Day 155: Goodbye Bolivia - Hello Chile!

So, after the strikes blocking all outbound roads yesterday, today was the day I said goodbye to Bolivia.

Despite all the warnings I read in the guidebooks, nothing bad happened to me during my six weeks in Bolivia. No robberies, no pocket picking, no accidents, no encounters with fake police. Quite the contrary: in many places there was a high presence of tourist police. They made me feel quite safe - and they were also friendly and helpful when asked for directions :-)

So now I've left the country - where people called me either mamita (without intending to comment on my age, I think) or amiga. To be honest, I'm looking forward to leave the altitude behind me for now. I hate being constantly out of breath! But there are also things I'm gonna miss, for example the fresh orange juices to be had on every street corner. So here is my farewell look at La Paz:



The border area was very busy. There were long lines of trucks on both sides. Since Bolivia doesn't have a port, all imported goods or raw materials must enter the country by truck... I found it very impressive to see this fact illustrated by trucks without end for kilometers.

The landscape was also very nice, on both sides of the border. This is Bolivia:



And this Chile:



So now, in Chile, I remembered the Chilean chant I first heard at the triathlon in Pucón:

Chi chi chi le le le
Viva Chile!

I'm happy to be back!

Day 154: Witch's Market

Today I paid a visit to the witch's market in La Paz. This is a market where all kinds of esoteric objects are sold, most of them connected to the belief in the earth mother Pachamama.

There seem to be numerous occasions when offerings have to be made to Pachamama. One of them I noticed during carnival in Sucre, when everybody was burning offerings in front of their doors. There also seem to be two ways to make offerings: burning and burying.

One of the most significant or valuable offerings that can be made are llama fetuses:



There are also many pre-compiled sets of offerings where you don't have to worry about selecting the ingredients yourself. Note the wine - the label says that it is wine specially made for offerings to Pachamama. My guess is that this is wine that is too bad to drink ;-)



Finally, there was an incredible variety of powders and perfumes for a million different purposes. For erotic uses, for example, there were dog tongue powder and "Sexovit" - a combination of vitamins and yohimbine:



There were also powders for salesmen, to summon money, to forget, hate, unblock, and many more:



In a country that is supposed to be deeply catholic, I wouldn't have expected such a market and the corresponding belief system. I guess the Spanish weren't so successful in their evangelizing efforts after all ;-)

Day 153: Tiwanaku

I've known Tiwanaku as a city name for a long time - in the computer game series Civilization, it is one of the proposed city names for the inca civilization. As I learned today, strictly speaking this is not correct. The Tiwanaku were predecessors of the inca, which were one of many civilizations that flourished in the wake of Tiwanaku's downfall.

The city of Tiwanaku was the political, religious and astronomical center of the Tiwanaku culture, which lasted for 2700 years, and covered an area of 600.000 square kilometers, almost twice the size of Germany.

Like many cultures in the southern hemisphere, they were greatly inspired by the southern cross constellation, using the cross not only for orientation, but its form also as a blueprint for some of their religious buildings. For example, this partly excavated pyramid in Tiwanaku:



The archeologists responsible for the ongoing excavations face a big problem. After the decline of Tiwanaku, the Spanish arrived and found hundreds of perfectly shaped stones just "lying around". So of course they took advantage of them, and did what they liked most: build churches. This one stands in the nearby village, and you can see that the stones look exactly like those used in the pyramid:



According to our guide, only 40% of the original stones remain in the ruins today. When you add to that the jumbled way in which the stones are found below the earth, you can imagine how big the puzzle is that the archeologists are trying to solve.



Another thing the Spanish did in their (rather successful) attempt to evangelize the native population was to deface statutes. The Tiwanaku culture had many richly engraved statutes laden with symbology, like this one:



Now what the Spanish did was try and cut off the statues' heads or noses, or, if that didn't work, add Christian symbols. You can see a cross a well as a triangle representing trinity in this picture:



Another artefact found among the ruins was the Puerta del Sol, the sun's door. Made out of a single piece of stone, the door is thought to represent a fairly detailed calendar with 12 months and 52 weeks, with an emphasis on the beginning of spring, symbolized by the big engraving of the sun god.



