Newsletter: Bolivia Wed, 18 Aug 1999
Velomad
In motion of no less celerity
Than that of thought" (W. Shakespeare)
Thought that rather appropriate as our last correspondence dealt with
Equador & Peru - and now we're in Bolivia & heading for Chile. (That
and we are currently watching Loves' Labour's Lost.) Maybe the simple
truth of it is that it's simply been a long time since we last wrote.
Bolivia doesn't have the beauty of scenery that Peru had (though from
what we hear, that will change when we cross the Salar de Uyuni & head
for the Laguna's Colorado & Verde) but the people are lovely. We met
plenty of wonderful people in Peru (too numerous to list here) but to
be honest to majority were rude, sullen & definitely anti-gringo. On
crossing the border at Kasani, immediately the cries of "Gringo" &
"Mister" ceased. People started greeting us with "Buenas dias" (or buen
dia as the campensinos say here) - a very rare occurrence in Peru. Our
feeling about the people of Peru is that the people with an education
are wonderful & generous but the majority of the campensinos just saw
us as stupid rich foreigners to be ripped off at every opportunity. Of
course once you stopped & got chatting with them they were normally
just as nice as anyone else but the attitude we were exposed to as we
cycled through sometimes was brutal. This is the opposite to most other
countries where the people in the countryside were always far nicer
than those in the cities. Perhaps it's to be expected - Peru has had
tourism for a long time & when we see the arrogance of some tourists we
don't wonder the locals treat us with such distaste. Saying that Peru
is the only country we have sworn we have to return to as there are so
many places we wished we'd visited but we ran out of time even though
we used our full 3 months that we were allowed.
Our route through Bolivia took us from Kasani to Copacabana on a lousy
dirt road (though not as bad as we'd feared from reports from other
cyclists). The road itself wasn't so bad - just every time a Kombi or
car went past we spent 2 minutes choking on dust. Copacabana itself
wasn't particularly special but has a famous mudejar (Moorish style)
cathedral built to commemorate La Virgen Morena del Lago. The virgin
was carved in 1582 & after her instalment in the sanctuary miracles
began to be attributed to her & Copacabana became a pilgrimage site -
famed for its festivals. I felt it was artificial & tacky & of no
comparison to the Moorish Alhambra in Granada. But what we liked was
the cha´llas. They adorn the trucks, buses & cars with flowers &
banderas, have confetti flung everywhere & the alcohol is poured over
the vehicles´ wheels & then they are then sprinkled with holy water.
This blessing is to protect them on the highways but I suspect driving
lessons might be more beneficial. We wanted to have our bikes blessed
but the ceremony was in the afternoon & we were leaving in the morning.
Whilst in Copacabana we visited the Isla de Sol - considered to be the
birthplace of not only Manco Kapa & Mama Ocllo (the 1st Incas) but the
sun itself! The island itself was gorgeous but our guidebook misled us
again referring to the Templo de Sol as "the only Bolivian example of
expert Inca stonework comparable with that of Cusco". What? That pile
of stones that we completely missed & had to be re-directed to as we
thought it was a natural pile of stones just like any other? Did the
authors actually ever go to Cusco? We immediately decided not to visit
any ruins in Bolivia if that was the best the country could provide.
But luckily we did. On arriving in La Paz we realised lo & behold - for
a change we were in the right place at the right time & visited
Tiahuanaco for the Aymara New Year (yep the computers are still
functioning in this millennium!). The new year is celebrated by
basically partying all night (drinking, smoking, chewing coca leaves &
dancing) & desperately waiting for the sun to rise & shine though the
Puerto del Sol (gateway of the sun). We totally understand why the
Incas, Aymaras etc worshipped the sun. At an altitude of 4000m at 6 in
the morning we were freezing & definitely worshipping the heat of the
sun when it finally rose! But apart from that the site itself was
amazing - the sculptures superb & to think that some of the basalt
sculptures weigh 175,000kg each. Apparently the nearest quarry was
Copacabana 40km away - some feat.
On to La Paz where we met some cyclists we'd met previously in
Trujillo - lucky for us as they'd received lots of parcels of Swiss
chocolates and as Richard's hadn't arrived they generously shared
with us. Incredibly we actually found Leonidas Belgium handmade
chocolates in Cochabamba though my parents had to go & spoil it. As I
was gloating on the phone they informed me of the Belgium food scare.
On the route to Cochabamba Richard was delighted by the number of dogs
hanging out on the roadside that didn't chase us. We found out that
the truck drivers believed it was good luck to feed the strays on the
side of the road & accordingly the dogs just looked quizzically at us -
either wondering what kind of trucks were we or why we weren't
stopping to feed them.
>From Cochabamba we headed for Sucre but no we couldn't take the
normal route but went via Tarata & Mizque. The road was beautiful AND
paved as far as Arani. But as we headed for the zigzag up the hill we
found the road was COBBLED! Arghhhhhhhhh! All the way to Alquile!
Alquile had suffered from an earthquake last year and many of the
people are still living in tents. Apparently it used to be a beautiful
colonial town but now its just piles of rubble - many of the streets
haven't yet been cleared. The biggest & best tent was in the main
plaza under the arches of what used to be the church - no surprise to
find out it belonged to the vicar.
We've spent a week in Sucre & are reluctant to move. Our host has
cable TV & you know what that means - TOUR DE FRANCE!! Miffed at
Armstrong's showing is not the word!
Stani is now sporting a cross between the Shirley Temple (frizzy rings)
& Bob Geldolf in The Wall (shaved eyebrows) look. Whilst cooking lunch
Stani had put some tomatoes into the oven to cook. We had used the
gas-rings on top of the stove, not realising the gas bottle was almost
finished consequently, the gas-rings diverted all the gas from the
oven, & the fire went out in the oven. When we switched the gas-rings
off the oven started to fill with unlit gas. After an hour or Stani
pressed the electric ignition spark switch - relighting the oven at
which point the oven exploded with a bang - the door flying open as the
ignited gas looked for an outlet & frazzled all the hair on her head &
arms & burnt off all her eyebrows & eyelashes! Luckily the next day the
Backpack oven we'd been chasing after for so long arrived (though the
BASTARDS sent it DHL instead of by regular post as we requested so it
cost us an extra US$25 in taxes) so we don't have to rely on these
high tech machines again! Just in time for Richard to practise his cake
baking skills for my birthday!
In Oruro Richard entered a bike race (though he didn't really stand a
chance being on a mountain bike when everyone else was on racers & it
was a flat circuit!) But he got loads of radio coverage & Stani got the
local crowd shouting "Allez" in support. Ice-cream sellers throughout
Latin America have these honking horns that they honk as they go by -
Richard has one on his bike & he honked cheerfully on each circuit -
the crowd loved it & were cheering him on every round.
Okay that's all for Bolivia for the mo. -
PS it WAS a bad idea to move on from Sucre - there's no cable TV in
Potasi so we'll miss the end of the tour de France!
Ciao for Now
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Stani & Richard