Its been a long time since I´ve written anything here, funny how settling in one place (Cochabamba) makes things seem more banal and less worth writing about. Getting stoned and watching The Yellow Submarine seems much more exciting just because it happened in a brand new city, La Paz. Which was an amazing city, I will really have to come back and get to know it better than I did staying in a grigo punk rock crash pad apartment for 3 nights and wandering around the city a bit.

Never was able to get my visa extended without traveling great distances and paying large sums of money, which doesnt seem worth it right now. It worked out though, after 3 months I was ready to leave, hard as it was. I loved the work I was doing; the more I got to know the kids I was working with the more I liked them. I had made some good friends, and really liked the city itself. I even met lovely lady (a Smith college graduate by coincidence) in my last week there, who I would have loved to get to know better (and hopefully will some day). But I had realized something during these 6 months of traveling: I really love circus; acro and juggling especially, and that means that I need to be somewhere where there are people far better than me to learn from. Cochabamba is not that place.


Luckily, in Cochabamba I had met Carlos, a teacher and performer from La Tarumba in Lima. La Tarumba is a circus school with over 25 years of experience, and judging by photos, videos, and seeing Carlos´stunning corde lisse act and taking his trapeze workshop, very high quality. And, get this: their 3 year professional program is free. Unheard of! I don´t know if i´m ready to live in Lima for 3 years, and besides, they're next class doesnt start until 2011. So i´m hoping i´ll be able to work something out to do a residency or something, for maybe a year. Not sure how flexible they are yet. But I´m pretty excited about La Tarumba.


So that´s why, after a few days in La Paz, I blew straight past the "can´t miss" tourist spots at Lago Titicaca, Cuzco, Machu Pichu, and came straight to Lima. I can always go back. I´m going to stay here in Lima for about a month to get to know the city and the school, spend another few weeks hiking the Cordillera Blanca, then head back to the states. I'll visit as many of y'all as I can in a couple months, replenish the bank account, then see about coming back to South America...

Inca Road

I´m reading Rob Gifford´s China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power. I expected a dry account of China´s economic and political policies, but its actually a fascinating and engaging account of a 3000 mile journey across Route 312, China´s "mother road." The author talks to everyone he can, taxi drivers, farmers, engineering students, immigrants, Taoist monks, and communist party members. From all these anecdotes, put into the context of thousands of years of history and culture, you get a great feel for the Chinese psyche.

In Lima, i´m meeting tons of people through couchsurfing.org. Right now i´m staying in a spare bedroom of a family that I would otherwise probably never exchange words with. Besides other travelers, young liberal activist types and circus folks, the people I would normally hang out with, I´m meeting upper middle class families, military types, adventure sport guides, etc. Reading China Road makes me realize what an opportunity this is to get a feel for the Peruvian outlook on their country. Unfortunately, I don´t the encyclopedic knowledge of Latin America that Gifford has of China, so its harder to put things in context and ask the right questions. I never was much interested in history in school, and hardly learned a thing about Latin America. Maybe because the United States is so stable, history never seemed so important. The political situation in South America, in contrast, seems much more raw and young. Peru is on its 5th constitution since 1900, and there are clamors for a new one; Bolivia´s current constitution is 5 months old. And though they´re all technically democracies, its a lot less "civilized" than the US. In the last couple weeks, demonstrations protesting recource extraction in the amazon left 50 dead (23 of them police officers), but did succeed in repealing 2 contraversial laws. It seems much more important to have an understanding of history to be able to sort it all out. Unfortunately, just as I start to learn a bit of the history of the country i'm in, I then move to a new country and have to start from scratch. Of course that is also what is fascinating about South America: there are so many countries side by side, sharing (to a greater or lesser extent) a cultural history, but with so many different models for governance and development. My reading list is huge, the availability of books in English is one thing i´m really looking forward to when I come back to the states. (Of course I should be reading more in Spanish, but its so slow right now i´m sticking with newspapers, novels, and other easy reading.) So much to learn!

Immigration Reform and Donkey Milk

I had a glass of donkey milk the other day. Fresh. Really fresh. Straight from the udder into my glass. It didn't taste all that good, but it is supposed to be an elixir of youth.  

