Reciclaje de botellas de agua en Cochabamba

Hanging Out

When I go for my afternoon run I am distracted constantly by side alleys and roads. Usually delimited by mud brick, there is a dog and sometimes a bike from the 1960’s quietly leaning against a wall. Always there is an enigmatic air. Where do they go? Can I go down there and if I do will it lead to equally enigmatic places? When things like this strike me in “real life” (read: when I am holding down a nine-to-five) I cannot even contemplate investigating. I do not even have the time to play let alone explore. What could be more frivolous than following street after alley after street for the sake of curiosity?

Mientras tanto: En Bolivia Bevan paseos por las calles, una flâneur

Water from the tap here in Cochabamba is not fit for consumption without treatment. Day after day we are required to buy bottled water and I cannot help but think “where does all the plastic go?” I also recall Nándor Tánczos calling for people to self-regulate their purchase of water bottles back in New Zealand. His claim being that the differences between the water from the tap and that in a bottle were negligible. He also claimed that there had been an unprecedented uptake in the purchase of bottled water and, as such, there is now a whole lot more rubbish in the rubbish-tip.


Well, political views aside, what is happening with recycling in the here-and-now in a city that is addicted to bottled water? I have no idea.

Yesterday Sarah and I gathered up our four dozen empty bottles and took them to a hole in the wall on Avineda Simon Lopez where a twenty-something girl wearing a dirty leotard, arse crack and an ill fitting top took them off our hands and endeavoured to pay us five B’s for the pleasure. We declined the 5 B’s but I did ask where the bottles go next. While not 100% certain I was pretty sure she said “Nosotros tomando los botellas a K’ara K’ara.”

That I believe. But do they actually recycle these bottles at K’ara K’ara? What are they doing with them at the very notorious K’ara K’ara rubbish dump? Right now I do not live in the real world. Time or a trip to K’ara K’ara to see what’s up.