Journey to the Andes: March 2006

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Crazy Terrorists

Things are fine here in La Paz, thanks for the comments everyone. No further buildings have exploded.

Turns out that the two terrorists are now being considered criminally insane, which to me makes sense. There was no apparant motive for blowing up two pidelly ass hotels way outside the city center. CNN did a follow up with some good info (for once, good on you CNN, you lousy peice of garbage!)

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/03/22/bolivia.explosion.ap/index.html

Just thought I'd say that.

Also, since I totally bashed Bolivian food before (which was TOTALLY merited, by the way) I figured I'd make a list of some of the edible things that I LIKE about Bolivia.

1. The fresh fruit juices in the street
2. The chocolate snacks
3. BBQ meet, potatoes, with peanut sauce
4. Salchipapas (essentially french fries and hot dogs. Not very Bolivian, I know)
5. Bolivian fast food (deep fried chicken with french fries and fried bananas)

That is all.

posted by Ben @ 8:47 AM 3 comments

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Terrorist Attack Rocks La Paz

I was expecting to have to reply to scores of e-mails assuring people that I'm totally fine, but apparantly countries that brown people live in aren't important enough to be in the headlines when a terrorist detonates a bomb in a hotel and kills two people. I'm sure if this had have happened inToronto or London or Chicago things would be very different.

I shit you not, this isn't another ploy of me trying to scare you all back home, this is for real. CNN was kind enough to do a short article on it on their website.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/03/22/Bolivia.blasts.reut/index.html

Patricia and I were walking to her house at about 9:45 last night, when all of a sudden there was this tremendous noise that came from a few kilometers away behind us. Now, normally noises that sound like a war breaking out are regular occurances in La Paz, as they're usually loud firecrackers or dynamite going off by trouble-seeking youth or at protests, but this one was freaking BIG. Everyone was looking around for a few seconds until this big pillar of smoke appeared from behind a skyscraper, which prevented us from seeing what had gone wrong. Word has it another went off at 2 in the morning at another hotel.

It wasn't until this morning that I found out that it was in fact a terrorist attack. I have no ideas on the details right now, except there have been two people (a guy and a girl) arrested as suspects in the incident (one American, one Uruguayan or Paraguayan) and that there's some people injured. The two dead havn't been identified yet.

I'm going out for dinner tonight with Patty and a Norweigan traveler, so we'll try to translate some of the newspapers so you guys can have more details. I've heard a few things about Arabian passports, Jewish travelers, or Arabs owning the hotels...it's all pretty unclear right now, but I'll give you all an update when I know what the hell happened.

I'm also going to e-mail the Vancouver Sun with my photos and see if they even give a damn.

I visited one of the bomb sites this morning and have pictures to prove it, take a look. Apparantly the other hotel that got bombed was almost totally destroyed.

Don't worry, everything's cool right now. If anything bad starts happening or I feel like I'm in any danger I'll get the hell outta dodge. As I said, I'll supply more details as they come!!! Honestly everything's fine. Remember when Clare Carlson went to Nepal after the Nepali King dissolved the government and there were military soldiers on every street corner? She was fine :) Honestly, everything's cool.

I'll talk to you all sooooon!!!

ps: To end on a good note, I found a decent chinese restaurant called "Jackie Chan's" (awesome) and they're so authentically Chinese that they ever serve Jasmine tea!!! I was esctatic!

posted by Ben @ 12:35 PM 9 comments

Friday, March 17, 2006

Found another...

Hola, comrades! Found another great article on the current left-wing trend in Latin America, please give it a read!

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=20&ItemID=9921

In other news, I'm still at Alalay with the kids. I'll try to get some pictures of the kids posted soon (but don't hold your breath) Going shopping tomorrow to curb my souvineer lust...i will likely spend a whole lot of money. Fingers crossed I'll be able to ship it all home in one parcel.

There have been a few protests in La Paz recently...but nothing too serious. They've been from a large group of students from some institution protesting the lack of work or work supplies or something or other...I'm not too sure.

