Last week of Internship

This week I finished my internship and it was a doozy. Wednesday and Thursday nights I was up until 11pm and 1am respectfully finishing up work. I am pretty bummed about not being with the gang anymore, but starting Tuesday Brenda and I will start traveling, so that will hopefully take my mind off of having to leave:(
WEDNESDAY At Patujú before a long day of work.

The very very very good cake my English class bought for me.

My English class, ready to party after their final exam. They made cheese empanadas, masaco and bought a really tasty cake.

After saying that I did not want to get messy while taking a bite out of my cake.

Handing over the first certificate for my English class students.

FRIDAY
My last day of work we spent in Yapacaní for the Feria Infantil del Parque Amboró. August 15th was the day of the National Park and the Mancommunity helped organize a celebration for school children to do presentations about the park and learn about it. In Buena Vista there was a fair that I did not attend, and the one in Yapacaní was delayed until this Friday. Apparently, it was a lot more successful than the one held in Buena Vista, a lot better organized and there were a lot of children and schools participating. The fair was supposed to last from 10-2pm, but we ended up there from 9am until 6 or 630pm. Aude and Juan Carlos face off in the morning.

Damián was a big hit with a group of little girls who thought he was a celebrity, so I had to take my fan shot.

Almost the whole team representing in the plaza (L-R): me, Aude, Juan Carlos, Carla and Damían.

Another group shot with Sócrates and the Professor in Yapacaní in charge of organizing the fair with the Mancommunity.

Children dressed up as animals for their presentations about the Park.

Goodbye Dinner in Buena Vista. I cried multiple times on Friday because I was bummed about leaving, sniff sniff, but I was able to pull it together for a photo-op.

Amboró and my birthday

On Saturday August 23rd I headed out to Mataracu, one of the entrances to Parque Amboró that is relatively close to Buena Vista. The group that headed out consisted of Aude, Brenda, me, and three Spaniards (Damián, another intern and a friend of Damián's). We were accompanied by two guides, a friend of the guides, two drivers, and a lot of bugs. Aude and I in the back of the truck on the way to the entrance to Mataracu.

The trail we went on involved a lot of water walking. We walked through a river, which was shallow, for about an hour before we got to the first waterfall where we had lunch and jumped in.

With Damián after being the first ones to jump in the water.

In the water! The waterfall is behind and to the right of us.

With Brenda and Damián.

Brenda and I are planning on posing for the Parque Amboró calendar this year.

A poisonous catepillar that we found on a rock. The guide picked it up and held it, only the spines are poisonous.

Lovely reflection in the water on the trail.

Plants growing on the rocks along the trail. The rocks were covered in moss and were wet to the touch and dripping with water, it was really beautiful and our guide said that in times of more rain it is even more wet, essentially waterfalls flowing down the rocks.

To go to the second waterfall, we had to strip down to our bathsuits and climb rocks in the water for about half an hour. The water was coooold, but it was a lovely climb and the waterfall was AMAZING (though it was hard to get any good pictures at the site because of the water in the air). On the way down from the waterfall I fell a few times and got banged up. When I hit my head on a rock everyone got worried since we were a few hours away from the road and nobody would be able to carry me or anything. I felt really weird, like my vision was off, after the head knock and when we got back to the campsite I realized it was because I lost one of my contacts.

SUNDAY
On Sunday we woke up early and went on a long hike, first to a waterfall and then up to a lookout point over the whole park. The first part of the hike, to the waterfall, was lovely and relatively easy to do, but the second part, up to the lookout point and then back to camp was a killer for my knee.
Some bamboo next to the trail.

Roots of a tree on the trail.

Crazy vines around the trail

With Brenda and her favorite tshirt ever. We might look cute, in my unbiased opinion, but we smelled TERRIBLE. Neither of us took a shower and had an accumulation of two days worth of bug spray on, bleh.

The waterfall we went to on my birthday. It was beautiful and I went under the waterfall, which felt awesome. Unfortunately, the lake and waterfall site is full of ticks and I found three on my legs that I ripped off, hopefully entirely. Damián found at least twenty on his person, I think because he did not get into the water immediately like I did but hung around outside taking photos like this one.

