From Santa Cruz to La Paz

Santa Cruz

My last story came from Santa Cruz, which is in the eastern part of Bolivia. The Cruceños are very proud because they (think they) are the richest Bolivia. Much of there money was earned in the cocaine business, but it now seems they are making money with a more honourable business. The city itself is not very interesting, it is breathing an atmosphere of a business city and thus it is very boring to me. No culture, no nice musea, and no nice old buildings.

I stayed four days though in a very nice hostel (residencia Bolivar), that had the best breakfast I have had during my last five months of travel, and what was a big attraction, four very beautiful and cosy toucans. They are excellent beggars, and if they get the chance they will eat all your fruit. In Santa Cruz I celebrated my birthday by going to the third Star Wars movie and because I liked the movie much more than the crap parts 1 and 2, I went the following day again with Genevieve who had returned from Cochabamba.


Curious Toucan


Cochabamba

Cochabamba is my next city in Bolivia. Main reason for going is not Cochabamba but Torotoro (see further down). Cochabamba is in the centre of Bolivia, and is in between the tropics and the Altiplanoos. This means another spectacular road. The first 7 hours the weather is rainy and we are still in the tropics, and thus very green, very dense and a lot of muddy rivers.


Tropics

This seems to be cocaine country, if you leave the main road you have a chance of finding a laboratory where they produce base cocaine. Therefore many police controls during the night and a warning for tourist not to wander around.

Our only stop during this journey to get a fresh nose, I will not easy forget. We arrive in a parking place, which looks like a dump and there is a smell of orange peels, and a somewhat familiar smell, but it is masked by the oranges ( a sort of perfume). When I see a boy urinating against the bus's tires I know the whole parking lot functions like a latrine (yes peeing in public is very popular in Bolivia). When I see the boy doing his dripperdydrip, I wonder why men always have to pee against something? Yes friends, from time to time I can be very philosophical (any suggestions??).

Then after sleeping for 10 minutes the first hills appear, and after 30 minutes I’m in the mountains again. The vegetation starts to change, the sun starts to shine again and after crossing a rim the landscape has suddenly dramatically changed. The tropics are gone, hardly any trees, gone is the green colour. Almost everything is yellow.


Changing landscapes

In Cochabamba I go to the very basic residential Familiar, and in Coch. I will stay three days before leaving again.

Cochabamba is not a very beautiful city, but it is nicely situated in between the hills. I spent some time visiting churches, but in comparison to Sucre, the churches are not very well preserved. I also visit a laguna in the valley: It looks nice, but it stinks! Its mains function is the storage of all sorts of waste water. What a waste!


Smelly laguna

But in Cochabamba they have the Cristo de la Concordia. This is the highest statue of Christ in the world (even higher than the statue in Rio!!!!), and it is INCREDIBLE!!!!! It is almost 40 meter in height, it is white, it is creamy, it is crispy, it is ...............

I always admire these sort of things, the biggest, the highest, the tallest, the thickest, the loudest, the most stupid, the largest bread, the most stenching fart etc. etc. My heroes are in the Guinness book of records. These people are so creative! So hail the man that build this Christian Robocop!


Robochrist

But while comparing Cochabamba to Santa Cruz, I must admit I like Coch. more. The city is very lively, you can find nice shops, and they have an incredibly market where you can buy almost everything. In the market all things are properly arranged which means, all shoe shops next to each other, all tourist stuff in the same place, music instruments by music instruments, soap by the water, etc. Only one shop holder seems lost, in between the clothes shops one man is selling iron wares. I remember a scene in Woody Allen's "Everything you wanted to know about sex but were afraid to ask", in this scene a negro dressed up as sperm cell in between a lot of white sperm cells- is asking himself: "what am I doing here"?


Cochabamba market

And to be honest, there are even beautiful women in Cochabamba!! These cochabamba babes seem to emerge out of nowhere, because in the rest of the country women look awful! I already started to doubt, because the women of the altiplanoos are probably the ugliest people on earth. Even the English ladies in the British Midlands are staggering beauties compared to these short, compressed, fat, round and big ass possessing creatures. The lust to copulate is totally lost, and from remembering my old biology classes at the university (genetics, some characteristics for identifying different species), this almost certainly means there has evolved a new species on the altiplano. I think I even prefer a hippo. And no Wouter it is not because these creatures wear bollard hats. I think that a hippo wearing a bollard hat is incredibly sexy compared to a altiplanita without!


