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Well, the Peru portion of the trip is over (until our epic journey back home) and we're now well into the Bolivia portion. Now, given the fact that we're now in a different country, I feel it's only appropriate to start off with the boarder crossing. If you remember a few posts back, I described the border between Ecuador and Peru as nothing short of a joke?the type of thing where you have to go out of your way in order to enter the country legally. Luckily this border crossing was a bit more organized, and by that I mean both offices were within 50 metres of the border itself. In fact, for the most part, this crossing was fairly uneventful, with the exception of the drug police that is. As it turns out, Peru's trying to crack down on drug trafficking and the most likely traffickers are innocent looking white Canadian teenagers (i.e. myself). So as I innocently walk up to the immigration officer and hand him my passport, he takes one look at me and gives my passport to another, bigger guard, who sends me into a room where they searched my bag and the works. Of course, they didn't find anything, not that my two travel companions cared?they were both admiring a food stand outside, contemplating how many chocolate bars to buy for the rest of the trip?
Well, after going through drug inspections and passport stamping, we got back on the bus and within 20 minutes we were in Copacabana, the Bolivian town nearest La Isla del Sol (the island of the sun). While there we found ourselves a hostel for 8 bolivianos ($1), arranged our trip to the island, and hiked up to a lookout for the sunset. For the most part the day was pretty relaxed. The sunset was gorgeous and an excellent prelude for the next two days, but other than that, nothing too eventful happened.
Then the following day we got up and caught a ferry to La Isla del Sol. Now, before I go on, here's a bit of a background on the island: 3000 years ago when the Tiahuanaco culture arrived to the island, it wasn't actually an Island. In fact, when they arrived, the Island was nothing more than a small mountain. Lake Titicaca at that time was only 50 metres deep (as opposed to its current 280 metre depth) and the only portion of the current lake covered by water was on the Peruvian side. Over the past 3000 years, however, there have been 3 massive floods that have brought the lake to its current depth (there are actually ruins, just a few hundred metres north of the Island that are submerged underwater). Nevertheless, despite the change in water levels, the Tiahuanaco civilization occupied the island for over 2000 years until 70 years of drought in the area brought disaster to their civilization around 1100 AD. At that same time, a man named Manco Capac appeared on the island. Legend has it he appeared during a lightning storm and is said to be the son of the sun. Manco Capac was then charged to go in search of fertile soil and so with him he carried a golden staff. He was to walk until he found a place where he could sink the staff into the ground with only one thrust and in that very location, he was to create an empire dedicated to the sun. He ended up walking until he reached the land of present day Cuzco where he was successful in his mission and from that spawned the entire Inca Empire. Interestingly enough, there are a number of similarities between the Tiahuanaco and the Inca civilizations. For instance, the Tiahuanoca symbol for the calendar is the Incan symbol of power, only worn by the Incans themselves. What's more, the trapezoidal niches and doorways that are typical to the Incas, also existed within the Tiahuanaco ruins on the Island of the Sun (La Isla de Sol). Now, we've only seen the one Tiahuanaco sight, but the connection seems to be pretty strong between the two cultures, and indeed, it is believed that Manco Capac was born somewhere in the Tiahuanaco culture (and perhaps he believed he was charged with finding fertile soil as a result of the drought that was plaguing his people), although legend has it he spoke a language different from that of the Tiahuanaco people (he spoke Quechua, whereas they spoke Aymara).
To further the connections between the two groups, both of them viewed the island as a sacred sight, and the Incas actually ended up using the same religious sites as the Tiahuanacos. On a similar note, according to Incan mythology, the Sun was born on Lake Titicaca and left behind two large footprints as proof of its presence. There is however another legend that exists on the island that tells of giants who once lived in the area and left those prints. The giants were so tall that a normal person would only reach their knees. Personally, I believe it was the dinosaurs, but hey, to each his own.
Anyways, in the north of the Island are a few sacred ruins, including a large rock that exhibits the face of Viracocha, the most important god in Incan mythology and a puma, or more accurately, a Titi (an animal that looks like a Puma, but is smaller and apparently an amphibian?.the face is more commonly known as a Puma because more people know what a Puma is). Apparently, before the Spanish arrived the entire rock was covered in Silver and Gold and was one of the most sacred rocks in the entire Empire. In fact, the Island itself is considered one of the 3 energetic forces of the Andean world and so pilgrims would travel from across the empire to bring offerings to the rock. Of course, being the culturally respectful civilization that they were, the Spanish took every ounce of gold and silver possible from that rock, but I imagine it would have been quite a spectacular site in its day. Also, on a rather funny note, apparently in order to decide which pilgrims to allow into the sacred site, the Incan guards would use Coca leaves. They would throw some on to their hand and read the leaves in order to decide whether or not the pilgrim had brought an offering and was thus worthy of entering the site?quite a contrast from our metal detecting, x-ray baggage reading machines that we use today?
Now I mentioned that both civilizations, the Tiahuanacos and the Incans, worshiped the Sun as one of the most powerful deities, and honestly, after seeing the island, it's pretty clear why. Where as the Peruvian side was gorgeous, but somewhat average, the Bolivian side, and the Island of the Sun in particular, was spectacular. It's the type of place where you have to stop every ten feet to take in the scenery, and even that's not enough. The beaches are gorgeous and the views you get as you hike along the island are phenomenal, especially in the north.
