren't allowed to pay for it when confronted with this response.
although the scenery en route to cochabamba was impressive in places, most of the settlements were decidedly hole-like. from memory, my analysis of this area will have been fairly unforgiving due to my being on the brink of vomiting for more or less the entire journey - so i will most likely revise my review of rural bolivia in the coming days/weeks that sally and i sally forth between the larger bolivian townships - health permitting.
cochabamba is fairly disorderly like la paz, if slightly toned-down. at roughly 1000m lower than la paz, and being noticeably flatter, it's also decidedly more navigable, and that periodical urge to take a huge gasp is gradually dying down, much to my gratitude. there are also far fewer people, and i feel as though i can actually walk places and think things without being pushed past or bumped into.
despite its size, though, there isn't a great deal to do here, and the riots haven't helped that. sally and i were walking back to our hideout for the next few days and stumbled across an advancing band of what must have been hundreds of locals, carrying more banners and flags and chanting something or other. three ladies who were standing in a shop entrance to one side of us advised that we would do well to go the other way because - as my spanish interpretation skills have it - of our colour. although, that may have been wrong. either way, we circled about and took a hurried re-route home, experiencing along the way an unpleasant sting in the nostrils and the back of the throat that we later deduced must have been tear gas. we later saw on the news the amount of tear gas dispersed by the police, in retaliation to the fairly impressive violence from the protesters. i would enjoy the opportunity to ask locals how they feel about this situation.
one thing cochabamba does seem to have a curiously large number of is hair salons. i would like an explanation for this - such as cochabambinos' hair groes at thrice the rate of other bolivians - but i have yet to receive one. another thing that this place has a few of is large cafe/diner places. we've been to two such diners, with their brightly coloured interiors and extensive menus. they sell a huge array of icecreams and cakes, each of ridiculous colours, which look unbelievably sickly but nonetheless curiously delicious. this illusion was swiftly shattered upon the actual tasting of the colourful foods - although they do make a good omlette, even if it is way too much for one man.
another large procession of protesters was advancing along avenida heroinas (more or less where we're staying) as we were eating breakfast in 'dumbo', one of the aforementioned large diners. the protesters turned their attention to the restaurant, and promptly starting shouting and throwing fruit as they passed. the dumbo staff quickly pulled down the shutters, and soon enough, we were nibbling on our over-sized omlettes in the midst of a lock-in.
my most recent update was scribbled hurridly at the base of the the world's largest statue of jesus:
"sally and i are currently huddled beneath the cristo de la concordia statue atop a large hill in the east of cochabamba. with his arms outstretched in typical statuesque fashion, christ himself looks as though it is he himself who commands this decidedly large thunderstorm from which we are hiding. the 30 or so lookout holes that scale this great white statue are currently lending themselves as the counterparts of a giant wind orchestra which, coupled with the thunder, are creating a particularly dramatic, constant rumble. the iron gate behind which we are hiding is offering little shelter, and the floor just inside the doorway is now covered with water. we're wearing tshirts, shorts and flip flops, so we're ill-equipped for the mad dash we're about to make!"
we were promptly soaked. thankfully, the cable car to and from the statue opened up again even though 4pm had passed, and we were taken back down to the city. after taking a taxi home, during which time we saw the water rise over the pavements (apparently it hasn't rained here like this in years), we decided that we would stay in for new years so as to avoid the danger of any further violent protesting. we don't know anyone here anyway - we've seen maybe 5 other travellers since arriving. we later saw on a count-down-to-new-year show that morales lifted the price increase at 10pm.
it seems, then, that both the national fuel crisis and my health have resumed to normality in time for the new year. following an 'aspirations for 2011' conference over a putrid coffee this morning, sally and i both appear to have come to the conclusion that we are interested in furthering our education come the time of our return to england.
and with that, i bid thee all a happy 2011!