Been reading a book called "Bolivia Between a Rock and a Hard Place" and I'm sure freaking glad I came to Bolivia when I did. Protests and road blockades were commonplace...some of them really violent and resulting in deaths. Actually just this time last year there were huge protests of thousands of people against the (totally freaking corrupt and incompetent) government of Goni Sanchez de Lozada all the time. People are really happy to have an honest man on the side of the people in the presidancy, and it's sure about time that they got one. Hopefully he'll be able to deliver...and all of this stuff about latin american politics and progressive social movements is really inspiring me. God damnit, someday I'll be a polititian.

So one more month in La Paz and I'll likely be off to visit other parts of the country...I'll probably have to stop by Peru for a few days to revitalize my visa here in Bolivia. I'm really excited to see other parts of the country. I really dig La Paz, it's a super cool city, but I also can't wait to see the Amazon, the Southern Antiplano, the Andes...*daydreams profusely* many pages in my diary will be filled, I'm sure. There's a little town south of La Paz that some guy told me about, Santa Rosa I think, that apparantly the journey to is stunning. Maybe I'll check that out!! Also some really nice girls from Austria in my hostel told me about an awesome little town called "Yotala" inbetween Sucre and Pototosi (i think) and I'll certainly go there. I want to make an effort to go to places that most gringos DON'T go to...because the way some people are traveling here to me doesn't really seem like visiting Bolivia at all.

Anyways, buenos noches to you all, ciao!!!

posted by Ben @ 6:15 PM 3 comments

Monday, March 13, 2006

The Bolivarian Revolution

Hey guys. Just read this good article on Venezuela vs. USA, and it mentions Bolivia a few times. I'd like for you all to read it, as it aptly describes what's going on in South America right now, particularily Venezuela.

Check it out, yo!

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=9893

posted by Ben @ 6:30 PM 4 comments

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Meshuggah was WAY better

Items of business to discuss:

1. The concert.
2. My bag.
3. Soccer.
4. Nationalization of gas

Item number 1
The concert

Last night I went to a concert. It was a concert of a band called "Manu Chao". My UK buddy William really likes him and invited me to come. I figured it would be my only chance of going to a large concert in my 6 months of being here, so I went. I had never heard of this group before, but Will said that he's really good, which, when most people say that to me about music, I usually hate it. It held true to this situation as well. It turns out that Manu Chao is the despicable heathen that wrote that wretched "Bongo Bongo" song (I FREAKING HATE THAT SONG SO MUCH OEIWURO(WEIRUOIEWJRWOEJ"()#"!) as well as the equally terrible "Me Gustas Tu" song. Prior to going to the concert William and I listened to a Manu Chao CD at his apartment so I could at least hear a bit of the music before hand, and I was NOT looking foreward to 2 and a half hours of reggae-listening. After living with Kris (the biggest reggae fan I've ever met...and I don't mean his waist size) for 3-4 months I still think reggae is as boring and tasteless as beforehand (I'm sorry Kris) Fortunately for me, in the live versions of his songs Manu Chao sped up a few of them into jumpable ska/punk tunes, which I don't like much either, but at least it was entertaining. I bet about every gringo in all of La Paz was at the concert, and there was probably more tourists there than locals. Manu Chao, from what I hear, is the only big name act that has ever come to Bolivia in, well, ever. At least since the last time they came here.

Item number 2
My bag

My bag got stolen! Yaaay! But, have no fear, it was only a little bag that I bought here full of a few useless items. Will had my bag one night at a pub, and it was sitting on the back of his chair. One guy was distracting Will while two other weiners made off with it. I would have, however, loved to have seen the look on their faces when all they found inside was a spanish-english dictionary, a hackey sack, 3 pens and half a block of cheese. I'm still kind of pissed about my hackey sack though, because I've had it since grade 7 and it's a great damn sack. To rub salt in my wounds all the hackey sacks here are garbage, made of thick wool and filled with maize, thus making them pretty much unusuable.

Item Number 3
Soccer

On Friday all the kids from Alalay went out and played soccer. It was fun. I am, also, very useless at any physical activity, let alone sport. Particularily in the thin air at 4000 meters above sea level. But it was still fun.

