on the political side...

I realize that my posts are of a more personal nature. That's the point of this blog, give friends and family some news and pictures while I'm away for a long time. However, in the slight case that you guys have heard about Bolivia in the news recently (and not just about the US ambassador being kicked out), I guess I should address the recent political developments. There has been increasing violence and conflict in Bolivia, especially in the last week. All of this is happening in the eastern parts of the country where there are movements for autonomy of these provinces. So on a personal note, there is almost no repercussions here. As usual, I hear the noise of people marching outside for one reason or another (that's almost everyday here, and I kinda like to see that people aren't afraid to take the streets for their demands) so I'm assuming that lately it might be some pro-Evo rallies in this time of conflict. I live in Evo's stronghold, and he just received a huge 66% approval rate in the country, so democracy is on his side for now. One problem that could eventually affect me directly is that protesters in the south are blowing up natural gas pipelines or blocking gas transport so there will be (and apparently is right now) a gas shortage even in La Paz. But that doesn't worry me too much. All it will do is make me eat lots of sandwiches because I have a gas stove.

What is more worrisome for the future is if the conflict escalate further instead of running out of steam... It could potentially maybe lead to some sort of civil war. I think the leaders on both camps want to avoid that though, so it's just a matter of controlling the mobs. This obviously isn't a fun prospect, and quite frankly, I am not equipped to fully understand the situation and explaining it to you. Luckily, if you're interested in understanding it further like I am, there are great blogs available like http://gringotambo.wordpress.com/ and http://www.democracyctr.org/blog/index.htm . This is how I get my information about the whole situation. It is well contextualised so you don't need to have lived here for years to understand the ramifications of certain developments (I feel like I'm reading a "fill in the blanks" when I read local newspapers).

Happy (?) reading!

Update: the gringo tambo blog posted the link to this really interesting interview that discusses clearly and simply what are the issues in Bolivia. It's a great introductory course on Bolivia!

Bolivia is weird

As I'm writing here, I am being serenaded very loudly by Mariachis. I'm in my room, they are somewhere outside with microphones and speakers... I actually really enjoy the randomness of this! If they're still playing around midnight I might have to get violent.

This tops a really funny weird day for me. Not really that weird given I've been here often, but still. Today I went back to Tiwanaku because it was the opening of a weekend long festival (the most important one for Tiwanaku given the solstice is a national holiday rather than a local one), in honor of the Señor de la exaltacion which is another name for Jesus. Here he is, pretty similar to regular Jesus:

I went there alone assuming I would know some people. First people I knew I finally encountered were two Bolivian archaeologists that work within the site. However, they looked slightly different than usual...
In typical Tiwanaku fashion, the "entrada" (people dancing and making an entrance I guess) started 3 hours late, which meant I missed most of it. I wanted to leave around 5pm to make sure I could find a bus back and wouldn't be in La Paz too late. I did forget to pack some food and most of what was being sold was "street food" which isn't always to the peak of cleanliness standards. Although I never heard of "listeriose" here... Plus they don't give you cutlery so you have to eat with your hands.

I was going there mostly to see one of my favorite person in the world, our cook Aurora, dancing. Turns out her "help" Eli who has been working with us for two years and is a sweetheart was dancing too! And luckily, they were among the first groups to dance so I actually saw them before leaving. I figured I should introduce them to you since they are so important to me, my belly, and my expanded figure (I'm now going to the gym and eating less because what I cook isn't as good so none of you will see me in the expanded state). Although I wondering if I did post pictures of them before, and I can't go check right now. Anyways, they're good pictures too.

Here is Aurora:
And here's Eli:
On a side note, the mariachis are still playing...

Oh, and as far as introduction goes, I thought I should post a picture of Tiwanaku's mayor because I was shocked the first time I saw her. First of all, it's a "her". Second of all, I think she's my age. She's dressed up in the blue cholita outfit to the far left (although last time I saw her she was wearing jeans so she usually doesn't dress as a cholita). She was signing papers right before doing her walkabout in the plaza.As you may have noticed, I'm a bit tired and don't have much to say. I sort of prefer showing pictures right now, so I think I'll just end with a medley of weird pictures...