Altiplanita


The shortest day in Cochambamba is different from what I’m used to in Holland. Normally it is dark, its it windy, it is wet, it is HORRIBLE. Here in Cochabamba there are no winters, the temperature is about 25 degrees C, the sun is always shining and warm, only the nights are a little bit cold. A great climate, because it seems summers here are not extremely hot.


Torotoro

Torotoro is a national parque with a beautiful canyon, waterfalls and caves. It is not very touristic, because it is hardly known, and that attracted me too.


On the 23rd I wake up at 5.00 am (ouch that hurts), to take a bus to Torotoro. On a square there is a very old and smelly bus waiting for us. I'm not the only tourist, around me are about 7 other victims of fate.

Here we find another example of the strange planning techniques the local bus companies have. There are only two days when you can get a bus to Torotoro, on Thursday and on Sunday. But when there is a bus, three different bus companies are going at the same time, and there are two trucks that take the rest of the people.


Our bus

We are lucky, the bus is stuffed until there is no more space for even a mouse, and we start the journey of 130 kilometres that will take 9 hours before we arrive in Torotoro. Only one small incident can be mentioned, one of the shock absorbers is blocked, but no worries. You can always find a stone next to the road, and if you hit that absorber hard enough, it will fall (temporarily) back in its original place. When we enter Torotoro I am a little bit worried because the main street in this town looks very crappy, and the only hostel my guide is referring to as good looks awful. Do I have to spend here until next Monday??


Inside the bus

I meet a Dutch girl (Douschka) that tells me that there is another place in town that should be better, and yes we find the very nice alojamiento Los Hermanos, that is far better than the description in my guide, and is run by a very nice family. In the end all seven tourist from my bus end up in this place. A good start of a few very amusing days.

We arrive in Torotoro the 24th of June, and that is the fiesta of San Juan. Why they celebrate this day I don't know (see for yourself if you are interested, b y clicking on the link above), but it means impressive fireworks, street fires, music, dance and booze - a lot of booze-.


Impressive fireworks

Together with Jens (a Swedish guy, but (used to) living in England), Carrie (his girlfriend from England) and Sean (a Belgian guy, living in England too), we join a group of dancing and drinking Bolivians, and they offer us chicha. This is some sort of strong spirit made of maize and a lot of alcohol. Refusing would be very impolite, so although I normally don't like to drink in public, I accept. It tastes a little bit strange. Sour, bitter, watery, and you don't taste the alcohol. Not very good, but it could be worse.


Music, dance and booze

After an hour we leave this party and search for the disco, but unfortunately it is closed, so we join another street party, and this time we consume a lot of beer, and those Bolivians, they are small, but they can drink large volumes of it.

The people in this area speak a mixture of Spanish and Quechua, a native language. I thought that I started to understand Spanish quite well, but in this area it seems I have to start all over again. Sean however is very fluent in Spanish, and can understand them quite well. He even can follow their drinking pace, and I leave him at 200 am (to be continued).

Next day I'm feeling somewhat tired and I decide to do a little hike into the first part of the canyon. I follow the little river in the village, and what was the same in the Canyon the Atuel, very soon the riverbed deepens and after a few kilometres the bed has transformed into a small canyon that gets deeper and deeper when you walk along.


Start of the Canyon


A few km further

There is no water in this part of the canyon this time of the year and now you can see how water is polishing the stones, which gives beautiful patterns and shapes. A little bit further down I see a dry waterfall. When there is water this should be a beautiful place, this waterfall would fall down in 6 stages. So when you are here in February, and probably until the end of April, there is a lot of water, then visit Torotoro.