Item Number 4
Nationalization of gas

Current events time! I'm reading a decent book called "Bolivia Between a Rock and a Hard Place" which details the political and social history of Bolivia since colonialization. In the 1980's and 90's Bolivia fell victim to the typical neoliberal globalization policies that plagued (and still plague) our world today. Bolivia had a succession of very right-wing governments who catered the (caucasion) economic, social, and political elite. One of the gems that politians such as Banzer (formally military dictator, in the 90's a democratically elected president...who knew?) did was to sell off Bolivia's gas reservers (estimated at being the 2nd biggest in latin america) for waaaay less than they were worth to huge multinational corporations. Multinationals extract gas from Bolivia for very little taxes and sell it to western consumers for huge profits, while Bolivia gets basically nothing for it and continues to be the poorest country on the continent. What's worse is that more often than not companies lie about how much gas they actually DO extract, since Bolivia in it's economic dissaray lacks the ability to properly oversee and regulate these companies, so Bolivia gets even LESS money from their own resources than they SHOULD!

Now, we have a new president here, named Evo Morales, who came to power on the MAS (Movemiento al Socialismo) ticket, and the big issue that got him in office was the issue of nationalizing the gas. All of Bolivia's problems basically come down to it. The education system is crap here and they need more money to finance it. Solution? Nationalize the gas. The USA is cutting military aid to bolivia to basically nothing and they need money to finance it. Solution? Gas. Bolivia has terrible infrastructure and horrible rural living conditions. Solution? Gas. The list goes on forever.

The problem is that Evo cannot LEGALLY "expropriate" the gas reserves here without technically "stealing" from the huge multinational corporations (which they have been doing do the Bolivian people for decades). I don't know whether it is because Evo is being a pansey or that he is afraid of a backlash from the USA, but he seems to be very relucant to expropriate the gas reserves and refineries. If he does what the people here want and need, he will move further to the left and nationalize the gas and use the money to move the country foreward. If not, my best guess is that people are going to be VERY pissed of here...and who knows what will happen?

There is your Bolivian current events update. There's a good site that a guy named Jim Shultz updates with news on Bolivia. Check it out here if you want...

http://democracyctr.org/blog/

See ya!

posted by Ben @ 1:24 PM 3 comments

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Hogar Alalay

Their faces are dirty, hair unkempt, and a otherly manner about them that I can´t quite describe...one that´s not quite all there. Most of them carry around small bottles of strong glue, which they hold to their noses and mouths every few seconds to get high...it numbs the cold and dulls their hunger. All they have is the dirty clothes on their backs and the paement they sleep on. Some have babies...some of which they teach to sniff glue as well. These are the street children who we play soccer with every wednesday. But most of them don´t come to houses like Alalay and Masalina because they´re free on the streets. They don´t have a bed time, homeowrk to do, or anybody telling them rules...and its easy to live on the streets, or so they say. For who knows how long none of them have had parents to put them to bed, warm meals every day, a comfy bed, a teacher or classroom to go to...and none of them know how important it can be.

It´s hard working with them...at first you think "Alright, I have to be super nice to them because they´re poor little kids with hard lives and I must reach down my elitist arms of limitless plenty to help their poor little souls" and then you think "wait, idiot, im being such a tool. they´re just people" and they are...they´re kids just like I was only a few years ago, nothing more, nothing less. And you have to treat them as such.

It really is a tragedy, though, how they all sniff glue all the time. They have no idea how it´s destroying them, mentally, physically, emotionally...inside and out. Sometimes kids from my volunteer home will return to the streets and get high on glue...last week little Johnny and a few others went out to the streets and got stoned on glue. Johny´s only 10 years old. One of the kids who left, Tony, never came back. It´s hard when that happens...but all you can do is try to be a good big brother to them, thats all. You can´t give them a silly CAPP talk and tell them that "drugs are bad and you shouldnt do them, and everything we tell you is correct" because that would have about as much success as CAPP class does. You just have to try to make them smile.

In other news, my budday Jules showed me this golden article. Some prime-ass scientists found water on another planet, and I figured it deserved a place headlining in my blog...take a look!!!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11736311/

posted by Ben @ 6:17 PM 6 comments

Ben Martin's log of his 6-month journey to the South American Andean nation of Bolivia.

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