Thursday, February 25, 2010
Corte de Pelo
Given my limited Spanish I resorted to pointing at the array of hairstyles displayed on the wall. The best I could find was a picture of a dude that looked like Brian Littrell from the Backstreet Boys. I pointed “esto” and hoped for the best (secretly hoping for the worst). She whipped out her scissors which were designed for fabric cutting and got to work. Each chop it sounded like newsprint being torn, against-the-grain, in half. This was definitely going to plan.
Five to ten minutes later and she was finished. I paid my six Bolivianos (half expecting the price to have increased), waved goodbye to senora and smiled at the mammarifous Cochabambina unabashedly breastfeeding in the doorway and headed home. All I can say was this whole experience was entirely harmless. There was no egregiously bad haircut, ripping off the gringo, 30 minute wait next to a sweaty truck driver or blood. Just a quick, cheap, innocuous, better-than-mediocre (for the price) haircut that only disappointed insofar as it did not make me look like Who’s the Boss era Tony Danza. Wadaimiss?
Friday, February 19, 2010
Festive season in Bolivia
Oruro Carnival
Oruro Carnival is the kind of thing you read a lot about before you come to Bolivia. In this respect I must admit I was not expecting much (cf. touring the Uyuni salt plains). This curmudgeon perspective was completely unfounded. The Carnival itself is simply brilliant and Sarah and I were incredibly lucky to have attended in 2010. The parade is every bit as spectacular as the guide books suggest.
In fact the only painful part of the carnival was when I almost flaked out in the morning of Carnival. My eyes rolled back in my head, the whole bit. That morning I had only one beer and a bowl of muesli so the cause is difficult to diagnose. Sarah, of course, came to my rescue and nursed me through the midday and I was back on board by the afternoon. Not before projectile vomiting twice in a random Oruro street and sleeping for over an hour, though.
Having now been I cannot recommend this experience enough. Being amongst the colour, noise, energy, spectacle and fun. The dancers with amazing costumes (masks, props, fireworks, cranial flamethrowers, fuzzy “bear” suits) and their joy in performing. Everyone in the middle of a perpetual water fight, the beautiful day, drinking beer and enjoying the company of a new group of very amiable people. This will be a highlight for the year, no question.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Stencils in Sucre and Cochabamba
Besides the MAS paint jobs there is a lot of graffiti more generally. It is everywhere. Refreshingly I can say that the majority of it is not inspired by the New York “graf” style. Instead it is a mixture of spray-painted slogans (which are brazen and graphically unimaginative) and stencils. Both are found on the walls of both back streets and main streets. I should underscore that this is based on observations made in Sucre and Cochabamba only. Slogans, I would hazard a guess, out-number stencils about twenty to one.
Because there is so much graffiti about the place it would be to much to document it all at once. Therefore, when Sarah and I did a big circuit of the city for purposes of orientation and administration I decided to capture images of stencils (only). I was amazed when I got home. I had amassed about 59 images in total. Stencilling is a lot bigger here than I imagined.
In comparison to slogans the stencils here are slightly more furtive. They hide in corners of buildings and indiscriminate walls. There is a broad amount of content, too. Maybe it is the iconic nature of stencils that has opened up different types of expression in comparison to the usual political, Ebonics or “Jenny-Heart-John” type messages. Whatever the reason it is conspicuous that there is a wide range of flavours on offer.
To make sense of the spectrum of stencils I have attempted to create three categories to classify what is around these two towns. The first is the easy (and not so important) category of “municipal” and “commercial” stencils. Ones which actually have a homemade/handmade feel but are actually put there by the city or private interests.
The second category, equally obvious in a country that has had 188 changes of government in its 500 year history, is “political” stencils. These cover pieces by both activist and political party.
The final category is stencils that are “idiosyncratic" or of "unknown origin." This last category is a little broad and does lead to some overlap with the two aforementioned. Personally I am still trying figure out which I like better: political or idiosyncratic. The former seems more authentic but the latter signals a country that has a distinct youth culture separate from its previous generations.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Current Events Bolivia
Birthday for The Cheetah
For me the day was all about fundamentals, nothing fancy. An approach that has been reinforced in preceding years through basketball; get the basics right and "luck" should find you.
Her birthday technically started on 01.02.2010 (given the time zones), so I organized to take Sarah to the documentary The Devils Miner on Monday, something which she had wanted to see for weeks. That night I made a list, split the following day into three parts, and hoped for the best.
La Mañana
On the morning of 02.02.2010 it was fresh flowers from Macardo Central, breakfast in bed and a card. As we ate our porridge with cinnamon, apple and strawberries we noticed that it was a killer day outside. It was perhaps the best day Sucre had seen in two weeks.
El Día
The next part of the day was the "surprise" activity of horse trekking. Sarah had wanted to do this for years so it was a great way to spend the day. We both got a little burnt, and Sarah´s horse was old and stroppy (it literally bit the ass of another horse at one point) but the quality of the surrounds and the guide we had made for a perfect day.
La Noche
In the evening we had dinner with the perennially gracious Ali and Sam (a UK couple we have met at our hostel). We ate at a Chinese place. When ordering we got excited about eating tofu for the first time in months and then were quickly told "No tengo tofu." Despite this the food was great, consistent with the company. On return to the hostel I brought out a mini-cake and sung her happy birthday (the cakes in Bolivia would be perfect for a Jean Baudrillard essay, they look like they have been modelled on cartoon images). Sarah had a genuine smile on her face at the end of all this which was a big relief.
Thank you Bolivia for being so pretty and thank you basketball for teaching me about fundamentals.