For that last picture, I just liked that it was written "coqueto" on the back of their costumes. I'm not sure what it means in spanish, but in french, coquet would be someone who's really careful about their appearances, on a vain and slightly effeminate tangent... Update: after talking with Machi and Tony, sounds like coqueto means pretty much the same thing in spanish although you need to add "flirty" to the list.

And speaking of liking their appearance. This guy asked me to take a picture of him. And he's pimp.

I love Bolivia! Did you know that?

I realize that my last three posts were focused on Peru, and really, given that my life is in Bolivia, I really should talk more about it, especially about La Paz. Well turns out that today I have a real genuine happy love for this country because it once again surprised me in an awesome way. This morning, as I was leaving the gym next to my house to go grocery shopping (at 8:30am, not to brag or anything), I saw that there was yet again some big commotion in the park at the corner. Last week was a huge festival with musicians on a stage for the "get your pet vaccinated" campaign. There has been some pro-Evo parties there too, and a Bolivian comic book fair. This time, it was a huge, gigantic, awesome farmer's market. As I'm going grocery shopping! One lady explained to me that they are commissioned by ... not sure... the government? the city? ... to go in different plazas and sell their really fresh produce at a lower price than the local markets. And they have everything there. I saw a lady selling brussel sprouts (not that I would buy any, but its rare here), there was a couple of fish stands and chicken ones, I bought fresh altiplano eggs (therefore not factory farms), olives, an eggplant, cereals. I swear they have everything there. I understand that it might not sound that awesome to some of you, but it's the surprise and spontaneity of it all that makes it awesome. You get to chat with the ladies, see the whole neighborhood and their dog (literally) shop around, there are toys for kids (although that's always there). It's just so festive as you are about to go do some boring errands like grocery shopping. Anyways, I just got there for the second time today, and this time I had a camera.

This first photo is a general view of the park, but most importantly, you can see my building in the background: it's the second one to the right of the picture, with some orangy brownish colors on it.
The second picture is of the carrousel (which is always there) and a few stalls with ladies selling stuff. Bear in mind that this place was really crowded, and I had my hands full of green onions, eggs, and avocadoes so I had to find a quiet, non-crowded place to put my stuff down and get my expensive camera out. I couldn't just whip it out in the middle of the action because that would be dumb and asking for trouble, so the photos are never quite as busy as they should be...

Here's a baby apparently selling a mountain of garlic (or is it onions?)

So there you have it, a slice of life in La Paz. Since we are on the subject of my life in La Paz, I figured I'd post a few pictures of our appartment, now that it is lived in and all.

Here's my messy room, although I did select the angle to show the less messy side... on the right of the picture, out of frame, is a huge pile of laundry:
Here's our living room with pretty flowers bought by Mary yesterday:
As for news, well first, most of you probably know that Wes left Bolivia last tuesday, leaving me here all aloooooooone for the next 4 months. And by alone I mean surrounded by friends, but you know, I like to be melodramatic. He told me to tell bye to people on the blog, not that any of his friends were ever warned this existed (not that I'm bitter) and my friends will, hopefully, continue to read it. But anyways, Wes says bye.

Also in the news, I am finally in the process of closing up the house and the lab in Tiwanaku and move my analysis to La Paz! I can't wait. Daily showers, access to the gym, internet whenever I want to, and surprise markets in the park. The big move is tuesday night. Then, the living room will look different because I'm bringing back another work table and a bookshelf so I'll guess this picture I just posted will be obsolete. Oups. Sorry.

And an update on the weather, it is now actually hot here. Not heat wave hot, but hot. T-shirt hot in the afternoon. When we got back from Arequipa and went to Tiwanaku, it actually snowed for two days... I'll wait while you laugh... ok? But Cesar and Delia, the couple who own the house we live in, told us it was good news because that meant that the cold was gone and the summer was starting soon. Kinda like when the groundhog sees (or doesn't see?) its shadow. We obviously didn't believe it as we were being attacked by snowflakes, but see? Two weeks later and it's really hot, even in Tiwanaku! It feels a little like spring in Montreal.

On that note, I'll leave to go have fun in the sun. Those of you in Montreal, please take care of my Wesley for me!

Nevermind, I'll tell you anyway...

I'm a little bummed out that no one tried to write funny captions to my pictures, but I'll go with the assumption that some of you at least tried to figure out what's what in your head.

