Dear Diary 1.1 (a couple of days in La Paz)

Our first day, Friday, ended with me accepting my place in La Paz. I ate a curry at Indian Star claiming to be world-class-hot and got a appropriately shameful t-shirt that said as much.

Later Hester and I went to Oliver´s Travel´s for a quiet. Oliver´s Travel´s is well known to visitors for it´s "humour" and candid dislike of Israelis. The bartender told me that the owner "Olly" also wants to put an Israeli flag on the front door with the words "FREE PALESTINE" underneath it and another sign for Easter which says "We cannot open right now because on this day the Jews murdered Jesus".

Earlier in the night our mate Clea got to La Paz with no problems. We are now set for a big Saturday. And perhaps a quiet Sunday.

Dear Diary 1.0 (a couple of days in La Paz)

We are in La Paz to see Hester off. While we have been here a few times before we have not spent any real time in the city. Time to explore a bit.


In the morning we sourced a sound hostel followed by some average food and coffee then hit the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Plaza which was OK. The gallery had changed little over the last four months but I still enjoyed revisiting the work of Mario Conde. Great palette, tight use of water colour and unique juxtaposition of Bolivian, religious and communist motifs. I will try to buy a piece of his before I leave this country.


Later in the day we had more coffee and checked out the very excellent Museo Nacional de Arte. A mix of contemporary and religious national works. The contemporary work had pedigree which was refreshing. I especially liked the mixed-media piece (La Mina) by Walter Solón Romero. La Mina had great composition and stylised line work (though actually a wood cut). Later we consumed a bunch of stuff from the art shop and headed home.

On the way home we, grabbed a pomelo juice, waved at a baby and encountered the teachers protest which was very peaceful. They are getting a hefty five percent increase to their wage. The problem is that their wage is slim and it only equates to about 30 bolivianos extra per month. It also made me realise that the front page of La Razon was of Miss Santa Cruz. Boobs and smiles are popular here, too.

Anyway. It was a really nice day getting to La Paz and looking at art. Oil, water and acrylic, I love it all. And it recalled the enjoyment had the other day at Palacio de los Portales.

¡¡¡Yo soy materialista!!! (#2)

One of my favourite purchases in South America. It makes me feel like a boy scout, is compact, manual, austere and does what it says on the packet. The lack of sophistication in the design means that there is almost nothing that can go wrong with it. Or perhaps that is a sign of sophistication?

Sarah and I used one of these first in Jujuy, Argentina. We had to ask for it at the front counter of the hostel we were staying at. It didn’t live in the kitchen with the rest of the obligatory kitchen utensils. A sign of its pilfer-ibility. Subsequently, we walked around for two days looking and eventually found one in a shop front cluttered with a thousand other items. The surly shop lady stopped us from purchasing it then and there*. Later that day we picked one up from a supermarket.

If you cannot reliably open a can when you are on the road your dinner eating experience is greatly diminished. Enough people have asked to borrow this little baby, with comforting monotony, to remind us of this fact.

Last week, on 13th May 2010, Sarah and I celebrated six months of being out of New Zealand. To salute this milestone Hester, Sarah and I went out for sushi at Zhou with our friends Stephanie and Allan. When I got home I wondered what I would write about this development. Outlining another dinner with friends felt fallow or at least unsuitable. Instead I thought of el abrelatas. What a good role model for the next six months. Or a representation of how I would like to preceding months to be: functional, reliable, common place and exceptional in its simplicity.

* a sympathetic reminder that - today - our Spanish has actually improved.

Palacio de los Portales

Last Saturday our day hike of Tunari fell-through for the fifth time so we headed for an estate of a now deceased mining baron. The estate known as Palacio de los Portales. This place is similar to the Castillo La Glorieta in Sucre (from same period and category of owner) which frequently receives remarks like “[this is an example] of how wealth and taste do not do not always coincide” (though our guide book did not agree with this connection).

It was another superb Cochabamba morning and the grounds were conspicuous for their well maintained, lush presentation. This is an uncommon sight in Bolivia. It was not unlike visiting a compact version of the Wellington Botanic Garden and as such it was a pleasure when we had to wait for our friend Stephanie to arrive.

When our tour started it turned out that the guide was well read. She gave us a sound and appropriately succinct tour of the main house. There is a lot to see on the property (such as contemporary sculpture and other substantial structures like an outdoor concert area and remodelled stable). To have gone through the entire estate would have been lengthy. As it happened the main house supported a story that talked about the biography of Simòn Patiño (he, nor anyone, else ever lived in this house and as such it is in pristine condition), a history of Bolivia and an explanation regarding the property’s construction and the ruthless mixture European styles.

The best part of the morning for me was spent observing a white marble statue depicting a legend related to the St Bernard of the Alps of Switzerland. I got to do this while reclining on a park bench waiting for Stephanie. A classic and popular European myth our guide later said. While sitting a bird was over head hanging out with me. He didn’t make a lot of noise though his mates in the background were trying to get his attention. He just puffed up his chest and rigidly turned his head left and right, up and down. There was a light, cool, breeze that passed between my toes. Outside the grounds cars passed by and drowned out the bird calls reminding me that I was in the middle of Cochabamba.