Water erosion


Six level dry fall

I'm walking along the rim of the canyon, and deep down I can see the waterfall that I would like to see in close up. I can even see people there, but I don't see a path down. I walk further until I can't go further and in this spot I have a great view of the canyon that is at least 300 meters deep in this part. It really gives me the desire to get into the canyon, to get to the water. So on my way back, I find something that looks like a path down. The first 200 down is quite easy, but then the path stops. Because I’m almost down (I think), I’m trying to find a way on my own, but after some thirty meters it gets to steep, and I’m starting to slide down. Luckily I can grab a little tree, and the situation, with some scratches here and there, is under control again. I throw a stone, and after 3 seconds, I hear it hitting the bottom of the canyon. That would have been a nice fall of 45 meters!


Canyon Torotoro

I decide to push my luck no further and walk back to the village to visit another event, the yearly bull fighting! The people the night before were very enthusiastic about this, we really have to see this! So crossing the village and walking through a fantastic valley,


Strange valley Torotoro

I come to the battle field where ca. 300 people have gathered (mainly families) to see the spectacle! When I arrive, the people start laughing because a gringo is visiting their event, and I see that alas no blood has yet been spilled. In the meadow you can see more or less 100 bulls walking around, in between them are standing some men that hit the bulls on the bottom with a very little branch, trying to get them moving.


Fierce bull fighting

It looks as if most bulls have taken a day off! Sometimes a bull is making some noise, to impress another bull that is too near, and normally that helps. The other bull will move to another spot to look at humans that are apparently watching something, but what...?

Now and then bulls have a little fight. They push with their horns against each other, and normally after a few seconds the bull that is weaker is running off to a more relaxing place. All in all it is not a very exciting spectacle, but is fun to watch the people enjoy, eating ice cream and drinking chicha. I think however the spectacle could be much more interesting if you introduce 10 horny lady cows in heat into the combat zone. Those 100 bulls probably would start to behave a little bit differently.


Local families watching the bloody battles!

After an hour the spectacle is over. The main reason for this event is that the peasants are trying to find out, which bulls can stay in the same meadow without fighting. Quite logic to do this to avoid damage to their precious bulls. Yes the Spaniards can learn a lesson from this.

At the end of the day I visit some fossilised turtles that are near this place, and then head back to the hostel where our landlady has made a meal, and together with Jens and Carrie we drink the night away, and talk about the pleasures of travelling.

Next day at 800 am suddenly Sean enters our hostel. He is back after San Juan night, and although he doesn't remember much what had happened after I left him at 200 am (30 hours before), he is sure that he slept for 24 hours and that he has lost (or was robbed) his wallet. But he had a very entertaining night, that is for sure.

I lend him money, and together we hire a guide, Jesus, that is introduced to us by the landlord with the following words: "he is one of the best guides in town", and (now it is coming!) "he is a Christian". That is definitively an argument we can't beat, I never would have want a non Christian Jesus as a guide! So we will follow him for the next two days as he is showing us the way!


Canyon day2

Together we go again to the canyon, but we take another route and we head towards another waterfall "el Vergell". Sean is a nice travel companion, who likes to laugh and to talk a lot. He is fluent in Spanish and is able to make friends with Jesus (lucky him), who therefore shows us some miracles of the area.


Canyon

This time there is a path -out of nowhere- into the canyon, and we find a lot of people on a small hill in the canyon where we can swim in very cold water, but is refreshing after a few hours walking.


Down in the canyon


Vergell waterfallita

On the way back we take a different route back home (Jesus really is the best!), and another miracle we are guarded by a nice dog, that will follow us all the way home, he is very enthusiastic and it is great fun to watch this dog running up a steep climb of about 12 meters. We have to do this climb with a rope! The canyon is great and I spot the place where I was yesterday. That certainly would have been a deadly fall!


The way back to Torotoro, Jezus and dog


Sean climbing up 12 meters, the dog just runs!

Another late night follows with Sean, Carrie and Jens, after a heavy meal, which leaves everybody hungry (our senora Juanita is very nice, but her meals are not very big), which forces us to get more beer in the shop up the street. One of the nice things of travelling is meeting people that have seen many things, done many things and like to tell about it. Only disadvantage is 4-5 hours sleep. And I like to sleep.