The first picture is the "laundry room" of the nuns who have lived in the Santa Catalina convent, in Arequipa, since around 1540. The convent is one of the biggest attraction of Arequipa, in part because it is sooooo huge! It has 5 streets in it, with apartments that belonged to the daughters of some of the richest families of Spain and New Spain. Women were sent there with dowries that would be the equivalent of up to 50 000$ nowadays. They had servants that lived with them, but were cloistered from the rest of the world. The laundry room consists of a stream that you have to block with your hand for the water to rise and be funneled into those huge ceramic vessels cut in half. We heard a guide say that they would block the draining hole with carrots wrapped in fabric. Kinda funny. The rest of the convent is really beautiful and interesting. You get to walk in history pretty much. Like most south american architecture, it mostly consists of rooms around patios such as the one on our new profile picture and this one:
Here's a picture of the streets within the walled monastery:


The whole downtown area of Arequipa is a UNESCO protected site because it is all preserved colonial architecture. It is obviously beautiful. It is known as the "white city" because a lot of the building are built with sillar, a volcanic rock that is white. The whole Plaza de Armas is made of building of that material. The cathedral in the plaza the armas is the building behind Jonah's head in the second picture. Here's a clearer picture of it:


It is in that cathedral that we have encountered the devil. Yes, the devil is in the church, being crushed by the pulpit. That's picture number 3. Jonah and I were trying to make faces pretending to be scared of the devil, but to be honest, at least I wasn't faking it that much. That sculpture is great and really, really creepy.

Another good point about Arequipa, other than the architecture, is the weather. For people who have seen snow about a month ago, to be able to tan your legs is the most amazing feeling! And the surrounding landscape is beautiful. Basically you are warm and surrounded by palm trees, yet you can see snow peeked mountains and volcanoes in the distance. Here's the view from the roof of the monastery:

I don't have tons of stories to tell about our trip there because we mostly walked around, and drank beer and sangria on rooftop terraces. It was so great, I can't even tell you. We did take a little side trip to colder mountain areas to go see the Canyon del Colca. I had been there years before and knew it was worth a trip and feeling a little cold. Basically, it is a canyon in the mountain ranges nearby that is almost completely terraced. Terracing is the way most Andean people managed to improve agriculture in steep mountain environment by basically flattening one area and putting a buttress wall at the end so you end up having what looks like a giant staircase rather than a hill. Here's a picture of lots of terracing in the Canyon, I hope a picture explains it better than the rambling I wrote:


To get to the Canyon, we took a 3 hours bus ride from Arequipa to the town of Chivay, at the entrance of the Canyon. One of the main attraction in Chivay is the hot springs, that is, an outdoor pool filled with sulfuric super hot water. It's better than I make it sound. Basically, you get to freeze to death being outside in the mountains, in near freezing temperature, in your bikini. But then you run to the pool and get warmed up instantly. We even got to drink in the pool! Now, I'm a bit of a weirdo and never take baths because they bore me to death. After 30 minutes in the pool, I was bored to death. Yeah, it's pretty outside with the stars, and yeah it's nice to be warm when you've been so cold, but then what? Well then what is that, thankfully for me, the pool was closing.

The next day, we woke up early-ish (around 7am) and had breakfast, then went to the bus station where we had to make a decision. The ultimate goal of this vacation was to visit the archaeological site where our friend Tony was working, in the Canyon del Colca. However, when we got to Arequipa we realized that they were done excavating and did mostly analysis in Arequipa. When we went to the Canyon del Colca, we thought we might try to find the site ourselves and go visit it but no one we met in Chivay knew where the tiny town closest to it was, and we were told by Tony that to find it we'd have to 1) rent a cab for about 60 soles (20$), make the cabbie wait for us while we take a 30 minutes walk into nothingness to find this site, and then walk back 30 minutes and get our taxi back to Chivay. At 8:30am in the bus station, we decided it was so much easier to just take a bus to the Cruz del Condor (cross of the condors) and do some sightseeing instead. The bus ride is about 2 hours, and stunning. But when we got there, there was not the huge amount of tourists we expected. Instead, we were told by the ladies selling stuff there that we were too late, condors only show up around 8 am so we would have needed to take a 6am bus or something like that. Quite frankly, I didn't care that much, I'd much rather sleep. As I said to the lady, at least the Canyon is still here. I mean, it's really pretty there, and that's picture number 4 on the last blog. I did put that one picture there because I thought it was funny/weird how Wes was holding my arm. I really can't remember why he was doing that. Anyways, turns out that after taking a million pictures of the canyon, as we're preparing to go, we hear all the ladies screaming "Condor! Condor!", and there you had it, a young condor was just cruising over our head, as you can see here:

They said it was a young one because it was brown, unlike the black and white adults, and because it was small. It was probably about one meter wide, and yes, that was small. We were impressed nonetheless.

