7/29/07 -- Roadblocks, assaults, etc.

So, just when you think Bolivia can't get any crazier, it does. What a country, I tell you--it makes Peru look like a very stable place. That said, now that I'm back in Cuzco my friends have been telling me that the strike of professors between Cuzco and Puno only got worse after I left--apparently the Peruvian president has proposed to give funding so that future teachers can take extra preparatory courses, but the teachers are protesting because they'd rather just be paid more. Meanwhile in Bolivia, there was a big controversy about the price of bread, which went up from 4 ´pancitos´ (little breads) for a peso to 3 pancitos for a peso, causing complete and utter chaos. OK, well maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but then add to that huge student demonstrations which resulted in universities in some areas being suspended for two weeks, a giant demonstration of 2 million people in La Paz protesting the proposition of moving the political capital back to Sucre (the country's historical capital), and an enormous mining strike that happened to be centered right where I was, in Potosi. Every single road out of Potosi was closed due to roadblocks, and I ended up being stuck there for five days, originally having planned to be there for two. Not that there's anything so bad about being stuck in Potosi, but there's something incredibly unnerving about not being able to leave a place and having no idea when the situation will change. I was staying in a small, very personal hostel and when I came down for breakfast the third morning the receptionist said to me, 'You seem to be suffering from a bit of anxiety.' I just nodded in consent.

So, I did go on my tour of a cooperative mine, but the day I went was the first day of the strike and not one miner was actually working. It was still an unforgettable experience though; the good thing was that I had my own personal Spanish-speaking guide, since the rest of the people on the tour were Belgian and had there own French guide. My guide was the same age as me, 21, and worked in the mines from the time he was 18 to 20, for lack of a better option. We ended up becoming friends and hanging out for the rest of the time I was stuck in Potosi. Anyway, a couple interesting things about the mines: first, I couldn't believe it when my guide told me that during the colonial period the miners were basically enslaved and would be forced to stay in the mines for up to 6 months at a time without seeing the light of day. When they came out, the sunlight was so shocking to their eyes that many went blind. The production of the coca leaf was supported in this time period because it decreases hunger and made it possible for the workers to go longer periods without rest. Another interesting thing is that in each mine, to this day, there is a little sculpture of a devil to which the miners offer coca leaves every Friday, which is said to watch over those who work underneath the earth. There is also a sculpture of the Pachamama, the female counterpart who watches over the earth (but not the underworld).

After Potosi I went on to Sucre, which is where Bolivia's independence was declared, and which was the capital city until La Paz took its place by sheer power of numbers, I guess. It's also said to be Bolivia's most beautiful city, and has a much different feel than the rest of the country, full of beautiful colonial buildings. The week when I was there there was also a fair of miniatures, which I was really excited about because several people in Peru had told me about this Bolivian phenomenon. It's basically a big market in which all of the vendors sell miniatures of pretty much everything you can imagine--foods, toiletries, clothing, money, alcohol, Bolivian passports, marriage certificates, etc. Other than that, I went to an archaeological site in which some dinosaur footprints have been found (which sounded more interesting than it actually was) and La Casa de La Libertad, the very place where independence was declared which is now a museum. Pretty cool.

After that I went to Cochabamba, one of the biggest cities in Bolivia. I can't really understand why it attracts so many tourists, but I mostly went there to meet up with a friend I met in Cuzco, Carlos, who is kind of a nomadic jewelry maker and happened to be travelling in Bolivia at the same time as me. I was in Cochabamba for three and a half days, during which time I did basically nothing. The first day I was exhausted from having taken an overnight bus, and the second day, well, Carlos and I had the idea of walking up to a lookout point in the city, which involves going up a few hundred stairs. About halfway up, around 3:00 in the afternoon, we stopped and sat down to take a rest, and kind of ended up getting robbed, and the assaulters kind of had knives. Neither of us were hurt and it was mostly just a scare (my assaulter was dumb enough not to notice I had a digital camera, and Carlos somehow convinced his to leave him his passport) but there was the slight problem that we were left with a total of 5 pesos between us. So Carlos, conveniently being an artesan, went to sell some of the jewelry he makes in the street, and we managed to scrape up just enough to get buy until the next day when my parents wired me enough money for both of us to get by in Bolivia for probably about a month (thanks ma and pa).

Anyway, that pretty much ended our desire to do touristic things in Cochabamba. A couple days later we were off to La Paz, and spent the good part of a day there walking around looking for a movie theater playing something decent and not finding one. Luckily Carlos is quite entertaining and somehow we managed to keep each other amused. I spent the next day in a bus back to Cuzco, and here I am, just saying my goodbyes to everyone, trying to explain why I was in Bolivia for two weeks longer than I originally said I would be (this is difficult with Peruvians, who like to ask you the exact date and time you will be returning to see them, despite the fact that they themselves are never on time), and preparing to return to the US on Tuesday.