The last day in torotoro we will explore the dark! First we walk through hilly landscape, and the mountains around us look strange. First I can't understand why they are shaped that way, it looks like they were pushed up by the mountains behind them, but it is not very convincing when that happens on both sides. Suddenly I see what has happened. This shape can only be caused by big glaciers! A part of the front most hills are scraped of by slowly flowing glaciers, a long time ago. It also explains that most of the bottom of the valley has big rocks and stony surfaces.


Torotoro valley

Most of the earth has been taken away by glaciers. Furthermore in this area you can find footprints of dinosaurs, but they are not in a very good shape anymore. Most of them have been heavily eroded.


Weathered stone


Dinosaurs

Just outside of the caves, my digital camera gets another and this time very annoying damage, but luckily it will function until we get back. The cave we enter is not very well explored and in comparison to the caves you can visit in France f.i. there is no light. And another difference, the way into the cave has no tourist path. So if you want to see something take a torch and creep and crawl on your belly in the mud and in the water. Yes Gollum would love this place!


Sean creeping through cave

But it is very exciting. We see some nice stalagmites and stalactites, and we go to lake with blind fish.


In the cave

Then it is time for Jesus to perform miracles again. He really has knowledge of this cave, and he shows us a place which never has been visited by other tourists (he says, but who dares to think Jesus lies). To get there however is not very comfortable, and I am not very happy that I brought my cameras with me. Crawling through mud more than 30 meters is one thing, but to creep through a narrow hole, which you only can go through if you first do one arm and a part of your body and then the other arm and the rest (and of course your head) is another thing. So this is what the rebirthing technique is all about - I remember everything-


Rebirthing in a cave

The place he shows us is very nice, and he even shows us that is it possible to make music on the small pipes around us. It is almost spiritual.


Small stalagtites make music!

Unfortunately we have to go the same way back, which means another trip through mud and water, and my cameras look like sand pastry! That is something less to be glad about. Because of all this sand I lose one of my lens protector and it falls in a very cold, but not so deep pond. This time Jesus shows that he also is only human, because he is not able to get it out of the water. Back outside my digital camera breathes a last time before it dies. No more life in the poor thing.

That night our landlady makes a special meal, because we are leaving the day after. We all end the meal rather hungry, because Juanita likes to cook modern, but the chocolate cake is very nice, and the beer man is just 100 meters away. And we have to be honest, she is really doing her very best, and the bill she is presenting us is ridiciously low. For 4 nights sleeping, including meals and breakfast I pay 160 bolivianos (=16 euro). Our beer bill was probably something like that too!

After again a late night we leave the next morning in a bus that is even less comfortable then a few days before. I'm sitting in a niche at the right back end of the bus, and poor Jens is enjoying 2 millimetres of space because the seat in front of him is falling apart into his direction. On top of that there is a man standing next to him, who is continuously grabbing his arm, when the bus hits another bump in the road. Even on the roof of the bus there are people sitting, which is very exciting because it always can be that they fall off the bus when it is driving too fast when hitting a bump. Secretly I hope to see people fly! Unfortunately this didn't happen, so no pictures of human birds hitting the deck. Back in Cochabamba I have a headache because I had to sit all the way with my head in a strange angle, and I’m tired because I didn't sleep very much the past 5 days.

In Cochabamba I go to the Hostel Versailles and try to find a new digital camera. Unfortunately the cameras here are far too expensive, so people back home, no pictures probably for some time! At the end of the night I say goodbye to Jens and Carrie (who will go to Chilli hereafter), and Sean, because next day I will leave for La Paz. Thanks for the wonderful time, and for the long and pleasant conversations. Safe journeys Sean, and JC a good time in New Zealand!

During the night I discover that I sleep on a mattress with a hollow backbone, so I not only wake up with a headache, but also with a hurting back and neck, and yes I didn't sleep very well again. But this is also travelling, so don't complain, Wim! to La Paz weaner!