I liked this moment because it took me back to the days when I could walk up the road and wander around the Auckland Art Gallery in solitude (until the redevelopment at least). In this depiction the dog was bigger than the girl. He loomed, dominating her form; a very masculine image. That aside, I liked the statue because it seemed to draw together the themes of kinship with animals (or at least dogs), fighting against the elements (which works as a metaphor), the notion of us all is being inside a single - shared - environment and finally the symbolism of books.

I also liked that I spent a bit of time thinking about the statue and then, of the hundreds of statues she could have commented on, our guide choose that one to open the tour with this one. It was good to have my own reflections supplemented with some actual facts.

It strikes me as re-assuring that I am typically compromised with my description of the palace. On the one hand I find it hard not to criticize the architecture for being inelegant and on the other I have an overriding memory of enjoying European sculpture at that very site which draws on my own experience of imitating “European culture” back in New Zealand (visiting art gallery).

Overall the Palacio de los Portales was a pleasant way to spend the morning: the dozens of contemporary sculpture, grounds composed by Japanese specialists, a unique story about the long gone wealth of Bolivia and some quiet time to look at a statue. It was a happy substitute for climbing a mountain.

Bolivia Corazón Vegeteriano Estricto: Guide to eating vegan in Cochabamba

My friend Lauren sums up cuisine in Argentina succinctly here. After my experience in that country I had low expectations about the kind of food that would be on offer in Bolivia. Having now lived here for a period I can say without exaggeration that this is a vegan friendly country in terms of food. It is possibly easier to maintain a vegan diet here than back in New Zealand.

What follows is a somewhat dispassionate overview of what I have found so far. For non-vegans this may be a good article to read just before you hit-the-hay.


Dining

If I want to go out to eat I can go to a bunch of places. There is a vegetarian buffet on the main drag: Avienda Heroinas, fourth floor of the Dumbo’s building. The best almuerzo in town is at Gopel; a Hare Krishna place that provides a four course vegan meal/buffet for 15 bolivianos. There is a second Gopel in close proximity that also does a range of dinner meals including Chinese style dishes that use seitan. Across town (north-east) in Recoleta there is an up market Chinese place called Lai Lai’s that serves two tofu dishes (picante and normal) which are both adequate for two people per portion and always reliably prepared.

The pasta in Cochabamba is not too bad either. Most restaurants do basic plates of tomato sauce with pasta. My personal favourite is the Aglio from El Caracol; a very minimal recipe with chilli, seasoning, pasta and olive oil but cooked perfectly every time (nb. it is not easy to cook rice and pasta well at altitude).

Produce

After the disgrace of Argentina I can only describe the availability of fresh produce in Bolivia as ridiculous. In my neighbourhood of Cruce Tequina there is a market half a block away. This market is representative of all the produce markets in Bolivia.



At this small-medium sized market I can purchase carrots, spinach, white and red onions (white is more expensive in Bolivia for some reason), avocado, potatoes (literally dozens of varieties are available), chili, capsicum, pumpkin, radishes, tomatoes, cucumber, broccoli, corn, maize, and yams. In terms of fruit there is banana, apples, oranges, mandarins, mango, papaya, pineapple, grapes, peanuts, plums (sometimes), nectarines, pears, limes and grapefruit a plenty. And even when you are getting ripped off with gringo prices you still get a good deal. The best deal in my mind is with spinach and chillis; two bolivianos gives you enough for several meals. I have to note that it is a genuine pleasure to able to walk out your front door into a produce market that is so close at hand and so reasonably priced.

There are also heaps of flowers here and it is not uncommon to just pick some up on the way through. They are so accessible and affordable that it is hard not to have fresh flowers all the time in Cochabamba.


Supermarket & Kioskos

Supermarkets and kioskos are the biggest surprise of all. Both Super Hass and IC Norte are both well equipped to look after me. I would claim that they are as good as, if not better, than what we have back home in New Zealand.


In terms of protein there is carne de soya (or TVP back home) which is found everywhere and in at least three different forms. There is also a wide range of fresh seitan products made by Gouronga (available at IC Norte). In the centre of town (on Calle Sucre, a block from Plaza 14 de Septiembre) there is an unnamed health food store that makes its own tofu. For five bolivianos you get one cube of tofu ten centimetres by ten centimetres. A generous chunk. At IC Norte you can also buy Roland tofu in a can, which is a first for me, but the price is not what I would call agreeable.



There are two other very important types of soya products available in Bolivia. Both I can normally get at a kiosko and always from a supermercado: soya milk and ice cream. Nordland provides a plethora of flavours of icecream (coffee, bubblegum, lemon, vanilla, orange, coconut) and sizes (petite pots, 1 litre and 3 litre buckets). Nordland also does soya milk, and although it is competitively priced, the Soy Leche De Soya is far superior and still cheap (only three bolivianos fifty per litre). ‘Soy’ also has the charm of being wordplay on the conjugation of the verb Ser (“to be”).



