Last weekend I decided to do the “tourist thing” and visit the Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni Salt Flats) in the south of Bolivia. The salt flats are the world’s largest with an area 25 times larger than the Bonneville Salt Flats in the US and home to more than 10 billions tons of salt. In a comfy Lexus 4x4, we cruised across the salt flats, through deserts and up rocky hills and were treated to constantly changing, but always stunning, landscapes. We saw volcanoes, flamingos, llamas, lizards, vicuñas, cacti, lakes of all different colours, sunsets, sunrises and even a moonrise. Instead of describing all the sites we saw, I have decided to just post a bunch of pictures from the trip. Remember that you can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them. Enjoy!
***Interesting Fact: Salar de Uyuni is reported to contain 50% of the world’s lithium reserves. Due to its use in batteries for electric cars, the global demand for element number three on the periodic table is expected to surpass supply within 10 years unless new reserves are discovered. However, it is unlikely that Bolivia will open up the floodgates for foreign corporations to extract lithium anytime soon considering the country’s long history of being exploited for its natural resources and particularly now, considering the fact that a socialist government is in power***
I thought that for this week’s post I would write about a tradition in La Paz that I just recently heard about. I’m sure many of you have heard of the holiday called Day of the Dead (which is called Día de los Muertos in Mexico and Todos Santos in Bolivia), which falls on the 1st and 2nd of November, but have you heard of the Fiesta de las Ñatitas? Probably not, so let me tell you about it.
While I was eating lunch in a restaurant with my host family last Saturday, unbeknownst to me at the time, thousands of Paceños (people from La Paz) were honouring the dead in the city’s main cemetery. Compared to Todos Santos, when Bolivian families stay in their house and make human-shaped bread, the Fiesta de las Ñatitas is a bit more involved. While I was working on masticating some fine Bolivian cuisine, I noticed that everyone in the restaurant was fixated on the television screen. Due to the poor quality television, it took me a while before I was able to make out the image on the screen. I didn’t believe it at first, but sure enough there it was: a skull wearing a tuque.
As far as I know, this ritual only occurs in La Paz and, until recently, it was only practiced in the privacy of people’s homes. Nowadays, people gather in the cemetery on November 8th with decorated skulls to show their respect for the dead. The skulls, which are not necessarily from relatives or loved-one, are covered with flowers, tuques and candles and are even fed food, cigarettes, liquor and coca leaves. An anthropologist, named Milton Eyzaguirre, has written that the indigenous people in the Bolivian Andes believe that every human has seven souls and that one of the souls stays with the skull. It is believed that in return for this ceremony, the person’s soul with protect and look after the family.
With roots in pre-colonial religions, this ritual has now been incorporated into the practices of the Catholic Church, although not formally. In the morning of the 8th, a priest gives a special mass for the deceased and those honouring them.
Although I don’t have my own photos of the Fiesta de las Ñatitas, I have included some that I found online and two video-links about the ritual. And by the way, if you want to see an enlarged version any of the photos on my blog, just click on the photo.
***Interesting Fact: I just found out that the grandmother of my host family, who lives across the hall from me, has the skull of her mother in her apartment***
So, it’s been another two weeks since I last wrote on my blog and I attribute the growing infrequency of my posts to the fact that my days and weeks have had an increasing sense of routine to them. That’s not to say that I’m bored here, but rather that I’m finding fewer and fewer things that stand out.
This past week I endured a long bus journey (26-hours each way) to Lima to write a number of tests for some jobs that I’m in the process of applying for. The ride to Lima was made even longer by some drama that woke me up at one o’clock in the morning. First, I felt the bus swerve quickly to the left, then reel to the right before it struck something on its right side and then straightened out. It turns out that we were driving through a narrow mountain pass when a drunken pedestrian decided to wander out onto the road. Although it could have been much worse, we ended up just swiping the man and losing our right mirror. Anyways, we picked up the man, dropped him off with some policemen that were down the road and from what I could tell he should be okay.
