On the Road

Two weekends ago, Dave and I took a 20 minute trufi ride to the nearby town of Tiquipaya. A suburb of Cochabamba, Tiquipaya has a relaxed feel and is known for it's weekend markets. We shopped for produce at the market, enjoyed the views of the snow-capped mountains, had some lunch, relaxed in the plaza and then headed back to Cocha; a great Sunday afternoon!

This past weekend we had a bit longer ride to La Paz (8 hours overnight via bus.) While Sucre is the judicial capital of Bolivia, La Paz is Bolivia's largest city and legislative capital. La Paz is situated at a staggering 3660 meters (12,000 feet above sea level). After spending almost two months in Cochabamba at 2558 m (8,400 feet), it was still an adjustment for me. This is a photo of the looming Mount Illimani of 6402 m (21,000 feet!!) seen from La Paz.

Arriving in La Paz at 6:00 AM, we were startled by the cold winter morning temperature (around 35 degrees F), and quickly tracked down our hostel. We hurriedly put our bags down and brushed our teeth, and were off in search of breakfast and coffee. By 7:00 AM we were in the center of La Paz at Iglesia San Francisco, eating warm llauchas – a empanada filled with a gooey cheese sauce (see one of Dave's earlier posts on his experience with this tasty street food.  http://curiousgringo.blogspot.com/2010/03/street-food-heaven.html)


That afternoon we visited the Southern region of La Paz, called San Miguel- an affluent and trendy neighborhood filled with shops and cafes. We also spent time in two great museums, and tried out a few other street food treats that La Paz has to offer, including some amazing tucumanas, which are fried empanada like pastries filled with meat, eggs, potatoes and other flavors. We also took a stroll through the famous Mercado de Herchicería (the Witches' Market) where you can find any herbal or folk remedy, including dried coca leaves to cure your altitude sickness or llama fetuses for good luck. 

Day 2 in La Paz started off with an all you can eat pancake breakfast (both this and a free beer from their microbrew were included in the price of our hostel, The Adventure Brew Hostel.) With full stomachs and a sense of nostalgia for home, we headed to the El Alto Sunday market. El Alto is the city above La Paz and is the Aymará capital of the world. The Aymará are an indigenous people of Bolivia whose women are known for wearing black bowler hats accompanied by the traditional long pleated skirts. (The two large groups of indigenous people are the Quechua, of the valleys, and the Aymará of the Antiplano/high regions of the country.

We caught word that there was a soccer game in La Paz Sunday afternoon between one of La Paz's teams, The Strongest, and Aurora, from Cochabamba. So, we bought some paper visor hats from a vendor and some popcorn, and settled in to a half empty stadium to watch Cochabamba's Aurora lose to The Strongest. Regardless of the outcome, like every live sporting event, we had a great time! After the game we stumbled upon this (above) parade, we aren't sure of the occasion, but it was a bonus. My friend, Shahib, who we volunteered with in Quito, a British Indian, recommended an Indian restaurant in La Paz, The Star of India, that we had been looking forward to all weekend. And we were not let down; we both enjoyed some amazing vegetarian curries. We then headed to the bus terminal for our overnight bus home. Overall, a very FULfilling weekend in La Paz! I can't wait to go back.

PS- Speaking of the road, this week I experienced my first South American bloqueo. The road blockade appeared on my way to work on Wednesday morning. Our trufi approached the bloqueo and the passengers quickly noticed why we had stopped, and everyone started to pile out of the mini bus. Bewildered, I followed suit and tried to follow a man from my trufi through the maze of police, tires, flags, rocks, buses and masses of people that were acting as the blockade. I made it through the obstruction, trying to wrap my head around what was going on, and why, while trying to determine where I was and how I would get to work. I found a taxi on the other side, who took me to the clinic and told me, along with everyone else who I asked, that he had no idea why there was a blockade, and that they happen all the time. Hmmm... let's hope not. 

Wiñay

This past week I began volunteering at Wiñay, a progressive health clinic that offers women's health services as well as a great dentist; you can get a PAP and a cavity filled in one stop!