Another note on the island: the community in the north Cha'llapampa was the location of one of Pearson's 3YO (volunteer) projects. As we arrived in the community and were trying to get ourselves oriented, we ran into some kids. As we told them we were friends with all the volunteers, their faces began to light up and they started pointing out where the volunteers used to live and asking if we could go inside and colour (apparently a popular past time when the volunteers were here). We also got to meet one of the local guides, German, who was incredibly nice and showed us around the ruins in the north. All in all, as far as highlights of the trip go, seeing the Island was definitely one of them.
So after visiting the island we made our way back to Copacabana and from there onto La Paz. Now, I have to say, as far as capital cities go, La Paz hasn't been that exciting yet. I definitely found Lima and Quito far more spectacular, although the city itself is still quite nice. The highlight of La Paz so far, actually, h as been the Coca Museum. The museum itself is extremely small, but they give you a booklet that's just packed full of information to take with you as you go along and it was fascinating. It's amazing to look at the politics that has supported and prohibited coca leaf production and use. Anyone coming from a "War on Drugs" perspective with the "Coca leaf=Cocaine" attitude is bound to come up against some pretty shocking information. The coca leaf itself has been used in Andean culture for thousands of year, transcending various civilizations, as it was used in matrimonial rituals, as medical anesthetics, and in everyday working life. It wasn't until the Spanish arrived that problems seemed to arise (although, granted, there isn't much written documentation before the Spanish to suggest any problems). In fact, shortly after the Spanish arrived, the Church declared the coca leaf "diabolical." Then, when it was realized that they could further exploit indigenous labor by feeding them coca leaves (coca increases one's tolerance to hard work, while suppressing your appetite), Felipe II asked the church to change its opinion of the leaf and decided to place a 10% tax on all coca production. The indigenous were then forced to work up to 48 hour "days" in the mines with little food or break, having only the coca leaf as sustenance. Then in the 1950's or 60's, an American banker published a report that linked the coca leaf to mental retardation and blamed it for causing poverty in South America (a repot that I would LOVE to read). The UN, influenced by this report, then banned Coca production. Of course, all of this then ends up screwing over the indigenous population who use the Coca leaf not only as a source of income, but also as a means of coping with what can be truly difficult lives (long, hard days; very little money/food; etc.). And to top it all off, while Bolivia is not legally allowed to grow Coca and while the US is blaming Bolivia and other South American countries for their own drug problems, the USA is one of 36 countries in the world that's "legally" allowed to grow coca (for "medical" purposes). Quite frankly, I don't think the hypocrisy could be anymore blatant, and the information I wrote here is just the beginning of what they had in the book. I actually ended up buying a copy because I thought it was so excellent and if anyone wants to read it, I am more than happy to lend it away once I'm home. I must say as well, that going to this museum really puts things into perspective as far as drugs like Marijuana go. It's made me wonder just how much the view of it as a "bad" drug is influenced by absurd politics as well.
Other than seeing the museum, we've spent most of our time wandering around the city, trying to get things organized for the jungle and the salt flats. We also managed to meet up with Juanca (he came to Bolivia for a couple days) and a few other Peruvian/Bolivian UWCers here in the city. The other night we went to meet them in the southern part of the city, and wow was that ever a contrast from where we were. We're staying in the centre of the city and, whereas in most cities the more expensive properties and thus the richer people are on the hill tops with the views, La Paz is the opposite. High up on the hills is an area called El Alto which, from what I understand, is the poorest part of town. Then, as you come down into the valley from El Alto you pass the downtown district which is comprised of the markets, the business district, government and historical buildings, etc. Finally, at the bottom of the valley is La Zona Sur (the Southern Zone) where all the wealthy people live, and, to put it bluntly, aside from Miraflores in Lima, I haven't been in such a north American style city (or part of a city) since coming down to South America. The drive in is remarkable as you see the contrast in wealth so blatantly and so close together.It's really shocking to see such a dramatic disparity in one city, but then again, it's really not that different to the comparison of wealth between Canada and Bolivia?it's just not as compelling when it's so far away.
Well, as I already mentioned in my last post, I wrote most of this a week and a half ago but didn't get a chance to post it because things have been a bit of a whirlwind ever since. Back on the 3rd we went to a travel agency to book our trip to the Jungle for the 13th, with a plan to head to Cochabamba the next day.When we mentioned our plan to the travel agent, she told us that the roads to Cochabamba were blocked by protestors. Not only that, but that protestors were blocking pretty much every single major road outside of La Paz, except for the road that goes to the jungle.The funny part is that locals who wanted to leave La Paz got fed up with the road blocks and decided to take some action of their own; they started blocking roads within the city. So, at the last minute we had to change around all of our plans, go to the Jungle first, and just hope the blockades would be down by the time we returned to La Paz (apparently blockades are normal and don't usually last more than a week). I'm now writing this from Sucre (the judicial capital of Bolivia), so evidently, we made it.In my next post, which I'm going to start soon, I'll fill you in on the Jungle adventures, all of which were pretty amazing. Until then, take care.
Taylor
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