Bolivia

Bolivia has been overwhelming for more than 2 weeks now. i managed to calm down a little so i can write.
Its really exotic, nothing like i have ever seen before. and its great! absolutely gorgeous! first time third world for me. argentina comparing to this is fuckin Sillicon Valley!
where should i start...

the things i miss...

there´s no ´Che´ anymore, everyone is your ´amigo´ (friend)

you dont kiss people so much anymore. u do kiss, just not on every occasion.

its kinda harder to make local friends. its not true that bolivians are not nice. it simply takes longer to warm them up. and its harder without all the kissing...

it´s still spanish (which is why traveling around south america is so great), but its not nearly as sexy and fun as the italian-sang argentinian spanish! even the grammar changes, and you do have to use the polite form instead of just being everyone´s buddy. and honestly, you cant get very far without Che...

people generally consume less art, and what affects me most - less live music. consumism in general seems to be in much more basic stage...

no drinking tap water. which is very inconvinient if you´re stuck with a middle-of-the-night thirst and an empty bottle by your bed... and bad stomacks - part of your boot camp in Bolivia. i´ve had mine 2 days ago - from just eating a mango, a banana and brasilian nuts for breakfast! it doesnt matter what you´ve eaten really, you just gotta get your bad stomack and get done with it

great things about bolivia

it´s 2 times cheeper than argentina (while argentina was already 3 times cheeper than israel), with everything that follows...
funny enough, my living conditions worsened. its just the rule of our shoestring traveling folk - no matter how cheep it is, you will always try to save every penny, cause each of this pennies pays you another day spent in freedom. but the cheeper the country is the sheetier accomodation you can actually find. so there is hot water only in the morning (and its not so hot), there´s no kitchen, and there´s a chewing gum stuck on the wall above my bed - i wouldnt settle for this in argentina. but hey mom, dont worry, while i pay 25 Bolivianos a night my korean and swiss friends pay 15, and that´s really bad...we´re all a travelers` community, and there are rules, and the first one is to not convert currencies - you get used to the local prices and live buy them. after all that´s how we afford our conquest of the continent.

coca leaves - make a great tea brew; a great psychological remedy for altitude sickness, indigestion, fatigue, and every thing else; using them you feel beeing part of the ancient inca tradition, supporting comrade´s Evo Moralez fight for the wellbeing of the cocaleros (coca farmers) at the same time giving the finger to Mr. Bush who´s trying to fight the cocaine production by eliminate the coca fields, without much success. so all in one you get your personal delight, cultural experience and a political statement - all for 0.50$ a bag.

the market - life revolves around the market. everything is sold and bought here and there are barely any shops besides this. an astonishing abundancy of all sorts of fruits and vegetables, especially cool stuff like mangoes, papayas, ananases, and more... fresh juice every morning from the market just outside my door!


just things that are Bolivia

cholitas - it's like an indian cast, these women that are dressed in a special outfit, mostly merchants, sitting on the floor in all unexpected location selling everything that comes to your mind. they all wear these weird sandals, stockings, knee long skirt, lace blouse, a hat, and have two butt-long brades with a funny thing hanging from the edge of it. also they all have a baby hanging behind their back wraped in this traditional quilt. so what's so special about it you ask? they all look the same!!! only the skirt and blouse color varies! their men by the way look pretty normal. for me it's really the simbol of bolivia, these mamitas walking around the town. the grotesque thing about it is that they all have very indian faces whereas the dress obviously has a strong spanish flavor.
in traditional Bolivia the woman is the bread winner of the family. in the market it's 97% women sellers as well as buyers. you see women working in the mines, women digging ditches, women all around town with the eternal baby behind their back and a huge bag fool with goods in each hand.
men refuse to use condoms because it's an offence to their manhood, i was told. so they make many many babies and then many times just leave... the bolivian woman is very submissive and passive, but a relentless worker.

child labour - children start their professional career at the age of about 6 as beggers. later on they're promoted to be the main auxiliary force in selling anything. every mamita that sells on the market has her baby carry stuff around for her. many at the age of 12 are full time potent sellers on their own. in the big cities they still go to school and some still have aspirations of becoming a doctor or a lawyer even though they spend 6 hours a day sitting on the floor next to mama on the marketplace. there is no obligatory education though, the state can't afford to enforce it because it would have to give money to the mamitas to send their free workers all to school. but universities are free.

baby trolleys - none! all babies without exception (with the exception of foreign babies) are carried behind mommy´s back tied in this traditional blancket. and all mommies will breast-feed their babies, sometimes not at all babies anymore, in any public place, combining breast feeding with any other sort of productive activity, such as walking, sleeping, selling fruits in the market etc. breast feeding is not erotic, and a breast exposed while feeding has no sexual meaning for the general public. very convinient.
no more siestas

there are so many things that are missing, and every time you remember another thing that u´ve never seen in bolivia. its a lot of fun! beeing in the student capital, and otherwise pretty important city of Bolivia - Sucre, so far i havent noticed ANY supermarkets, malls, gyms, adds for yoga, tai-chi or feldenkreis classes, sidewalks are not painted in any color and there is no pay parking (there ARE cars, though), bookstores (Libreria, contrary to what u´d expect, if u still expect anything in bolivia, is a stationary shop. there are some misserable bookstores that mostly sell school text-books and self guidance new age crap. a person that will work in a bookstore would be a mother simultaneously nursing her baby and trying to reach up for the top shelf for you, a teenager that still hasnt read the obligatory school reading program, or a mamita campesina (a hillbilly) that obviously cant give you a good advice on the local literature wonders - and there are quite a few! god forbid top ask for foreign goods. it has been really frustrating)
things that prevail: stores that sell cell phone (like hairdressers in Rishon, or baikeries in Konstanz), fake CD´s and DVD´s (apparently everything here is fake, including all the books that are multiplied by photocopies from Peru)
in internet places, the computers are usually pretty good, equipped with Windows XP... and with a disquette drive...

its altiplano, which means everything is high, high, high. Potosí is the highest city in the world with its 4,000 m. i went to see a football match there. they said that the local team won because no guest team can beat it on this altitude.

there is still a whole lot more to tell about this incredible place, but i'll leave something for when i come home... and for all of you that asked me when i come home - dont ask. the only thing that is sure that my ticket is valid for 1 year and it's too damn expensive to not use it.