After this trip we went back to Arequipa, and Wes and I moved from our decent but boring youth hostel to a fancy shmancy hotel in front of the monastery! We enjoyed the use of the tv, ate in their nice sunny green patio, and just marveled at the colonial architecture again. Then on sunday we needed to go back to Bolivia, meaning long bus rides with loud annoying music and crying children. We did get to use our passports with our shiny new bolivian resident visa though! Which meant we had to pay 91 bs to get out of the country, but whatever, we're residents.

We are now staying in La Paz until thursday because wednesday is Bolivia day and we want to see the celebrations. We will then go to Tiwanaku and spend the weekend there. On sunday, there is some really important elections going on including a confidence vote for the president which could out him. The shit may potentially hit the fan as they say. We think Tiwanaku will be a safer place to wait it out than La Paz where protests could go on. But that's only if the president get outed which I doubt will happen. Anyways, we have friends everywhere here so we're not worried. We are just aware and ready.

Oh, and the last picture I took was of some kids dressed up for the preparations of Peru Day. It was just cute, but not an everyday occurrence as far as I can tell.

C'est l'fun les vacances!

We are now back from our one week vacation in Arequipa and it was awesome!

Sadly, we need to run out to Tiwanaku this morning so I thought I'd put up a few pictures. You can imagine funny stories that go with them, and next weekend I'll give you a run down of what happened for real and you can compare notes.

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Have fun!

Sun, terraces, and refreshing drinks. We're not in Bolivia anymore!

Hello friends!

I'm sorry we haven't written in a while, Tiwanaku is still without internet and sunday morning we escaped the cold to go for a one week vacation to Arequipa, Peru. I am presently wearning a skirt and a tank top (no, it's not Wes writing) and got some sun! This is very exciting after spending a few months in winter on the altiplano. Sadly, we leave sunday morning. So far we've had lots of fun and took tons of photos, but I can't find a decent internet place to upload photos so you'll have to wait until sunday night or monday morning to get more news and see pictures. In the meantime, I guess you guys can google Arequipa and the Canyon del Colca to see what we saw!

Finally, internet back!

After two weekends without working internet in the house - confined to go to internet cafés - we now have internet back and I can waste time checking out gossip, funny pictures of cats, and upload stuff on my (our - although Wes doesn't even read what I write, he "trusts" me) blog. Last weekend was really short. We had to go back to Tiwanaku for lunch sunday because it was the San Pedro festival, some saint's day that is important to the town and our workers. We went there and danced and drank, and it was a dance contest between the different communities that form the greater Tiwanaku and, as far as we understood, Wankollo (our community of workers with whom we danced) won 2nd place! For this day, I did dress up as a cholita again and the whole community applauded me when I entered the patio where they were all eating! I guess they like it when gringas dress as cholitas. They kept on telling me to be careful because someone would try to steal me as I was so lovely... I look about 70 pounds heavier and, well, that hat... it ain't really flattering...

But as a good sport I'll now post a few pictures. Sadly, I also had a video to post but I let it upload all night and it still wasn't uploaded this morning so I'm abandoning this idea for now... I'll also post pictures of us actually working so you don't think all we do is dance and drink. We don't, I swear. Now, lucky for me I did find a picture of me working, but I have yet to find one of Wes working... And given that I work in the lab and he "works" in the field, it is possible that all this time he told me he worked he was really just dancing a drinking...

This is like Where's Waldo (Où est Charlie), I'm dressed in yellow.
I am holding the awesome 2nd place trophy they gave us. Please note it has a beer can as a body...

And here's me working, this is my fascinating world of archaeology. Just like Indiana Jones, isn't it?!