Bolivian Gringo

Bolivia is sometimes called the Tibet of the Americas, for its arid, high-altitude desert-like plateau, more vivid when called by its Spanish name altiplano. This is one of the toughest inhabited environments on earth from shimmering Lake Titicaca, the only lake to give birth to an empire, to the surreal Salar de Uyuni, the biggest and highest salt lake in the world – 12,000 sq km of blinding white, completely flat nothingness.

Bolivia has also been called the Nepal of the Americas, for its Cordillera Real with almost a thousand peaks soaring over 5,000 meters and matching anything the Himalayas can offer in climbing and trekking, but with much less of the human traffic.

The major attraction tourists have for Bolivia is its wild, unexplored natural beauty. The country, or the greater part of it, lies off the beaten track; a vast wildness waiting to be seen and appreciated. This land-locked country at the heart and peak of South America offers magnificent trekking, especially around Coroico and Sorata in the Cordillera Real. You can go to the Amazonian rainforests in its eastern parts by breath-taking airplane flights or by hair-raising, or rather, heart-stopping bus rides.

 Special Treats

Some travel companies offer the adventurous a one-week ice-climbing and biking vacation. After a day of training on the mountain bike, you pedal away on a mountain road ringed on the sides with 800-foot drops. If that’s not enough, another route will pass by a section with a 14,000-foot drop. The route takes you from the peak of the Chacaltaya Mountain and goes down into the impenetrable jungles of the Zongo Valley. A brief rest, and then you undergo one more day of training prior to a two-day climb up Huayna Potosi, one of the highest peaks in the world at 20,000 feet.

What Else to Do

Most parts of the country are remote, and can be reached only by long bus rides. Vacations lasting a few weeks would hardly be enough to see what should be seen. You may have to fly to other destinations. La Paz is the jump-off point for Bolivia’s sites. From the capital La Paz, you could take a trip north to the city of Tiahuanaco, which preceded the great Inca Empire; further north is Lake Titicaca. On the lake is the beautiful Isla del Sol, where legend says the Inca empire was created. You can also go down a terrifying but spectacular road to Coroico, a popular resort town in the sub-tropical Yungas valleys.

 With more time, you could explore the remote corners of the Southern Altiplano. Old colonial Potosi is said to be the most interesting of Bolivia’s cities and the site of the Spanish silver mines. Nearby is the official capital, Sucre, with its fascinating colonial architecture. Southwest of Potosi is Uyuni, which sets you off on a 3-4-day tour to the Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt lake. Further south, near the Chilean border, are deserts, volcanoes and multi-colored soda lakes carpeted with flamingoes. The south is also home to the vineyards of Tarija and the graveyards of dinosaurs. The Sajima National Park, near the Chilean border, includes the highest peak in Bolivia.

East of La Paz, you escape the cold of the altiplano and go down the Amazon jungle towards Brazil. The Torotoro National Park is full of fossils, dinosaur footprints, caves and waterfalls, the real trip for those who love the unbeaten paths.

Bolivia’s newest attraction is the Chalalan Eco-lodge, in the Madidi National Park, right in the Amazon jungle. This is ecotourism in capital letters, and the place has the greatest biodiversity in the whole planet. There are over 300 types of birds, 1,200 butterfly species, monkeys, jaguar, tapir, caiman, and other wildlife.

Best time to go

Bolivia’s roads are notoriously poor, so you’ll want to avoid the rainy season from November to March, if you want to visit the jungles. The Altiplano does not get much rain, so timing is not so crucial although hiking trails can get muddy. June and July, the winter months, are colder but the nights are clearer, and these are the best months to visit the Salar de Uyuni. June to August are the busiest tourism months and hotels will be full. The best festivals (Carnival and Holy Week) happen during the rainy season.

Planning your trip

Airlines are busiest from early December to mid-January and July to September. The best connections to La Paz are through Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires or Miami. The main cities have their hotels, but away from them, there are suitable hotels for every budget, which offer excellent value – not luxurious but clean and popular with travelers.

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For those visiting Bolivia it is a must to visit Lake Titicaca which lies 94 miles northwest of La Paz. This vast lake is the birthplace of one of the greatest empires in history as it was here the Children of the Sun stepped forth from the sacred rock and the Incas began.

The water is still, calm and relaxing to any visitor. There are a few tours that go out onto the lake, and local fisherman but otherwise not much else.

