Joey Lesh and Katie Coleman: The Next Step

Today is our last day in Bolivia. Our flight home leaves at 6:45 tomorrow morning.

Don´t worry though, we´ve got more coming. Pictures soon and whatever other drivel we can think up.

For the last 4 days we´ve been killing time in La Paz. We wanted to make sure that we were here before the referendum so we weren´t stuck and miss our flight.

If you´ve been watching the news on Bolivia it´s been hard to miss the uproar over a referendum that was held on Sunday to determine the fate of Bolivia´s enormous natural gas reserves.

The history is sort of interesting: there is a law on the books that is along the lines of American-style resource ownership and management. The government owns the gas until it comes out of the pipe and firms buy rights to develop certain reserves. When this was was passed Bolivia thought it had 5 trillion cubic feet of gas. Some, but not a lot. Now they know they have around 54 trillion cubic feet, more than any S. American country except Venzuela. One only has to look at their heating bill from last winter to remember that natural gas prices are extremely high. So this represents a lot of money to on of S. America´s poorest countries.

The referendum came about because of huge riots and protests in October. The president had pressed a very moderate nationalization plan for the gas industry, while the protesters demanded full nationalization of gas and the nullificaition of current contracts with international gas companies (mostly Canadian, American, and British). After bloodshed, their president was forced from office and the Vice-President took over. The new president promised to offer a referendum to allow Bolivians to determine the gas policy for the country.

This same issue was cause for several weeks of strikes and road blockades in the end of May. Clearly, July 18 was not the best time to be in La Paz. Not to mention, we we´re staying half a block from the house of the President and the Congressional building. Yikes!

We´ll the day before the referendum was more scary than the day before. We left the house to see that every corner a block from the governmental plaza there were 5 national policemen with shotguns, tear-gas guns, and submachines guns at the ready. All vehicular access to the governmental plaza was blocked.

For the day of the election nothing was supposed to be open, there were laws banning carrying weapons, sale of alcohol, all trasportation was closed. Needless to say, we prepared for the worst, lots of food and water and were ready to spend the day inside. Only when we peeked outside it was the most beatiful Sunday morning. Peaceful, people walking their dogs, feeding pigeons with their kids in the plaza. La Paz has never been so quiet.

It was a wonderful experience to watch a country that so clearly is struggling to peacefully manage its difficult questions find a peaceful (mostly) way to do it without violence. Good luck to bolivia.

Oh, and the vote came out in favor of a moderate nationalization plan applied to new contracts and the old ones will remain valid.

This is a good article on the new political life of the indigenous peoples of S. America.

Boy have we been having some ADVENTURES!! After we crossed the border into Bolivia, we stayed in this lovely and very chill little town called Copacabana, perhaps you´ve heard the song. We did a day hike out along a peninsula with beautiful views of Lake Titicaca then headed over to the Isla del Sol (where the sun was born) to check out some Incan ruins.

After Copacabana we headed to La Paz where we did our first DANGEROUS activity. Lindsay, Matt, Joey and I biked 60 KM down “The World´s Most Dangerous Road.” We decided to wait to tell you about it until after we all survived in honor of our Mommies! We descended from 15,700 feet to 4,200 feet in the course of the afternoon so we saw all sorts of different climate zones from the high alpine to the rainforest. Despite the fact that the cliff off the side of the dirt road plunged vertically thousands of feet, and buses and trucks were passing frequently around blind corners, we had a BLAST (and spent 3 days recuperating by the side of the pool in warm, tropical Corroico).

Our next DANGEROUS activity occurred just days later in the highest city in the world, Potosi. We descended into the mines for a few hours to see how many of the city´s residents make a living. The mines were unbelievable. Thousands of men work in the dark tunnels of the mines underground. There is no ventilation, and the heat and dust are suffocating. At times the passages were so small that we had to crawl on hands and knees. There is no electricity, no elevators to carry up the minerals, no water, and dynamite and ammonium nitrate are stuffed into hand-drilled holes and detonated regularly to find new mineral deposits. In the mines, the workers worship the devil because they believe God doesn´t visit them down there. (Frankly, after visiting, the similarities to Hell do seem abundant). They make offerings of alcohol (98 proof), cigarettes, and coca leaves to these devils in return for good luck and safety. Needless to say, the experience was eye-opening, and I think I can safely say we all appreciate our desk jobs a little bit more now.

We are now in the beautiful city of Sucre enjoying fabulous weather after checking out the world´s largest number of preserved dinosaur tracks!!

Only 6 days left for J & K before we head back to the states. M & L will follow in early August after visiting Argentina!

Wow. We´ve come a long way since our last post. We´re now in Bolivia, enjoying our last week and a half of vacation and looking forward to returning home to our friends and family.

Since the last note, we´ve been to:

1. Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu was very cool. We´d seen Incan ruins before, but this was the only one that the Spanish never found, so the whole city is completely intact. Our tour guide took us through this
agrarian temple city pointing out the famous mortarless stonework that was used for the most important buildings like temples and the house of the Inca (the king´s house when he came to visit) and the rustic stonework for the houses of the workers. Everywhere there are rocks shaped like distant mountains, puma heads, and condors. Then as the afternoon wore on and the tour groups left, we sat down on the central lawn to soak in the absolutely incredible setting for Machu Picchu.

In fact, it´s mostly this setting that makes Machu Picchu so great. It´s not the most important ruins around (Cusco was the capital of the Incan empire) or the largest. But it has a killer view and is perfectly preserved.

All in all Machu Picchu Pueblo (formerly Aguas Calientes) wasn´t much to scream about. Mostly t least the beer is cheap.

2. The Sacred Valley

So moving on from Machu Picchu we passed through the Sacred Valley. The Sacred Valley lies only 20km or so from Cusco and is consequently full of ruins. On our quick moving schedule we only stopped at Pisac. Pisac begins with only a small group of buildings and some agricultural terracing on the top of a large hill overlooking the valley and river below. Puzzled and slightly disappointed at first, we decided to follow the trail back to town. Following this trail along shear cliffs, we were more than a little concerned about our judgment and the quality of a five hundred year-old trail. Eventually, however, came the payoff. Pisac had the finest stonework and one of the neatest Temples of the Sun that we´ve seen. And as the afternoon light glowed across the valley and over the town of Pisac, you could understand why someone would build a temple here.

3. Train!

Tired of busses and moving around, we passed a day in Cusco left on a train for the border.

Arriving at night in Puno we rested and bought tickets for the bus across the border for the next day.

All was uneventful as we headed to the ever so slightly unsettled border area (towns on both sides have lynched their mayors and the border has been shut down several times in the last month) and we passed through the Peruvian exit booth without a problem. But as we walked down the street to cross the border we ran across a gigantic parade, complete with armed Military Police, children in uniform, and a terrible brass band. Turns out today was the day that they celebrate Peruvian-Bolivian cooperation. Phew. Apparently things can get heated at the end of July when both countries have their independence days and they do this every year as a pre-emptive friendship strike.

And that´s how we got to Bolivia. More on our last week in the days to come …