ops

Sorry, few fellow readers, something happened (not sure what) and my blog has just not been on my radar. In any event, here we go.

I recently went on this very quick trip to Bolivia and back. I have a 90 visa, so every 3 months I have to leave the country and come back to get a new one. This time I went to Bolivia, a country I used to know so well! Chino and I traveled on many forms of transportation (nice buses, not nice buses, taxis, colectivos, mototaxis, tricycle--that's kind of like a rickshaw, and boats) to get from Cusco to La Paz. All in all, it was a beautiful trip with a short visit to Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake. We spent a night on an island in the lake, which was great. Would've been even better if it wasn't so high, so I didn't have altitude sickness.

This is the second time I've been to Bolivia since Evo has been president. When I was a study abroad student in Cochabamba, he came and talked to our class and we were all very impressed. Although I don't think I actually understood most of what he said. Since then most of my news about Bolivian politics comes from the New York Times, the BBC, or this very biased blog of Jim Shultz. The NY Times usually glorifies Evo to the extreme, which makes it tiresome to read about and hard to know what is actually true. Every once in a while I take a glance at a Bolivian newspaper online, but supposedly the news there is now completely controlled by the Evo administration to the extreme that some reporter was killed since he spoke out against Evo. Who knows if that's all true or not. Point is, I just had this chilling conversation with a friend from Bolivia. He told me about how he think Bolivia is in the worse state they've ever been in. How prices have raised incredibly, and there are no jobs. The government isn't doing anything about the fact that no one has work or money. At one point, all health workers at public hospitals went on strike for days and days. There were no health workers in the hospitals!! Four years ago when I was living there you could buy 6 breads for 1.5 bolivianos. Now it's 2 breads for the same price. There are crazy news stories about Venezuelan troops hiding in the jungle or at the Santa Cruz airport. Rumors that the lowland cities are going to start a civil war against the highlands. Crazy stuff! But I don't really know what to believe. There is also an assembly re-writing the constitution, but so far I guess not one page has been written.

Chino and I were in La Paz, the capital, and from our perspective everything seemed more or less chill. We passed one protest, but that is normal for Bolivia. I worry that Bolivia is on the brink of another big uproar. There are so many current issues: the department of Santa Cruz voted to be an autonomous state, coca growing and the US "War on Drugs," the constitution, the large amount of natural gas the country has, and the unemployment. They can't even agree on the capital of the country!

I admit I still really like Evo for perhaps not all the right reasons. Not that they're "wrong" reasons, just I know I should keep on my research on someone before blindly supporting their politics. I like that he speaks Aymara. I like that he wears a cool jacket instead of a suit. I like that he's indigenous, since the majority of the country is indigenous. I admit I am impressed he has remained in office for this long in a country that has coup de etats very frequently.

I wish it was easier to get a non-biased report of what was going on in another place. I also wish I could post pictures of the trip, but I left in a rush for the airport since I woke up half an hour before my plane was leaving and forgot my camera.