Cochabamba is treating me pretty well, and I´m slowly settling in. I bought a bike the other day. I´m moving into a new place tomorrow, a boarding house is the best way to describe it, its like a hostal but geared to long term (by the month) visitors. Most of the folks there (about 7) are volunteer workers from Europe. I have basically my own studio apartment, private kitchen and bathroom, for $100 a month.

I´m working with 2 NGOs, teaching circus arts classes and putting together circus shows with kids. Performing Life works with kids who live or work on the street. Educar es Fiesta works with kids from various backgrounds, teaching gymnastics, music, theater, and circus with a philosophy of nonviolence and the promotion of "buen trata," good treatment. Its lots of fun, fulfilling, and keeping me quite busy.  

The only problem is that I´m here on a 90 day tourist visa. Bolivia and the US have terrible relations, and one of the consequences is that its difficult and expensive for estadounidences to visit and stay. Personally, i think that putting obstacles in the way people coming to visit, study, and work with local NGOs is not the way to promote mutual understanding and better relations between countries. Of course, given how hard it is for Bolivians to even set foot on American soil, I can´t claim any injustice. I do have a couple avenues to pursue. The brother of the director of Educar es Fiesta is the director of the immigration office here in Cochabamba. Also, since my predicament has become a topic of discussion in the group, I´ve received 2 marriage proposals. I think things will work out one way or another.

Welcome to Bolivia

After a stop for a couple days in Potosí, I made my way to Cochabamba, where I plan to stay for at least a couple months. I had been doing research ahead of time to find NGOs to volunteer with, and in my first couple days I met up with 2 groups. Performing Life is a small and relatively young organization that teaches circus arts to street kids, giving them an opportunity to make money as well as express themselves artistically. They have recently expanded with music classes and a video and documentary film making project. Infante Bolivia is a well established group (21 years) that works for the "promoción, defensa y restitución de los Derechos Humanos de niños, niñas, adolescentes y mujeres" (I think even non Spanish speakers can understand that. Derechos=rights.)

I toured Infante´s several projects to see where I might be able to help. The kids from the Casa de La Adolescente were had a theater workshop that day with an other organization, Educar es Fiesta, so I tagged along to check it out.

Turned out that the folks at Educar es Fiesta had a new project called Tapeque, a social and educational circus. I went over to check it out and arrived just in time to help raise the beautiful new circus tent off the ground. I spent most of the rest of the week with them, setting up the stage, lighting, seats, etc., for their inaugural show.

The show turned out to be amazing (A welcome contrast to the terrible circus show I had seen in Potosí), with a talented group of kids from Educar es Fiesta and a handful of international artists, among them Carlos from Peru, who did a stunning aerial rope act. It was also rich with theater and dance. I was able to take a great 2 day trapeze workshop with Carlos, who works at Tarumba, a social as well as professional circus school in Lima Peru. Looks like I´ve got another stop in my itinerary.

On Saturday I did a circus arts and games workshop with one of Infante´s "comités," groups of kids that get together every Saturday to learn skills to be "transformative agents of their social environment through their educational work with parents, teachers and leaders of their communities, promoting a culture of respect for children." They´ve got me scheduled each Saturday for the next 2 months.

The other night I was in the central plaza, and joined a group crowded around a speaker. The young, charismatic speaker was going through a history of civilization through the colonization of the Americas. It was intelligent, well reasoned, and interesting, the kind of thing you read about in books but is always a thing of some more ideological past or other world.

This morning, realizing that I might end up staying her longer than I had originally planned, I tried out juggling at a streetlight, something that seems to be a standard way to make money throughout latin america. In two and a half hours, I made about enough to live on for 2 days (if i´m frugal).

In other words, Cochabamba seems like a good place to be.

Peso for your thoughts

I went to the Casa de la Moneda de Bolivia museum in Potosí today. The mint was built in 1757 by the Spanish to mint silver coins (mined locally) that were shipped to europe to be used as Spanish currency. After Bolivian independence in 1825, the mint was used to make Bolivian currency until 1933. The building is impressive in scale and style, and well restored as a museum.