That the door is still in Bolivia today is actually quite lucky. In the 19th century, an English lord had found the door and intended to bring it back to England. But when the Pacific war broke out, he left Bolivia in a hurry and forgot to take the door...

The temple buildings in Tiwanaku were carefully aligned to emphasize certain astronomical events. This temple, for example, was built to catch the sunrise at the two days of equinox in a year.



The temple in the foreground features more than 100 stone heads with various shapes and faces in the walls:



Although the archeological site of Tiwanaku is already fascinating today, there's a lot of excavation work to be done, and a lot left to learn about the Tiwanaku culture. For example, what's inside the big pyramid? Tombs or treasures maybe? And why do all statutes have the right hand in the wrong direction? Why did the culture decline? What do the stone heads signify?

While the serious archeologists are trying to answer these questions, others have come up with an answer: apparently, some "scientists" think the culture was far too advanced and therefore must have been helped along by aliens...

Day 152: Isla del Sol

Today I took a boat to the famous island of the sun. The island is supposed to be the place where the first inca man and his wife appeared, coming straight from the sun. The same place is also the source of the Aymara and Quechua (both local indigenous tribes) creation myths - only that in their case, a god sent the first two people.

The island is rather big: the walk across from the southern to the northern end is about 8 km long. Between the boat's arrival and departure times, there is just enough time to complete the walk, and so that's what I did.

The walk started at the Museo de Oro - the gold museum. The name was rather misleading though, as there wasn't a single exhibit made from gold, but only ceramics. Right next to the museum, this wonderful beach made up for the disappointing museum:



Uphill from the southern shore are the main inca ruins on the island. I thought the ruins weren't all that spectacular. One part was a stone slab with some smaller stones around, thought to be a ritual (i.e. sacrificial) table:



Another part were some ruins looking like housing remains, called Chincana:



And, of course, there were the sacred stones where supposedly the first inca appeared. I don't think they could have found any more boring stones for their creation myth...

The high path connecting north and south through the island's hills seems to have been important to the inca, too, because its name is Willka Thaki - sacred road of the eternity of the sun.



The views along the path were splendid, with hills and lake Titicaca in the foreground, and snow-capped mountains in the far back:



Throughout the island, the local communities use as much of the terrain as possible for agriculture. To maximize the available space, the ground is shaped into terraces. Apparently, these terraces date back at least 500 years, to times before the Spanish discovered America.

Day 151: To Copacabana

Most of the day today was taken up by transportation: first by plane from Rurrenabaque to La Paz, then by bus from La Paz to Copacabana. About halfway from La Paz - 75 km from Copacabana - I first saw a huge body of water, but couldn't quite believe that this should be lake Titicaca yet... but it was! Amazing how big this lake is - and it's beautiful, too:



In the evening, I only had time for a very quick look around Copacabana. The cathedral is spectacular. I loved its outside appearance, so spacious and light:



The inside was a bit of a contrast: quite dark and small, but richly decorated of course. The cathedral is apparently famous for the vehicle blessings that take place every day. I saw a number of cars specially decorated with flowers driving up to the cathedral.

At the lake shore, it became evident that Copacabana is an incredibly touristy place. Just look at the number of tourist boats:



It seemed to me that Copacabana has almost no regular inhabitants: there are only tourists and locals working in the tourist industry. The number of tourist restaurants and souvenir shops along the main street was staggering!