Looking out over Parque Amboró from the lookout point. We essentially climbed vertically uphill for 40 minutes to reach the lookout, and I am not complaining, it was nice, but I think I should have sat out because going down killed me. My left knee cannot handle steep declines and I was in major pain going down the mountain.

A pretty tree we passed on the way back to the campsite before eating lunch and cleaning up shop.

MONDAY
On Monday we all went to Portachuelo for a lunch celebrating two new machines that FAMAPOR (an association of women who make food, beverage, and artisanwork) got to help them make sausages. There was a formal ceremony handing over the machines and then lunch, followed by a birthday cake for me as dessert.

My birthday cake bought by my lovely coworkers:)

Socrates helping to bind Aude´s foot. She fell on the second day of hiking in the park and her ankle got majorly swollen, luckily for us our manager not only manages but also provides basic nursing services as well.

Eating my birthday cake.

Paro Cívico

Yesterday was the first day of what is turning out to be an indeterminate-length strike in five of the nine departments of Bolivia. These departments, where Evo Morales lost in the referendum, are all pissed off because they have not received IDH (money from hidrocarbon taxes) since May. The prefects, who are like governors but with less power since Bolivia is a highly centralized state, want the money and the central government, which is obviously opposed to the demands for greater autonomy by the prefects, has refused to hand it over. I believe the current amount of money that is owed, or that has not been handed over, is in the ballpark of $166 million. The central government says that the money is for the municipalities and not for the prefect, however the municipalities do not have the structure and capacities to manage all the money that should be going their way, which is why the prefectures step in...Basically it is a horrible situation and the responses by both sides guarantees that nothing is going to be resolved any time soon. This cartoon was put up on the blog of one of the guys at CEPAD and it says ´I should not fuck my country any more...atte: Rubén (the prefect of Santa Cruz), Evo, Branco (another player here in Santa Cruz who is leading the strike), etc.

Yesterday was declared a full strike and everything in the town was shut down, not a shop was open and the highway was closed all day. I went down to see the blockade, which was two tractors across the highway (which granted, is a two lane paved road). There were some signs demanding the IDH and a ton of people drinking. A psychologist who works for the mayor´s office started talking to me and said how these Strikes that occur are political issues for people in power, but that for people in town they are an opportunity for people to come together and shoot the shit. Aude, who was with me, asked why they couldn´t just have a party, and she has a point. In the distance all I could see was trucks parked on the side of the road waiting for the blockade to be lifted to get to their destination. And imagine, the blockade in Buena Vista is just one, every town that is sympathetic to Rubén and autonomy has one too. In the evening some restaurants and stores opened and it was decided that the strike would continue indefinitely, but only the highways. As such, today stores were open but the the highway once again closed from 12am to 12am. Tonight we´ll find out how much longer it is going to last. Some people say it´ll be over tomorrow, and are making plans, but I have heard that we can expect at least til Friday to not have open highways.

This does not mean that one cannot get around. Motorcycles, which are used like taxis here, are making TONS of money getting people around blockades (to go to Portachuelo, 30km from Buena Vista costs 5 bolivianos normally in a cab, mototaxis are charging 50 bs). Clearly some people are benefitting from the strike. What is really sad is that while the politicians on both sides argue and are getting rich themselves, the economy of Bolivia is getting completely screwed. Yesterday I wrote emails asking coffee importers if they would be interested in the coffee associations that I met with and one of the responses that I got was from a trader who said his company used to import 75% of the Bolivian coffee to the U.S. and no longer does so due to the political situation. It is pretty depressing to sit here and not be able to do much besides translate things to English and hang out in the office in my second to last week at work, but such is life...

Cacao y Samaipata

This past week I had my first taste of cacao and Brenda and I continued our travelling going to Samaipata for a weekend visit. Below are some photos and commentaries, hope you enjoy. On Friday we found a cacao pod in a tree at the restaurant where we were having lunch. Don Lorgio cut open the mazorca for me and I started eating the cacao pods like they were going out of style. Being the sweet and sensitive guys that they are, my coworkers did not inform me that most people do not eat the seeds in the pod, what is usually dried and then made into chocolate, so I was eating the whole thing and was later laughed at. The gooey stuff around the bitter beans is really sweet but does not taste like chocolate at all.

