Journey to the Andes: A Yunga Weekend

Sunday, April 02, 2006

A Yunga Weekend

Between almost getting in a bar fight, traveling over the andes, and visiting a cave where ledgend has it tons of ancient Incan gold is buried beneath the underground lake, I'd say I had a pretty awesome weekend. I went to Sorata with William, Ron, and Dianne, some buddies of mine from La Paz. Sorata is a beautiful little village on the edge of the jungle (called "The Yungas" here) with an amazing view of the Andes. Haha, so you're probably wondering about the bar fight....William really likes drinking at sleazy bars, which are totally fun because honestly, Bolivian drunks are the most funny/friendly/psychotic people I've ever met...they'll just go up to you and start a conversation even if you've never seen them before. Usually it's all good, but at the one sleazy bar in all of Sorata (the village only has 1000 people) there were two incredibly annoying guys that wouldn't leave us alone. We also couldn't understand what they were saying because they were slurring everything so badly. To make a long story short, they wanted us to buy them beer (which is odd, because most Bolivians are the ones that buy YOU beer) and they got pissed off at us and tried to start a fight. Fortunately the owners of the bar interveined and saved the day.

Also, Sorata is officially beautiful. Us 4 rode in the back of a truck for about 30 minutes on a long, windy dirt road to this old cave (redundant? maybe) and the whole way had the most incredible scenery of the Andes...which rule. Ledgend has it that the Conquistadoras (spanish conquerors) captured the last Incan emperor in Peru, and the Emperor said that if they didn't kill him he would fill the room they were in with gold. They agreed, and a bunch of gold started to be brought up from Bolivia. For whatever reason, the spanish killed him regardless before the gold arrived, and somehow the incas heard about his death. So rather than surrender the gold to the spanish, the Incas buried it in this underground lake in this cave near modern day Sorata. Cool!

There is also at least 6 italian restaurants in Sorata for a town of 1000 people, not one of them being remotely italian. Weird.

Sorata used to be a really touristy place, but in 2003 there were tons of protests against the government, which always involve road blockades. A bunch of tourists got stranded in Sorata, and the government, to discredit the campesinos (indigenous farmers) who were doing the blockades, they portrayed the tourists as "hostages" and presumably to intimidate the social movements, brought in a huge military operation to "rescue" the "hostages". The army, in their always careful fashion, ended up killing a bunch of people including a teenage boy and a 9 year old girl, and shit hit the fan (thankfully we have a different government here now). Ever since the fiasco tourism has plumitted.

In other news, I met the author of the Bolivia: Between a Rock and a Hard Place book, and also went to a Bolivian Solidarity Group meeting, which is like a little social activist group here (made up entirely of white people...strangely enough)

So, I present to thee, FOTOS!!! (that's spanish for "photos")

The antiplano at sunset...taken from the window of my bus, so its foggy

Driving to La Paz from Sorata

Yes, those are snake skins.

The road to the cave.

My bud William on the back of the truck to the cave.

The cave...full of anciant incan gold!!

Market in sorata.

Main plaza in Sorata

Typical road in Sorata (its sooo poor)

The view of La Paz

Dia del Mar (Day of the Sea) Bolivia's a landlocked country, which means it has no access to ocean. It used to until it got it's ass kicked by Peru in the 19th century. Oh snap!

posted by Ben @ 7:10 PM

6 Comments:

At 12:11 AM, Anonymous said…

cool im curiose is there actualy gold in there or is it a legend has any one actual checked
At 2:03 AM, Anonymous said…

Oh, snap, indeed! And, for the record, I'm a huge fan of the sleazy bars; sleazy bars anywhere, in fact. Your friend William has the right idea. The Bolivia Solidarity Group sounds a lot like the Bolivarian Circles here in North America, except, you know, actually *in* Bolivia. Minor difference.

The mountains look gorgeous... At least you probably don't feel homesick for our "piffling foothills," eh?

Much love (I'm cutting back on the caffiene and embracing the Zen life. I don't think spiritual enlightenment is going to fill the void left by my coffee, though).
At 7:07 PM, Ben said…

Piffling foothills indeed :) You know what though Brianne, I bet the Bolivian activist groups in North America do about as much good as the Bolivian Solidaridy Group here, my friend. And by that I mean not much. They don't seem to have any connections to labour unions or, for that matter, have any BOLIVIANS in the group. The meeting I went to kind of showed me what kind of group I *don't* want to get involved with when I return to Canada :)

And by the way Jules, I don't know if anyone's actually checked or not! I asked Ron and he said he didn't think so...but that sounds absurd to me...maybe when Robyn comes back from Africa she can teach us how to scuba dive and we'll come down here ourselves.
At 7:12 AM, Anonymous said…

Hi Ben. Great to see your photos. I won't comment on whether I'm a fan or not of sleazy bars, or whether I have actually frequented any as it may incriminate me! Sounds like you are learning lots about life and politics. As always, keep safe and enjoy your travels. Love Mom
At 10:42 AM, Anonymous said…

okay ben, instead of tin and cocaine, robb and i have decided that we want some of that incan gold. (robb says he wants coffee too, and if you can't find any go to peru "and i don't want any of that samalian crap" lol)
So, when robin teaches you to scuba dive you're going to swim back down to south america, is that the idea?
Any ghosts in that cave? Incan curses if you take the gold? Pirates of the Caribbean shit? y'know how i get to live forever if i take the gold, hahah.
anyways, keep up the bar fights and all that and never live across the street from an elementary school "jordan come to the office, please, jordan to the office..."
love ellie
At 11:21 AM, Andrés Paz said…

nice, back in Canada again, drop me a line if you'd like the whole story...