RTW: Exchange in Chile

No coast in Bolivia

Had to come and see it myself. Some of you know why this is important to me: it is because I lost a Trivial Pursuit game once in 2003 because the game claimed that the only South American country without a coastline was Paraguay. Obviously, this is not the case. For those of you that do not know it, I got an official apology from the company that makes the game and survived as the moral winner after all.

Bolivia is probably among the least known countries in South America (at least to all you Finns), so I will bother you all with some exceptionally useful info I got during my stay here. Bolivia is a country with amazing natural beauty - I can say it already though I have seen but a fraction. Just see the photos in the last entry. It is also a country of over half of people of indigenous backgrounds –as the current president, Evo Morales, who is nationalizing everything to the joy-joy of greedy American corporations..

The country is known for just about “world’s highest” everything, like Potosí, where I am now, which is the world’s highest city at 4070 meters above sea level. Makes you breathe quite heavily just tying shoe laces. The country has suffered from chronic territorial losses to Chile (their chance of coast went there), Paraguay (which makes you wonder if these guys know anything about war) and Brazil (who took their rubber). Still they have nature from one end to other (from the mountains I have seen to the rain forest with their Jesuit missions). To top it all off, the DEA started an anti-drug program here, but the cooperation of Bolivians was “suggested” by the threat of ending monetary support. Gotta love the USA with their bag of tricks..

Potosí itself is a magnificent town. I bet none of you knew that in the beginning of the 17th century it was one of the biggest cities in the world with nearly 200,000 inhabitants. This was all due to its vast mineral riches, at that time mostly silver. In the mid 17th century it had a crisis as the silver could no more be obtained without chemicals and their use polluted the water of thousands of people in the region. In response, they made big lakes in the mountains to distribute the drinking water to people and to use hydropower to operate the smelters. Mining is still the city’s main livelihood and it is painfully visible in the everyday life as well (more on mines in the next post). I’m really liking Bolivia, as it is the first country truly uncorrupted with “western manners”.

posted by Kassu @ 3:07 PM