A steep ascent and the history of coca leaf
Trip Start
Apr 18, 2011
1
39
51
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Lion Palace Hostel
La Paz, Bolivia
Friday, November 18, 2011
We had lunch then set off to the office in town to check in. On the way, a stray dog that was sitting under our table at lunch followed us. I playfully told it it couldn't come to the airport. Two minibuses awaited us at the office to shuttle everyone to the airport. I was surprised to see the dog had hitched a lift with one and was happily roaming the airport (small wooden house). It appeared that the ground was still pretty wet, so we were to be shuttled across the grass to the tarmac in the mini buses instead of the plane. Everyone piled in as we splashed our way across to the runway. I was amused to see that the dog had also managed to hitch a lift with a bus, again. Maybe he was out looking for adventure in far-off places. We waited in the muddy field for the light aircraft (25 seats max) to land. It came into land with a barrage of noise and smoothly pulled up to where we were waiting. The steps came down and the dog was the first one to run up. He made a valiant effort making a bee line for the seats, however the air hostess soon pushed him back down the steps. I looked back to see him sulkily slink back into a mini bus for a ride home. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to go along with this story.
The flight itself was spectacular as we lifted over the Amazon basin then started to climb rapidly toward the Andes, which hug the borders of the city La Paz. Rurrenabaque sits at 215m and La Paz at 4000m, a long way for our little plane to climb in 40 minutes. The first section was fine, but towards the end I started to feel quite sick as the little plane rattled around. Luckily the flight was short and we landed soon enough. We shared a taxi into the centre back to our hostel, (Lion Palace) with the two guys from California that had been on our pampas trip.
The next day we set about booking a tour agency to mountain bike down Bolivia's famous death road. We had been warned to be careful of the companies and do good research. There is a good reason its called 'death road',with sheer drops of up to 100m off one side, many tourists and locals have died going over the edge. We kicked off the day with a taste of home, in a British pub with a full English breakfast and a pint of tea (in a pint glass). After our morning feast, a lot of searching and scribbling, we chose a company called Overdose do the death road with. They were a mid-range company with good double suspension down hill mountain bikes and full on safety gear. I also eventually bought my alpaca wool jumper in one of the market shops near to where we were staying.
Also while we were in La Paz we visited the Coca museum. The coca leaf is seen as culturally important to people of Bolivia and Peru, largely due to its role in history being used for over 4000 years by their ancestors. Also, it was spiritually significant to the Inca's whos' empire stretched over the Andes. The museum covered the story of the coca leaf from 4000 years ago to the present day. In the western world it is probably more associated with Coca-cola and cocaine. A reason the little leaf was -and largely still is - so popular in the high altitude Andes regions is that it combats altitude sickness and generally helps you stay alert. Medical studies show that the Coca leaf has many health giving qualities. It was used by the Spanish to keep slaves working for longer at altitude and particularity in the silver mines in Potosi. The world multi-national Coca-cola first used the coca leaf in1886 when they launched their now world famous product Coca-cola. The original owner apparently sold the rights to the company two years later for just $1.75. Other interesting facts where that the Inca's were using it hundreds of years ago as a form of surgical anaesthetic to preform even brain surgery. They pointed out the stark difference to the modern conquerors, hundreds of years later ,and their European counterparts who still used whiskey and a club over the head as an anaesthetic. The story was complicated from the 1960s onwards when cocaine and multi-national foreign involvement (business and political) complicated things greatly for Bolivia. The war on drugs has largely effected only the peasant farmers of Bolivia and their meagre business, not drug use or crime statistics. Today coca leaf tea is sold widely as are sweeties. We stayed in an area of La Paz called the witches market where we saw people getting thier fortunes told by reading coca leafs. The museum informed us the tradition was hundreds even thousands of years old, but that few people these days had the skill to do it.
We also booked our bus tickets to Sucre the former capital city of Bolivia where the Bolivian declaration of Independence was signed. With a bit of luck it should be a 12-14 overnight bus, we booked the best company we could see in the hope of lessening the chance of bus disaster.
By Eilidh.
Comments
Dear Eilidh and Zach,
Another fascinating letter wih good pictures. You both are good, no excellent writers. I laghed at the dog story and shivered at death road.
You must be very excited with Mom and Dad's imminent arrival.
I get so many compliments on your birthday gifts Zach this
week your earrings. Love you and miss you, Grandma/Bev
What a dog!