The clinic is located in a suburb of Cochabamba, called Quillacollo, about a 30 minute bus ride away. Wiñay has a gynecologist, two dentist who rotate days, a counselor, a lab technician, and two nurses (who are all women). The clinic administrator/boss is the only man on staff, and most of the time, is the only man in the busy clinic. The clinic is set up similar to a doctor's office, with a waiting room with a big cable TV adjacent to the front desk, and patients are called by the nurses to proceed to the doctor's office. Wiñay is a privately funded clinic, patients do not have to show an insurance card, simply pay a small fee (i.e. a pediatric check up is 25 Bolivianos, which is equivalent to about $3, and a visit to the gynecologist, including a PAP, is 70 Bs, just under $10). A large percent of the patients who come to the clinic are Quechua indigenous peoples.
(The photo on the left is the Wiñay informational brochure on cervical cancer.)

I am learning the medical vocabulary and working on my Spanish through conversations with new friends. For now I am helping out with checking patients in, retrieving prescriptions and test results. Once I feel more comfortable with the language, the system and the doctors, I will occasionally shadow doctors and take on new projects. 

What Not To Miss (in Cochabamba)

Lonely Planet (the travel guide book that you learn to love/hate while traveling) describes La Cancha market as: “Cochabamba is Bolivia’s biggest market town. The main market is the enormous La Cancha, which is one of the most crowded, chaotic, claustrophobic, and exhilarating spots in the country. Around the markets you’ll find just about everything imaginable.”

La Cancha is a colorful maze of insanity, and during my trips there I have found myself too busy clutching my bag and trying to follow my guide, that it’s been hard to appreciate the vendors and the bustle. This past weekend I went back to La Cancha with my friend Clara on a Saturday, which is busier than usual, if that is at all possible, and I was able to slow down and enjoy (some of) it. One of my favorite sections is the cake section, a maze with an overwhelming aroma of sugar and beautiful cakes on display- with the option to buy just a piece! And I also love the flowers section, where you find yourself surrounded by calla lilies and irises. You can also find every DVD, CD, soccer jersey, type of fruit or vegetable, spice, tire, sock or juice, just to name some of the items for sale. La Cancha really defines excess, you could find 100 of any one item you were searching for, and then find that it comes in 10 different colors or flavors; it’s fabulous!

Another popular excursion in Cochabamba, is Cristo de la Concordia (Christ of Peace.) This massive statue of Christ was built between 1987 and 1994, and reigns over the city from a hill in Eastern Cochabamba. The Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Cristo de la Concordia in Bolivia are both 33m (108 ft.) tall, because Christ died when he was 33 years old, but Bolivia's Cristo de la Concordia is 33m and a few centimeters. Cochabambinos pride themselves that Cristo de la Condcordia is the largest statue of Christ in the world, and say the extra height is appropriate, because Christ actually lived "33 years and a bit." 

There is a cable car (teleférico) that takes visitors up to the Cristo and once you think you're "close to Christ", you find out that you are able (only on Sundays) to climb up into the head of Jesus to get an even better view of Cochabamba valley. 

I start my volunteer position with Wiñay (a medical clinic for mothers and children) on Monday in a suburb of Cochabamba, called Quillacollo. I'm really anxious to start working, to see the clinic and to meet the people I'll be working with and those we'll be helping. I really hope what I've learned in my Spanish classes will shine through!

Picturing Cochabamba

I wanted to share some images that are common sights here in Cochabamba.

This is one of the various methods of transportation here, a micro, a brightly colored small bus that has a set route. There is also a shared taxi with a set route that is called a taxi trufi. It is just a regular cab that is open to other passengers and is much cheaper.

This is La Recoleta church, the center of our neighborhood and the best place to go for cafés and great restaurants. 

                                                                          

Our apartment is located on the corner of a main street, Avenida Santa Cruz and a side street, Beni. Santa Cruz runs from the suburbs to downtown Cochabamba. Here is a photo our apartment building, taken from the steps of Dave's office.