Snow covered peaks of the Cordellera Real loom over the shores of the lake. The highlight for any tourist is the picturesque lakeshore town of Copacabana, established according to legend by the Inca Tupac Yupanqui. This town holds a number of important Inca ruins, yet they are overshadowed by the Virgin of Copacabana, the town’s main attraction. Pilgrims travel from afar for her blessing.

The Cathedral of Copacabana is the home of the Virgin. As legend goes she appeared to Tito Yupanqui in a dream in 1580 causing him to travel to Potosi to learn to sculpt. He then hand carved the Virgin from the wood of a maguay cactus and carried her on foot to Copacabana from Potosi, placing it in a chapel in 1583. The Spanish completed the cathedral for her in 1617. The Virgin stands on a mechanical altar. On weekends she faces the main chapel and weekdays faces a small chapel on the other side. At the bottom of the altar is a silver ship representing the moon, and above the Virgin’s head is a gold statue which symbolises the sun. The Virgin is revered.

For those visitors interested in archaeological sites there are three Inca ruins in Copacabana. The Asiento del Inca (Seat of the Inca) which some have said is where Inca priests met. The carvings here are large indentations into the rock resembling thrones. The carvings are at different levels in what appear different rooms and do not face the same direction. Then there is the Horca del Inca, a three rock structure that resemble gallows. It is believed the Incas watched the sun and stars here but unfortunately the Spanish destroyed much of the site searching for gold. Finally the third site is the Bano del Inca where visitors will find a small museum dedicated to finds in the area. Behind the museum is a little spring said to have mystical powers.

 Just outside La Paz visitors to the area can find Tihuanaco ruins where there are several structures to be seen. One thing that stands out is the 2M deep stone walled structure with 175 heads engraved in the sides. Also the Kalassasaya Temple with its Puerto del Sol (Sun Gate) can be found alongside other stone figures. The Tihuanaco civilisation lasted from about 600BC to 1200 AD before fading into obscurity.

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The Bolivian government is to stop travelers from bribing their way inside one of the country’s most notorious prisons.

For years, and for the right price, travelers have been able to enter Cárcel de San Pedro in the capital La Paz for tours and even overnight stays.

Inmates had also cooked meals and sold crafts to visitors, a practice that has also now been stopped.

The unusual ‘tours’ were widely known about outside Bolivia, with details published in a book, Marching Powder, written by former British inmate Thomas McFadden. The book is currently being filmed with Brad Pitt taking the lead role.

However the authorities were finally forced to act when a video filmed inside the prison by tourists was posted on YouTube.

The local TV station then interviewed travelers coming out of the prison after bribing their way in.

Cárcel de San Pedro has been described as “a microcosm of Bolivian society”. Rich inmates – including drug barons and corrupt politicians – pay thousands of dollars for luxurious rooms including satellite television and mobile phone reception.

On the other side, poorer inmates live in squalid conditions, often sleeping in corridors. Many children live in the prison with their jailed fathers.

 “We are now constantly rotating the guards so they do not develop a close relationship with inmates so we can cut off corruption,” Jorge Lopez, head of the prison service, said.

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For years, the Salar de Uyuni has been a remote but popular tourist draw in southern Bolivia: the world’s highest salt desert, whose blinding white expanse stretches to the horizon.

Now, though, the backpackers and locals who depend on their trade fear this spectacular and vast landscape will soon be threatened by multinational mining companies.

Because Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, is sitting on a bonanza in the Salar de Uyuni.

The desert contains 5.4 million tons of lithium, around half the world’s total supply. The soft metal is already used extensively in batteries for mobile telephones and computers, and is a key element for the electric cars expected to be mass-produced tomorrow.

Mining groups Mitsubishi and Sumitomo of Japan, LG of South Korea and Bollore of France are all pressing to be allowed to get at the lithium.

Bolivia’s socialist Bolivian government, though, is hesitating. It is demanding a big share of the profits and, even more importantly, that lithium technology plants be built from scratch in the country.

President Evo Morales’s record of nationalizing foreign firms in the energy and telecommunications sectors is also giving the mining companies pause.

Officials have also said Bolivia could even mine the lithium itself, although it currently lacks the expertise and equipment to do so.

For tourists making the long voyage to see the flat, bone-white area — described in the Lonely Planet guide as “one of South America’s most awe-inspiring spectacles” — there are concerns it will be ruined forever.