Going to La Paz

La Paz

La Paz, the city is difficult to describe. It is situated in staggering landscape at 3600 m. Near La Paz it is easy to hike the high mountains, one of the highest peaks is around 6400 meters (Mount Illimani), but is also easy to go to the tropics from here. Only 65 kilometres from La Paz there is the village of Coroico that is situated at 1700 meters. In between the landscape changes fast, until you reach the semi-tropics. Further from La Paz you reach the tropics in Rurrenabaque. No need to say that there is a lot to do in and around la Paz.

La Paz is the other capital of Bolivia. In this city the parliament and the main governmental institutions reside. Although I don't think La Paz is a beautiful city, it is difficult not to enjoy it, because it is very lively. On every inch of the streets people are selling stuff. If you can speak of a true market economy, it can be seen in la paz. Everybody is selling to everybody.


One of the many markets

No need to say that if you want to buy cheap DVD's, CD's, games and software, you have to be in La Paz. For 1-2 dollars you can have all six Star War movies on one DVD. Of course this material is not produced legally, but you can see that behind all this, there should be a professional organisation, because everybody sells the same stuff and it looks very original.

On Sunday it is even worse. You can walk for kilometres, street after street, black markets, witch markets (favourite item to sell lama foetuses!), vegetable markets, junk markets etc etc, etc. I can understand why people are poor here, too many sellers, too much of the same stuff, everybody working for themselves, no or hardly any added value, no organisation etc.

The city has an enormous amount of taxis and micros (little buses). The micros are cheap (1 boliviano = 10 eurocents) and the drivers drive like idiots. One rule in Bolivia and certainly in La Paz, if you have a claxon you have the right to go first, and if you cross a street and see a car signalling their lights, then run for your life, because the guy just made it clear that he is not going to stop, in fact he has found a target and therefore he will increase his speed exponentially! One thing for certain, you are never safe while crossing a street in La Paz.

Then there is the army of shoe polishers (mainly little kids, that wear caps, and look as if they are going to rob you, or hee it even looks a bit like they are wearing a burqa, maybe it is Al Qaeda infiltrating the streets of La Paz, to infiltrate from here the cocaine mafia that will be send to the States to…….., I should call George Boob!!) that can be quite aggressive. If you don't ignore them they start arguing that your shoes are really dirty (which is true), and that they should be polished (which is not their business, although it is).

Finally I found a way of putting them of. When they started arguing that my shoes were dirty, I told them only to look at their own shoes which are 9 out 10 very dirty!! Funny was that one pair of shoe polishers got my message and immediately started polishing their own shoes. In a month from now all shoe polishers will walk with shiny shoes!

Beggars are abundant in La Paz. The type that occurs the most are young mothers with 2 or 3 little children. I can't help it, but when I see them I think they really use their children to make easy money. Second thought is even more rigid: "don't fuck if you can't afford children". I know it is an easy judgment, but sometimes you really have the feeling that many beggars choose this life because tourists are an easy target.

F.i. I once gave a guy some money because his mother was so sick (needed money to buy blood, he almost started to cry when I only gave him 5 bol.), and when I followed him he bought somewhere a cigarette. I just patted him on the shoulder and said ¨para tu madre he!!¨. He clearly was not amused. I know this example doesn't prove much but sometimes I really feel irritated.

On my first day in La Paz, I discover reasonly priced digital cameras! And what is best it is an Olympus, and although I’m not a very big fan, I have a big memory card in my old camera with many pictures on it. For 200 euros I buy a camera with more "toeters and bellen" (gadgets), and one of it is more zooming power. So now I can secretly spy on people and hopefully I can make some pictures of ugly altiplanitas in their colourful dressings! To try my newly obtained toy, I walk towards a viewpoint from where you can see the city and Mount Illimani. I'm very content with my new baby, yes mount Illimani comes quite close. I have to walk much less!


Mount Illimani La Paz

La Paz is build in a narrow valley, which means that up the mountains you can see the houses fighting for space. High up La Paz makes contact with El Alto, another town that is growing rapidly and is situated at 4000 metres, and now La Paz/El Alto inhabit 2 million people. It is impressive to see this city, still after a week!