Our tour guide told us about the transformation from mule power (those old machines were amazing) to steam power. The new steam machinery were imported from Philadelphia. Years later, when the mint made the transition to electricity, new machines were imported from Princeton, NJ.

I must admit that I felt some pride that my country had been at the cutting edge of technology and innovation during the industrial revolution, exporting its products all over the world because they were the highest quality available. Unfortunately, it hasn´t lasted. I´ve been reading Thomas Freidman´s Hot, Flat, and Crowded, in which he argues that The United States needs to become the world leader in developing new green technologies to increase efficiency and produce clean energy. Under a Bush administration, this proposal was laughable. We´ve pretty much been doing the oposite for the las 30 years. But now we have a new president. Obama is pushing hard his budget plan, and, even in the face of opposition from congress, has been unyeilding in his energy proposals, allocating funds for research and experimentation for clean and renewable energy. It sounds like he´s really taking a stand to uphold his campaign promises.

Do we finally have a leader we can be proud of? It would certainly be a first for me. (The first 2 elections I was of voting age elected Bush and Bush again.) I´ve been holding my breath, releived and proud that he was elected, but not ready to celebrate yet. Time will tell, but i´m feeling more hopeful than ever.

Farewell to Patagonia

I made my farewell to Patagonia (and Chile) with a four day trek in Parque Nacional Volcán Villarica. The first day slid through a open lovely green forest, full of native bamboo and tree species, and ended at a small lake. The next day the trail climbed above the tree line, and stayed there for that entire day and most of the next. It cossed a barren rocky landscape of sand, lava flows, crossing an old (inactive) crater, and with views of the surrounding volcanoes. The fourth day I attemped a trail that went straight up the side of Volcan Villarica, to the edge of the glacier. I got up before dawn (I was already on a very early schedule, camping alone), to see the sunrise on the volcano. Unfortunately, after 3 days of perfect weather, that day turned that morning to windy, rainty, and foggy. There was no view of the surrounding mountains, and the wind pushed me back down the trail as I made my ascent. I did make it to the edge of the glacier, though without the view of the peak I had hoped for. still, the landscape was amazing, glacial streams cutting a valley through grey volcanic rock and ash. Anyway, check out the photos.

I was now headed to Bolivia, where I had been in contact with a couple NGOs in Cochabamba that I was planning to work with. I had heard about a contact Improv festival outside of Cordoba, Argentina, (pretty much on the way) that I decided to check out. After the trek, I got back to the town of Pucón, and took a night bus to Santiago de Chile. Then another bus across the border to Mendoza, Argentina, and another night bus to Cordoba. After another local bus ride, I made it to the festival.

It was a pretty cool place. Good people, great contact jams in the evenings and classes in the day in yoga, capoera, qi gong, etc., etc. My heart wasnt in it though. I was road weary, and could only think of the journey ahead and what I would find in Bolivia. I was eager to get to Cochabamba, where I would stay for a stretch of time, get to know people, and have a purpose. Lounging at a hippy festival wasn´t doing it for me.

So after two days of R&R I got back on the road, this time trying out my luck with my thumb. Luck was not mine this time around. After a day and a half of hitching, I had made it about 90 miles closer to my destination (still over a thoushand miles away.) I gave up the hitching, as it became apparent that the farther north I made it, the thinner the traffic as the road headed into the vast desert. I managed to flag down a long distance bus (usually they dont stop except at a couple larger towns), and 18 hours of bus later, I was at the border.

WWOOFing

Kathryn took off to Santiago to catch her flight, an I, feeling a little lost, decided do do WWOOF. (WWOOF is a worldwide network of organic farms, where volunteers trade labor for food and acomodation, no money is exchanged.) My first WWOOF experience was at a small outfit east of Puerto Montt, where I did some construction work on a new building, harvested lettuce and other vegetables, and worked on new beds. The volunteers were a mix of french and estadounidenses (a word for "Americans" that recognizes the fact that there are 35 countries in America). Since the french (being french) didnt all speak the best english, spanish was the common language, which was great practice. By the end of a week however, the volunteers that I liked the best were leaving and the work wasnt intersting enough to keep me around. I headed north for a stop off in Valdivia (where I am right now), and plan to continue on to Temuco, then to another WWOOF farm on the coast.

Just like home!