“I think they should leave it alone, just the way it is. They shouldn’t be destroying nature like that,” Travis Pitts, a 27-year-old US tourist, told AFP as he surveyed the desert around him from a hotel made of salt bricks.

Hadar Ozer, a 21-year-old Israeli tourist from one of a dozen four-wheel drive vehicles pulled up at the same spot, raved about how “amazing” the Salar de Uyuni was.

“We have salt in Israel also — the Dead Sea. But here it’s huge. You feel like you walk on the moon because it’s all white and it’s amazing,” she said.

At another popular spot in the desert, a rock “island” covered with cactus, foreigners spilled out of the cars to take pictures. The total absence of features fools both eyes and cameras, so that objects near and far seem to be sitting on top of each other.

In a village on the periphery of the desert, almost all the locals draw their livelihood from selling souvenirs carved from salt or providing supplies to the tourists.

They, too, feared that mining would ravage the place.

“We don’t know what will happen when there is lithium mining. I don’t know. We still don’t know what’s going to happen, because there are some people who say there could be pollution,” said Marta Flores, a 35-year-old woman selling salt trinkets.

The guides who drove their vehicles deep into the 11,000 square-kilometer (4,200-square-mile) desert were likewise concerned.

They have already seen their business affected, they said, because of international uncertainty generated by Morales’s government, which has confrontational relations with the United States.

Several said they welcomed anything that would add prosperity to the region and to the country, but were skeptical that sufficient controls would be put in place to allow mining to co-exist with other activities in the desert, including tourism.

“It’ll e productive for the region,” said one guide, Juan Barcelona.

“But at the same time we’ll see the ranches, the farms, all that polluted I think, because there will be a lot of mining. All the desert will be full of lithium mines.”

In the meantime, those visiting the Salar de Uyuni are now wondering whether they will be the last to see this panorama in its pristine state.

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I wish I had better news to report in Bolivia this week but there seems to be attention focused on the drug wars and gang violence. I will talk with some local people and get there views and report back to you on these reoccuring themes. and what if anything is being done.

Cocaine production is growing fastest in Bolivia while Peru is on its way to matching output from Colombia, the top global producer of the drug, U.N. officials said on Friday.

Coca plant cultivation in Bolivia, which expelled U.S. anti-drug agents last year after accusing them of meddling in domestic affairs, grew 6 percent in 2008, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime’s annual study of Andean nations.

Estimated cocaine production rose 9 percent to 113 metric tons in the impoverished South American nation.

“What concerns us is the trend, which keeps growing,” Hugo Fernandez, Bolivia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, said in response to the study.

Bolivia has pledged to step up efforts to eradicate plants used in the cocaine trade. But President Evo Morales, a former coca farmer, has defended the chewing of coca leaves as well as their use for brewing tea and in religious ceremonies.

The leaves when consumed in this way provide a light stimulant, nowhere near the power of a cocaine rush.

PLANT ERADICATION

Peru’s leading coca growing area, in the Apurimac and Ene valleys, has become “the largest production zone in the country … and the biggest producer in terms of density per hectare in all of the Andes,” U.N. official Flavio Mirella said.

The region is controlled by remnant members of the radical leftist Shinning Path rebels, who have launched a series of deadly assaults this year on Peruvian soldiers trying to eradicate farms.

Peruvian coca cultivation grew 4.5 percent and estimated cocaine production rose 4.1 percent to 302 metric tons in 2008, according to the study.

“If Peru continues to grow at these rates, it may match production in Colombia,” Mirella told reporters in Lima.

Colombian cocaine production fell 28 percent to 430 metric tons in 2008, its lowest level in a decade, due to coca plant eradication programs, including chemical spraying of coca fields.

Cultivation was cut by 18 percent to 81,000 hectares.

Colombia is the largest grower of coca, with 48 percent of total acreage, followed by Peru with 34 percent and Bolivia with 18 percent.

Andean countries have tried to encourage farmers to switch to specialty food crops and stop growing coca, most of which is grown for the drug trade. They have met some resistance in these efforts because coca prices are often far higher.

In Peru, 93 percent of coca is processed into cocaine, while the rest is grown for traditional uses.

Although seizures of cocaine are up in most countries, demand has also grown in international markets beyond the traditional destinations in Europe and the United States.

Cocaine was used at least once by between 15.5 million and 20.5 million people in 2007, according to U.N. estimates.

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