La Paz

After my nice cultural experiences in Sucre, I do some cultural stuff too in La Paz. They have a nice church (San Francisco dating back from 1549), with again baroque interior, but two other churches I visited give me the signal that I have had it. Then to some musea, but I can't say la Paz is in this respect a capital. What you can see here is most positively stated POOR.


San Francisco interior

To give an example I visited the museo nacional de arte, according to a leaflet:

"the museum grants a panoramic overview of the developments in Bolivian art from the colonial through modern and contemporary periods.. and The NMA is undoubtedly one of the most important cultural centers of the country....

After reading this you expect to see SOMETHING and to enjoy a nice afternoon in a museum, but the contrary is true. The museum has some paintings from the period between 1600-1700, then there is nothing and then some modern art, in which I fail to see some line.

The viceroy period paintings are mainly religious paintings and there top artist is Perez Holguin. His paintings are religious clichés, one favourite eye position is an eye falling out to express worship and a humble nature. As if Rembrandt never had existed. But they have a nice website, so see for yourself.

There is also a museum Metales Preciocos, with gold jewellery from the Inca times. Inside I see something different compared to an American lady that stumbles in admiration: "incredible". I see only thin gold smooth metal that have been cut with scissors in rectangular shapes with hardly any fine textures or motives. sometimes they have some texture, which probably was made by hammering with small wooden pegs. Not very sophisticated. Most other museum I visited are not worth mentioning.

One exceptions is the Coca Museum, which gives information about the history and culture of Coca in normal Indian society, medicinal usage, and the relation towards the western society. The use of Coca is thousands of years old, and most of the Andean people eat coca because it is nutritious, gives energy, enhances the uptake of oxygen through the lungs, and has all sort of beneficial effects. It also has many spiritual and religious functions. To be short it has an important role in the normal day life of many people here. Another example, when the doctors in Europe where still using hammers to tranquilize their patients, the Inca’s were using coca to perform brain surgery.

When the Spaniard conquered South America, the Inquisition forbid the use of Coca, calling it a devilish instrument, but when the production in the mines of Potosi went back drastically and profits decreased (miners could work on Coca for 48 hours without break), the Inquisition was asked to revise its opinion, and instead there were starting to tax (10%) the use of Coca!

Coca became very popular in the 19th and the beginning in the 20th century. A pope has even awarded a golden medal for a French wine containing coca, and everybody knows Coca Cola. Cocaine has been used for a long time in medicine to perform surgery. The museum states that coca(ine) became a negative product when derivates like lidocaine and procaine, could be artificially produced . If you want more information go to their website.


Coca museum

The other exception is the museo Tiuhuanaco, that gives information, shows artefacts and pictures of an archeological site 72 km south of la Paz. There are some beautiful little statues, and intriguing pictures of the site. Because of this, I visit the site.


Tiahaunaco statues

link 1
link 2


Tiahuanaco

By clicking on the link above, you can find much more information on the site. The site is next to the town of Tiwanacu. Already in 1960 they were starting some digging but today they have started a very big project to excavate all major structures and as a result you see everywhere people working to dig and to sieve, and probably the work is coordinated by an American university, because students were instructing the local people where to dig.

Today you can see the remnants of temples, a pyramid, other religious structures, stele, a moon, and a sun portal which contains a calendar. Furthermore there are two excellent and new musea, with many artefacts, nice drawings to get an impression of how it once have looked. Probably the site is more than 3000 years old.


Subterrenean temple

I liked the subterranean temple very much, with a beautiful view on the main structure TEMPLO DE KALASASAYA.


Subterrenean temple 2


Sun portal with calendar


View on Kalasasaya complex from hill (piramyde)


How it looked

Okee, that was it. Tomorrow I will be leaving to the Jungle of Rurrenabaque by travelling the death road down from la Paz, and probably from there I will go to San Borja before going back to La Paz, and doing some trekking here in the mountains and maybe doing some mountain climbing to a mountain more than 6000 meters high.

So many landscapes again next time, that will be a month from now, probably. For all those who are going away on holidays, a lot of fun, nice weather and return safely! Hope to hear from you.

Love wim

Los endos