Bolivian Tidbits

[Martin Hash]

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American’s old, outdated view of South America is still embodied in Bolivia. The native women are short, stocky, colorfully dressed and wear funny-looking bowler hats. The men chew coca leaf (cocaine) as a matter habit, and given that Bolivia sets above 10,000 feet, coca may be the only thing that makes it habitable. La Paz is billed the “Highest capital city in the world,” I misunderstood at first, thinking altitude was the reason. And poo on the Mile-High-Club – I’m a member of the 2-And-A-Half-Mile-High-Club and I didn’t have to leave my hotel.

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Pelosi was the world’s iconic source of silver during the time of the conquistador’s occupation. In fact, the 500-year old mines are still working. Unfortunately, the original Spanish earthworks are the safest part of the mine, which I know firsthand from our own explorations. To give you an idea about how primitive the working conditions are – the original Spanish tunnels were far “safer” (if that is the word) than anything dug in the last 200 years. In fact, the diggings were little more than mole holes occasionally propped up with rotting, broken tree branches. Some workers were wearing only loincloths in 112° F heat, and demanded “coca!” when they saw us. One of our party handed over a bag of coca leaves from Peru, but the small, sinewy miner sneered at the inferior product and threw the bag to the ground before storming off. One girl in our group, normally a bubbly and upbeat jokester, became hysterical and claustrophobic, and ran screaming back to the surface. Our guide abandoned us to lead her back out, leaving us to crawl on our bellies into a cave containing a large clay statue shrine of Eno, brother of Pacha Mama the earth god whom we would call Mother Nature. From the amount of old cigarette butts and smell of alcohol, offerings were plentiful. It turns out these miners not only work in the mine, but live in it six months at a time to gain their share – Eno apparently keeps them safe.

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The most pleasant surprise in Senda Verde, an animal refuge, was the personalities of the inhabitants. These monkeys and birds were taken from their shady owners, who had trained them to be skilled thieves, especially the capuchin monkeys. They would climb all over our bodies, reaching in our pockets, feeling our wrists and earlobes, and closely examining our hair. We were warned to absolutely take off all jewelry and empty our pockets before visiting but of course some people didn’t, and lost their keys, earrings, and hair barrettes to the little urchins. These little pests were fearless in their pursuit of shinny baubles, or even your shoes.