Street art/graffiti is everywhere here, and it is rare to find a wall or street that isn’t covered with tagging or images.

Sarah, meet meat.

For the last two years, since our trip to Tanzania, I have been a vegetarian. It started because the meat in Tanzania was not very desirable (lacking meat on the bones), and after not eating/enjoying meat for four months, I decided to research the vegetarian movement when I got back to the US.  After reading some of the popular slow food books by Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver and watching Food Inc., I realized that leaving meat out of my diet for a while wasn’t such a bad idea. My reason being that animals should be treated fairly and humanely… before we eat them. For those of you who have seen Food Inc., (and if you haven’t, go rent it now) it highlights the mistreatment and the unnatural ways in which so much of the meat in this country is handled and prepared for consumption; it is terrifying, sad and shocking to think about animals (meat) being stuffed with hormones, unsanitary food, and living in conditions unfit for pigs. Free range (literally meaning they have the ability to cruise around a nice field of grass), living without hormones to fatten them up, and without living on top of each other in dismal conditions, is the wholesome way an animal should be raised on a farm. So, enjoy your burger, chicken, or steak tonight, but check out where it’s from, how it was raised, make sure it was a “happy chicken or cow”, (as my DC roommates would say.)

Which leads me to my Bolivian story. I knew coming to South America that I was going to have to throw up my hands and eat some meat. Dave reassured me that here, the majority of the meat does not come from factories, but is actually free range. Dave also gave me the heads up it is rare to find dishes that do not contain meat in the Bolivian culture. Alright I thought, well a little natural chicken or beef would be good for me, I’m ready. And in the month that I have been here, we usually cook a vegetarian dinner in the apartment, but I have had my share of pollo y carne in other delicious Bolivian dishes.

Like this pork salteña

The other night we were out with a bunch of Dave’s co-workers (from ILS) to celebrate Dave’s birthday and also for a farewell party for his close friend, Javier, from ILS, who left on Sunday for an assignment in Nigeria and Qatar for the next year. As our night of celebratory drinking and eating pique macho (of which I managed to eat only the vegetables and fries) came to an end, Dave’s good friend Patty told us that we were going with her and her husband to get her favorite meal, anticuchos, cow heart.

Even after my shpeil on eat all the meat you want, as long as it lead a nice life, cow heart?! I looked at Dave in terror and we both smiled and said, “Great!” Dave and another American friend had both told me that this was a great dish, wonderful meat and “you would never know it’s cow heart!” Hmmm, well I do know it’s cow heart, so now what? Dave’s plan was that he would order one and I would have a bite. As soon as we sat down at the late night, outdoor food stands of Las Islas, Patty quickly ordered two for each of us. Before I knew it, a plate with yucca and two skewers of dark meat landed in front of me.

They looked like shish kabobs I told myself, “mind over matter, mind over matter.” Dave, to the rescue, began explaining to Patty, Carlos and Boris that I had not eaten meat for two years so this was a big step. They all laughed and supported me, asking “What do you think? Do you like it?” Ok, here we go, I thought, Patty is the nicest woman in the world, you are in her country and this is her favorite meal, eat the cow heart. And I did. And it wasn’t too bad.

Afterwards, I told Dave that the hard part was that I knew it was a cow’s heart, it was completely a mental battle. We all laughed at my success and had a wonderful time enjoying our anticuchos (well, Dave had most of mine.) I’m sure you have all tried some interesting dishes on your travels, and I’m sure they all involve a great story. Please leave a comment below if you're bold enough to share!

Looking back on that night, filled with meat and Dave’s close friends, who have taken me under their wings, I’m so glad that I was invited to share their favorite dish with them. At the heart of it all, food is meant to be enjoyed with company, bringing us all around one table.

On the menu for tomorrow, llama empanadas. 

The Frugal Traveler

http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/all-advice-leads-to-cochabamba-bolivia/


In last week's New York Times, the Frugal Traveler wrote about Cochabamba and it's neighboring Bolivian cities. This professional outlook is fun to read and will hopefully give you a good sense of where we are.