Over 200 species of potato...ah heaven?
Trip Start
Jan 28, 2012
1
6
Trip End
Mar 08, 2012
Cochabamba, Bolivia
Friday, February 10, 2012
Well, these first two weeks have been more than a bit CRA-ZY! (good crazy, whilst not without challenges!)
As always, I´m going to be short and sweet - partly because im about to get on yet another long distance bus and partly because i could risk just writing 3 pages about all the potatoes if i dont restrict myself (did i mention there are over 200 varieties between here and Peru? this is certainly living up as the legendary birthplace of the world´s greatest vegetable..)
Last week was a mixture of riding around on top of circus buses (one of Caritas´ partners here is a, ahhh, circus school!), watching performances, bashing on drums and laughing laughing laughing. We travelled down south to visit an olive growing-climate change project, which meant driving along a 3800m high mountain range - my photos really dont do it justice, so i havent included many. 3800m is reasonably high, especially for the guys that came with me from Beswick, NT (which is 153m above sea level!). Highlight of visiting this project was the morning cappuccino, a local brew of coffee, brandy and hot milk STRAIGHT FROM THE COW!!
This last week, we travelled over to the land of the anaconda and hit the amazon region, where one of our Indigenous partners is running an ethno'eco tourism project; this is the story we´re focusing this years indigenous peoples campaign around, and so it was all on for the boys, who were meeting and learning about the local Yuracare indigenous culture, as well as posing for the cameras, sharing their experiences and getting in a spot of fishing along the way. We were time poor and mosquitos were attacking us 24/7, but the high point with the guys performing some of their traditional dance/song with the Yidaki (didjeridoo) around the campfire swatted all the jungle blues away.
There are lots more great stories i could tell about all of the partners we got to meet, who are all doing really amazing things in their own, very different ways, but itd be hard to do them justice in just a few words. Ill leave you with the photos and your imaginations.
Just one last word; i never realised how much these Bolivians (and particularly Cochabambinos) love their food!? I swear, the sizes are triple those at home - at one meal, it actually looked like one of the ladies was in surgery, cutting up all the hunks of steak!
Hope youre all well in your parts of the world and will be in touch over the next few weeks - i´m heading down to Potosi/Salar de Uyuni (salt plains) in the next few days, before heading up to Oruro for the biggest heathen celebration in the world with some new friends (Carnavale here i come! woot!) After that, off to La Paz and who knows where else.
Cha!
Alex