On Friday afternoon Aude and I went to the house of Don Riders, the chocolate producer in Buena Vista. His niece went around with us while Don Riders cut down cacao pods from the trees and explained to us how the cacao is proccessed to make chocolate. I ate even more cacao at Don Riders´house and was impressed by his backyard orchard, which is more than 200 years old. Don Riders makes chocolate bars that are used to make hot chocolate and they are bitter because no sugar is added. He gave me a bar as a gift, so if anyone wants some good hot chocolate when I get back to the states, you know my contact info...(cute niece not included)

SATURDAY
Incan face in a rock on the way up to El Fuerte, the UNESCO recognized heritage site in Samaipata. Apparently there is a similar rock outside of Macchu Pichu in Peru, which is why they think it is carved.

Listening for the echo on the way up to the site of El Fuerte (The Fort)

This is it folks. El Fuerte is a huge slab of rock that is covered in carvings and waterways. In the middle there is apparently a table with nine chairs for a governing council of some sort. The site is considered holy by New Agers, who think that some of the carvinsg inteh middle of the rock were a landing strip for aliens. Prior to the Incas, there were two other indigenous groups who lived there and then when the Spanish came, they took over and built some more. Overall, a nice site, though I think Brenda and I lost some of the experience since we went without a guide.

SUNDAY

On Saturday night I started using the color accent setting on my camera for the first time and all day Saturday I was trying to take artsy shots. This first one is from the hotel where Brenda and I stayed.

Las Cuevas, a beautiful spot 20 km before Samaipata that used to have caves under some waterfalls. The caves were covered up, but the waterfalls are still going strong with the backdrop seen above of Parque Amboró.

Another shot of Cuevas.

Waterfall with color accent on.

Waterfall with color accent off.

Couple shot.

The second waterfall.

An old political sign on a wall near the plaza in Samaipata. Goni is, as previously mentioned, no longer much loved in Bolivia, so it is rather funny to see a sign for his election in 2002 still up.

I took this photo from the cab on the way back from Samaipata to Santa Cruz. It is a beautiful mountain next to the town of Bermejo. As you can see, the road to Samaipata was spectacular.

Past week in pictures

12 de agosto: Tasting some honey from señorita bees in Don Ovidio´s house. It was the best honey I have ever tasted.
12 de agosto: Don Ovidio, the oldest bee keeper (apicultor in Spanish, not sure how to translate) in Portachuelo. After I interviewed him for my project, he offered us a honey drink and then showed us one of his bee colonies.

10 de agosto: With Brenda in 24 de septiembre, the central plaza in Santa Cruz the night of the referendum. The crowd was sizable but apparently pretty subdued compared to the last vote in May. The Prefect won the vote for autonomy, but President Evo Morales also won the popular vote (though he lost in 5 out of 9 departments) so he will also remain in power.

10 de agosto: A little girl infront of me and Brenda during the rally after the referendum.

10 de agosto: cherry-like fruit that grow on the trunk of trees. This fruit is very tasty and only found in the Eastern part of Bolivia. I ate my fair share sitting at the Hostel all day on Sunday since everything was closed for the referendum.

9 de agosto: I visited my friend Valeria and her baby who I met in San Ignacio in the neighborhood San Silvestre 4 km outside of the center of Santa Cruz. Valeria had to enter the same hospital that I was in a few weeks after I left San Ignacio due to some stomach or kidney problem and she has just recovered and come back from San Ignacio. I hope to see her and her daughter again before I go because she is literally the sweetest baby ever.

8 de agosto: With Don Lorgio in San Juan waiting for computers to be set up for a new techonology center to be established there.

13 de agosto: Carla teaching a class about basic accounting to women who make Jipi Japa products (hats, purses, etc). The community of Carmen Surutú is across the river from Buena Vista and as recently as 10 years ago the territory it is on was part of the Parque Amboró. The women come from the interior of the country, Cochabamba, and settled in Carmen Surutú to try to make a living. To make a jipi japa hat (it looks like a straw hat but the fiber comes from a palm tree) takes 48 hours of work and they then sell their artwork for 25-45 bolivianos...so they are pretty much losing money. We are going to try to work with the women to get them better prices for their goods by selling directly to tourists through a store in Santa Cruz rather than selling to middlemen, that way they could command double their current prices.