The remainder of the bus ride, fortunately, was much less eventful. I passed the time watching the bad movies that were provided, such as Kill Switch, featuring Steven Seagal, Retrograde, featuring Dolph Lundgren and Home Alone 3, which did not feature Macaulay Culkin. I also ended up meeting a very friendly Argentine named José, who was heading to Peru to find work as a chef for a few months.
Lima seemed to be a nice city, although I wasn’t even able to see a fraction of it. I mainly stayed in the area called Miraflores and spent my time walking around and trying the local cuisine. I didn’t know this before my trip, but Peru is known for having some of the best food in all of South America. Due to its location of the coast of the Pacific Ocean, many dishes in Lima include seafood and compared to Bolivia, the food is considerably spicier.
I ended up spending Halloween with José, another Argentine named Andre, a girl from Spain named Lola and a girl from Switzerland. For everyone but myself, it was their first Halloween and, despite being hesitant at first, I think they all enjoyed the idea in the end. We started off by going to some local celebrations of Peruvian music, before heading back to our hostel where there was a Halloween party.
The next day I packed my bags and set off for the bus terminal. While waiting for the bus to leave, I experienced my first earthquake! Although it only registered as a 4.5 on the Richter scale, it was still a very unique experience. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to feel the 7.9 earthquake that hit the country just over a year ago.
For your viewing pleasure, I have attached a picture from inside one of the micro-buses that I take to work and a picture of some dogs hanging out at the side of the road. I call the dog photo “I think she might be in heat.”
***Interesting Fact: The eastern slope of the Andes is the single-most biologically diverse area in the world***
I’m going to try to cram two weeks into one blog post this week since last week I wasn’t feeling 100% and didn’t have the energy to put one together. Now, let’s see if I can remember what has happened in the past two weeks…
Well for starters, from Oct.8-11 I went to on a work retreat at a lodge outside of a city called Cochabamba with all of the staff members from FONCRESOL. In total there were around 30 of us and everyone was very fun and loved cracking jokes. We spent the days listening to presentations and participating in workshops, and in the evenings we enjoyed the pool, which was heated by thermal springs, and playing games. On Friday night, we were split into teams to compete in a number of events. Among the events there was a karaoke competition, a dance-off and a Jell-O eating contest. Somehow I was picked for the Jell-O eating contest, which was probably quite fortunate considering the alternatives.
The four other participants and I knelt beside a table and, with our hands behind our backs, were forced to slurp through a bowl of Jell-O containing various fruits and whip cream on top. Within 10 seconds, three of the participants had smashed their bowls after they tried to pick them up with their mouths. I looked up briefly, but my teammates encouraged me to keep on going so I went back to work. As I continued, I came across a hard object in my mouth and was not too surprised to find that it was a big shard of glass. After I removed the glass from my mouth, they called the match. Although in the end it was really just a two-person competition, my teammates were really happy when they announced me as the winner!!! Coincidently, the next day I began to experience strange issues with my stomach.
This past Friday I ended up going to see an Abba cover band accompanied by a choir of about 100 people. It was a very strange experience and even as I sat there I felt like I was in a dream; it might have had something to do with the shimmery-silver vests they were all wearing. I’m not claiming to be a music critic, but I have to say that it was not a great show. I’m not sure whether it was the acoustics of the building or the sound equipment, but some parts of the performance were pretty painful to sit through. The highlight of the night was a solo of ‘The Winner Takes It All’. I should also note that the choir did a decent job of ‘Chiquitita’ and ‘Fernando’. Unfortunately they butchered ‘Take A Chance On Me’, and I think that might have put a sour taste in my mouth for the rest of the performance.
On Sunday I took a trip with my family to the cemetery in La Paz. The two grandfathers of the family I live with are laid to rest there and the family visits almost once a week to place fresh flowers by their graves. At this particular cemetery, bodies are not buried but rather placed in long cement cubbyholes aboveground. The tombstones are generally protected by a glass door and the flowers and a small glass of water are placed inside. The glass of water is left for the soul of the person in case it gets thirsty.
***Interesting Fact: In Bolivia people wear their wedding rings on their right hand***
