El Tinku de Macha

May 3 - 4

I was able to see a traditional festival that goes back for centuries with the indigenous people. They believe in Pachamama (Mother nature) and that blood must be spilled to by combatants to ensure a fruitful harvest or fertility. I went to the pueblo of Macha which is 4 hours from Potosí. I witnessed a lot of dancing and saw a little bit of fighting before the police broke it up with tear gas. The different village groups had differing attires from each other and only danced with their village.  It was a very authentic cultural experience.

Prefestival dance on the hill above Macha

Sam (from OpenSpanish school) trying to blend in ;)

That evening while in town surrounded by lots of people I had my wallet stolen.  I didn't discover it being missing until some kids handed it back to me.  Fortunately my passport and bank cards were still there.  The thief only took the cash.  It was my fault it was stolen as I got use to leaving it in my pocket in Sucre since its safe there. (I didn't find out until later that Llew also got robbed in La Paz on the same day as me.  He lost all his bank cards.)  Since I didn't have any cash, Sam was kind enough to cover for me until we got back to Potosí.

Monday, festival day and fighting.

A Fight...

Learning Spanish in Sucre

April 16 - May 2

I have spent 2 wonderful weeks in the lovely city of Sucre, Bolivia learning Spanish. Sucre is known as the “white city” and has colonial architecture in the city center.

Plaza 25 de Mayo

 Prior to arriving I had done some research on where to take Spanish and had chose Sucre based on people’s reviews, the mild climate and inexpensiveness of Bolivia. Quite a few people wrote glowing reviews of the Open Spanish School. (www.openspanish.net) I’m so glad I took my classes there as Gonzalo & Maricel who run the school are the nicest Christian couple. They have a small 5 bed dorm upstairs where the classrooms are. My teacher Shirley was fantastic. I think I may have been one of her more lively students as I loved cracking jokes in class as it made the learning better for me. All my classes were one on one and I had them twice a day in 2 hour blocks. I typed all my notes in Google Docs so I could have it synced to my phone and then I would have my notes wherever I am. It proved to be a great way of doing it as I studied my notes wherever I was. I had so many verbs and learning the conjugations was slow especially on the irregulars. I told Shirely to be patient with me as I’m an old man and don’t learn as quickly as the others. haha! Here’s one of the first sentences I put together. “Yo aprendo espanól.” (I am learning Spanish) I made up other sentences that involved “helado” and a couple times Shirely and I would run down to the shop and get some helado.

Maricel & Shirley

Gonzalo

Buena comida con amigos

Mi prefossora, Shirley

Estudiante loco

La Escuela

Lukas

While in Sucre I attended the Adventist Church which was only 6 blocks away from me. I made friends with a few people there and I can say they are so far the friendliest church I’ve been to. Llew has come back from Cuba and spent almost a week there. It was longer than he planned as he got salmonela posioning and was not feeling well for a few days. The Sabbath he was there we were invited to 2 sisters place. (Victoria & Virginia) While talking to them Llew discovered that he had gone to school in France with Virginia’s husband. Just a reminder how small the Adventist world is. :)

Mi amigo Angel

My last Friday at the school was the labour day holiday and I watched marching bands with people in traditional costume. It was a great way to end my stay and see a bit more of the tradition here. I’m fascinated how there is a blend of the traditional and the new. I always saw women in the traditional skirt and hairstyle carrying things in their blanket. All the school kids are wearing western clothes and listening to western music. Its interesting to see the differences coexist together. I wonder what this country will look like 10 years from now. Will they lose the traditional look and feel and be more western. Will they start becoming obese as they prosper. The country is definitely doing much better than they were 10 years ago.

Potosí

April 14 - 16
Potosí is a ore mining town with a big mountain, Cerro Rico rising behind it.  It has over 200 mines on the mountain with miles of tunnels.  It's also one of the highest cities in the world at 4090m (13,400ft).  CC and I spent 2 days here.  We enjoyed eating the street food and drink.  I like the food here as it has picante to it.  They even sell salsa picante in the market.  The Bolivians appear to have papas (potatoes) with all their meals. Its hard to buy any meal here that doesn't contain papas in some form.

Mercado Central

Jugo

Frutas

Vegetales


Open market

We did a mine tour that opened our eyes to dangers of this life.  The tour guy who is a miner and a taxi driver, had us buy some dynamite for the miners as they have to buy their own dynamite.(20 bolivianos = 3USD)  I'm not sure if this is the case for all the mining operations on the mountain.  He also took 96% alcohol & a 2 liter of Sprite to mix it with and serve to the miners.  He also said to bring some Coco dried leaves for the miners to chew on.  The leaves are suppose to help with the altitude.  I tried some and can't say I like having my tongue and mouth go numb.  We drove up to the mountain and spent 2 hours down in the earth.  We saw dropoffs with no protection other than the guide telling us to be care as we crossed a narrow plank.  My height is not conducive for being bent over so much.  They also erect gods which they burn candles or cigarettes to and pour the 96% alcohol on.  A couple of workers used the dnyamite we gave them to blow some more rock.  It didn't appear to knock that much rock down, and the sound wasn't to bad. (I had my ears plugged. haha!)  After watching our guide drink quite a bit of the alcohol, I was praying that he would be able to lead us back through the maze of tunnels to the surface.  We did make it out and I was happy to breathe fresh air. :)