As a side note all these soya products seem conspicuous to me and warrants looking into. They love meat here (especially chicken) and thus the variety of products to number of non-vegetarians is bewildering. I look forward to finding out why this is at a later stage.

Finally, there are lentejes and frijoles in galore. Supermarkets usually have a whole aisle of dried products and while they only have one type of lentil in Bolivia they have at least half a dozen different types of beans to choose from.

And so

That is it in a nutshell. While the Happy Cow will always be able to look after vegans when they are travelling the world I still had concerns before I arrived in Bolivia. I do not want to have to eat out the whole time (or even regularly). Hopefully this overview of what they have in Cochabamba will be of use to someone who is planning on swinging by Bolivia but is not confidant about their dietary needs being met.

In my opinion this is a great country to eat if you are a vegan.

A good week

Blurb, yo!

This week Sarah and I got the shits because I had my backpack stolen. The pack had a bunch of important stuff in it. It really challenged us. Very uncool. The twist on this minor catastrophe was that the preceding six days were some of the best ever.

Victim of crime (for the second time in Bolivia)

Sunday was a big downer. I have already written about, and experienced, the potential dangers of travelling through La Cancha but on Sunday being familiar got the best of me. Sarah, Hester and I were in a bus and I had taken a photo out the window. I had done this while we were stuck in gridlock. Looking out the window brought me to the conclusion that this would be a good opportunity to capture the spirit of the market. Hindsight now tells us that this was the antithesis of “good opportunity.”

A few minutes after taking the photo a guy reached up through the window and snatched my backpack from my lap. The window of the bus that is. I never had a chance, he was so quick. We raced off the bus and chased after him. Some people pointed directions but it was impossible. In La Cancha you are amongst the multitudes and there was no way we were going to catch him. And what if we had caught him, what were we going to do? Mercifully I had my wallet in my pocket.

La semana pasada

Besides the low moment on Sunday my week was a flood of brilliant experiences. It was a week that recalled our first seven days in South America. When we arrived in Buenos Aires everything felt worthy of commentary. I was in a perpetual state of wonder. Similarly, this week was stacked in the same kind of way.

The week started with my new Spanish teacher who is excellent, the Climate Change Conference and Eco Village (where I saw the very entertaining band Cartel Afonico). Later in the week I started watching The Wire lent to us by our friends Jason and Emily, I got to write and run every day and I started volunteering at an orphanage called Casa Cuna on Wednesday.

The weekend begun with a great night out seeing another friend (Lindsay) off then on Saturday morning I slept in and read. At midday a massive parade came down our - inconsequential - street (like a mini Oruro Carnival) and then in the afternoon I played football with the Sustainable Bolivia crew and scored a bunch of goals. Later in the evening I ate the best burritos and drank beer.

On Sunday I went to the local derby between Aurora and Wilstermann in the late afternoon. Aurora levelled the scores 2-2 in the last two seconds of the game. It was an intense ending to the game and it led to a punch-up out the front of the Stadium post-match. Having had enough drama from La Cancha earlier in the day I covered my Aurora jersey with a t-shirt to avoid any unwanted beatings; Aurora fans are outnumbered twenty-to-one.

And on it goes. I could write ten more bullet points underneath each of those moments, or (even worse) 2000 words per item. I could write 5000 word on the orphanage. The point being that it is confronting to be filled with anger (and I am angry) about having my bag stolen while (a) having such abundance in my life and/or (b) spending time with orphans who have no parents and play with broken-ass toys day after day and are happier than any adult I know. In the end I am going to assume that my anger is coming from my own stupidity (i.e. shame) so I will just have to deal with that. In the meantime I will reflect on this week past and keep it all in perspective.

Aurora Football, Cochabamba (the other team)

I finally made it to a football match in Bolivia thanks to my friends Emily and Jason (who we met back in Sucre; the second time). The game was between Cochabamba (Aurora) and Sucre (Club Universitario). Aurora are known as an underdog that represents the south of Cochabamba. The south is generally recognized as the poorer part of town. The rest of Cochabamba support Wilstermann. My previous Spanish tutor, Delma, had told me about Aurora. She said that it was very easy to go and see them practice during the week. Jason and Emily confirmed this for me on game day, too. This will be another side road, or cul-de-sac, for me to check out.

The experience overall got a strong pass mark. The perennially clear Cochabamba afternoons combined with the stadium which has the stunning backdrop of the surrounding (gargantuan) hills made for comfortable football watching.

I also got to soak up the Aurora scene pre-game because, luckily for me, Jason and Emily were running late. As my jeans stuck to my legs I glanced at the sky and thought of the team (light-blue is their colour), I observed the very modest crowd in attendance while inhaling - with pleasure – the smoke wafting over form the barbequed potatoes and felt the heat of the concrete on my elbows as I reclined and watched the fans amble. It was Sunday afternoon as it should be.

Beyond all of these things the best part of the day was that the team that I was supporting actually won. A highly uncommon experience for me. I will be transparent and acknowledge that I wanted to support Aurora for their underdog status. Now, combining that with the fact that they actually notched-one-up I am in.

¿Que color es mi sangre? Ahora, mio sangre es celeste.