Day 150: Serere (5)

On my last day in Serere, we finally had a sunny morning again. During our morning walk, we saw quite a few fresh animal tracks: deer, paca, wild pigs, and even jaguar prints. These are jaguarundi footprints, a smaller relative of the jaguar:



The reason why we often only saw footprints of animals is the rainy season. During this time, there is plenty of water everywhere in the jungle. As a consequence, the animals are happy to stay where they are and drink there. In contrast, during the dry season many animals have to come to the lake to find water, and thus it is a lot easier to spot animals then.

An animal we did see, however, was a big fat tarantula:



In total, she was about as big as my entire hand stretched out. Good thing she didn't move, or I probably would have run away screaming ;-)

Much less dangerous was this liana - or was it? Lianas wind themselves around trees, strangling them, and in the end remaining standing while the tree has long since decayed...



My favorite moments in the jungle were when the sun came through the branches, emphasizing the jungle's wonderful colors - like on this small lake:



This being the last day, we left after lunch to go back to Rurrenabaque. I have to say that I was happy to get out of the jungle, mainly for two reasons. First, the humidity. There is a lot of rain in the rainforest (duh), and the air is very humid. This means that wet stuff doesn't dry properly, and everything smells slightly moldy. Yuck! And second, the mosquitoes. There were thousands of them, and they neither cared that I was wearing long sleeves, nor that I had liberally applied repellent. Consequently, I had hundreds of mosquito bites. My guide even made fan for me to help me survive the walks without going crazy, and gave me lemons to rub onto the bites to help me sleep at night. The locals working at the lodge were not really affected by the mosquitoes. Apparently, they get bitten, but the bites don't itch and disappear quickly...

Day 149: Serere (4)

Today we had another rainy morning, so we did another jewelry-making session ;-) This time, I made and polished the entire ring myself. This is a picture of the ring's raw material with the two finished pieces:



I also took a few pictures of the main house:



During our afternoon walk, we were lucky enough to spot a sloth - or rather, my guide spotted it, and then it took me several minutes to see it too ;-) As the zoom on my camera isn't very powerful, you can try it too - the sloth is somewhere in this picture:



We also saw these great samples of yellow fungi - what amazing colors!



On my way back to my hut at night, I saw a paca crossing the path just before me. Pacas are nocturnal animals the size of a small dog with a rat-like appearance, but with stripes on their backs and without tails. What an amazing feeling, encountering animals without the guide having to point them out :-)

Day 148: Serere (3)

In the morning, it was raining heavily; no sense in going for a walk in this weather. Instead, we stayed in the main house to make some jewelry. These were the raw materials:



After two or three hours of drilling holes, polishing, and tying knots, I arrived at these end products:



Gorgeous, aren't they? The piece with five holes inside is called Motaku; the white, red and black seeds are Lágrimas de María, Sirari and Sululu; and the ring is made of a palm seed called Chonta.

After lunch, we crossed San Fernando lake to explore the other shore. Besides many monkeys (again), we also saw a tayra, belonging to the family of otters, a bunch of coatí, and a few green macaws.

We also encountered a couple of grapefruit trees.



I'd never seen grapefruit trees before - and the fruits on these trees were a lot bigger than any you could buy in Germany. My guide plucked a couple of fruits for us, peeled them and cut off the top, thus producing a squeezable cup we could drink the grapefruit juice from - so delicious!



The brown furry thing on this flower is the larva of a big blue butterfly:



This is the Bolivian signature flower - it contains the three colors of the Bolivian flag: red, yellow and green.



By the way, the flag's colors have been chosen on purpose: red for the blood shed in the fight for independence, yellow for Bolivia's mineral richness, and green for its biodiversity. Do the colors of the German flag signify anything? Sometimes I feel really stupid for knowing so little about my own country...

This hallucinatory fungus is said to have an effect similar to marihuana. Apparently, you can cut it, leave it in the sun to dry, and then scrape off the white powder to smoke it or make tea from it.



Finally, as perfect end to the day, there was a pretty sunset over the lake as we returned:

Day 147: Serere (2)

The second day started with a series of new experiences during our morning walk. First, the guide showed us fire ants and explained that they always live in a certain kind of tree. He said their bite would hurt for a few minutes, but then act as a local anesthetic - and then he encouraged me to let myself be bitten to gain a firsthand experience. I did, and he was right: the first five minutes felt as if my hand was burning, but after that there was no more pain.

The next experience came when we saw a termite nest.



The guide explained that termites contain 40% more protein than meat, and then ate a few to demonstrate that he was serious. I tasted some, too; the taste is a little similar to wood, not bad at all.

The third new experience was cocoa. The cocoa production process is similar to coffee: seeds have to be extracted, dried, roasted and ground to make cocoa powder. What I didn't know was that part of the cocoa fruit is edible, too:



It doesn't taste like cocoa at all, of course, but rather like some kind of tropical fruit (which is exactly what it is, of course).

In the afternoon, another new experience: we went piranha fishing! This is the first fish I've ever caught:



All in all, however, I don't get what people like about fishing. It's a rather boring series of throwing out a line, waiting, pulling it in, and then either discovering that the fish is to small and throwing it back in, or that the fish stole your bait.

We also saw lots of animals, and traces of animals, during the day: hummingbirds, howler monkeys, cappuccino monkeys, squirrel monkeys, spider monkeys, dragonflies, and butterflies, as well as footprints of tapirs and ocelots. And, of course, tons of insects:



Another interesting thing was the
curare tree - apparently you have to cut the bark to retrieve the famous poison.

Day 146: To Serere Lodge

The first day of my five-day trip to the jungle started with, well, getting to the jungle. We left Rurrenabaque in a small boat on Río Beni. In typical rainforest fashion, the boat was made out of a single hollowed-out tree.

On board were a handful of local people who we'd be dropping off at tiny communities along the river, staff for Serere lodge, my guide - and Rosa María Ruiz, the lady who owns the lodge and the land surrounding it. She featured prominently in the National Geographic article about Madidi national park; apparently she has been concerned about rain forest conservation for years. Consequently, all profits from tourist travel to Serere go to conservation efforts - the main reason why I chose this company over the other tourist agencies.

After two hours on the river, we disembarked at a small village where Rosa María wanted to drop off a few school supplies. The villagers welcomed everyone, including me the tourist, very warmly. During their chat with Rosa María, it turned out that, while they all agree that education is the most important thing, they struggle with a lack of materials. For example, for their 32 pupils, they only have 10 notebooks. Rosa María agreed to help, and also tried to get the professors to engage in adult literacy - it seems that many of the adults in remote villages don't know how to read or write.

A short while after, we arrived at Serere. The main house is set about one kilometer back from the river, so we put on our much-needed rubber boots and walked. The first 100 meters were incredibly muddy, so the guide and staff took their machetes, felled a couple of trees and built an improvised causeway:



At the lodge, I discovered that there was no electricity at all - five days without being able to charge my camera...! The lodge itself was very nice. There was a main house with dining and relaxation areas, and then individual huts set at a little distance in the jungle for sleeping. Neither the lodge nor the huts had any solid walls; instead there were only mosquito nets to allow for a jungle view (and a breeze). The view from the shower was quite spectacular :-)



In the main house, we had a free snack bar, open day and night - consisting of delicious locally grown bananas:



In the afternoon we went canoeing on San Fernando lake which is right next to the main house. Rosa María and two baby spider monkeys who had been held as pets by a family in Rurrenabaque and are now being reintroduced into the jungle came with us:



We saw a lot of birds - kingfishers, herons, sereres - as well as some more monkeys and this tiny poisonous frog:



In the glow of sunset, the lake and the jungle really looked amazing:



After dinner, we returned for another boat trip on the lake. This time, equipped with flashlights, we were looking for caimans - their eyes appear bright red when reflecting light at night. We saw lots of small ones a well as one big one, probably the mother. Fabulous!