Visiting the Altiplano

In October I had the opportunity to participate in a "tech exchange" with other volunteers in my group. The Peace Corps promotes these Technical Exchanges as a way to see other volunteers in action and share experience, ideas, and motivation. The PC usually pays for travel expenses and some meals, and the volunteer writes a short report before and after the visit. This tech exchange would take me to the Altiplano and the surrounding communities of Oruro.

I was invited by a fellow Environmental Education Volunteer, Chelsea, to help with a trash management/recycling workshop at a school in a small community near her site in the Altiplano. During our three-month training in Cochabamba, Chelsea and I were in the same group for our major school teaching event. We presented a very similar trash workshop and worked well together and had fun, so she asked me to help. Another EE volunteer, Tiffany, lived near Chelsea and was going to help, as well as Chelsea´s boyfriend and my Tunari hiking buddy John. I was very excited to see the Altiplano, visit my friends, and do some good work.

I had a 14 hour bus ride from Tarija to the city of Oruro where Chelsea would meet me, then we would travel another two hours to her site and deliver the workshop the following day. The bus ride was remarkably smooth. We´ve heard many horror stories and have experienced a few breakdowns, so I was pleased to arrive in the city only two hours late. I left Tarija at 5:00 pm and arrived in Oruro just after 9:00 am the following day. Most of the ride was in the dark, but I could see the looming mountains and could feel the change in altitude. I had my GPS with me and would turn it on mow and then to check my location. I was amazed when around midnight we crossed the 10,000 ft. mark and never went below it again. In fact the highest point I was awake for was just over 13,000 ft. and I could still see huge mountains all around me. It was hard to wrap my head around the fact that I was riding in a bus at almost the same altitude of the highest point in the continental US.

I arrived in Oruro (12,150 ft) and Chelsea met me in the plaza and showed me around a bit. Like other places I´ve been so far in Bolivia, Oruro was like no other place I´d ever been. There are virtually no trees in the Altiplano, and it really is very plano. It reminded me of a trip I took with my friend Jeff into the deserts of Baja California where it was so flat you could look out and see for miles and miles in any direction. Wierd. And very hard to capture on camera.

(Oruro Witch´s Market selling assorted dried animals)

We did some shopping in Oruro and then left for Chelsea´s site. The next morning Tiffany and John met us and we set out for the community of Avicaya. Chelsea warned us that it would be a bit of a walk... With the help of the GPS we realized we walked six miles at an altitude of around 12,500 ft.

We were pleasantly surprised to find the school expecting us and prepared. The four of us went through a basic lesson of trash practices, how long it takes things to decompose, alternatives to throwing stuff out, and some basic demonstrations of how to reuse some common items.

We´re never sure how much impact, if any, this type of work has on the students. We know they enjoy having us in their classroom and for many of them we may be the only real exposure they have to US citizens and maybe white people at all. We always leave time at the end for the students to ask us questions. They are always shy, but usually can get started and then have some really good questions. This group was no different. We got the usual questions of what we eat, what the weather is like, what languages are spoken, which religions are practiced...etc. We also tend to always get questions eventually about September 11 and the war. I think those discussions may be just as important as the day´s topic of trash.

After the day in the communities we went back to Pacñea and waited for transport to Huari, Tiffany´s site. Huari is a slightly larger community another few hours south, closer to the mountains and Lago Poopo. It is also home to the Huari Brewery, pretty much the best of the limited Bolivian beers. No buses were passing so we got a ride from a passing city government worker Tiffany knew from Huari. John and I rode in the back and enjoyed great views of the mountains and the shores of the Lago.

We also came across a crash of a Huari beer truck which had spilled its sweet contents all over the road. Back in college I think many of us dreamed of finding an overturned beer truck, unfortunately most of the bottles had spilled in the road.

In Huari Tiffany showed us around and we played frisbee and watched the sunset over the lake. It was nice to see the sun setting on the horizon over water. I could almost believe it was California and the ocean.

We left later that night and spent the night in Oruro. The next day before I left John took me out to see his site. John may have the most rural site of everyone in our group. He is only about an hour out of the city, but to say he lives in a town would be wrong. He lives in an area made up of about 30 families spread out through a high valley (over 13,000 ft.) John loves it, but I´m sure some people would not be able to handle it. We rode in a local taxi out to his area and stopped to drop people off and the car only broke down once.

John and I spent the afternoon hiking around his site. He showed me the project he was working on -- designing and constructing a retaining wall for a mismanaged riverbed that has been slowly eroding away its banks. John is a Natural Resource volunteer and has done a great job organizing the people in his area.

We had a great time and I vowed to return to do some more hiking in the area and see more of the Altiplano. I went back to Oruro city and caught a bus for Tarija. This time my bus had more problems and we had to stop and change buses in Potosi. Way back in the day the city of Potosi was the richest city in the world. There is a huge mountain that contains a wealth minerals, mostly silver and tin. The city also lays claim to the "Highest City in the World", sitting at 13, 497 ft. Again, it was amazing. I only spent an hour or so, but I did get this picture of the famed Cerro Rico.

The story of the city is quite tragic as it was built up during the 1500s and then ruthlessly exploited. The mountain which gave the city its wealth has also taken the lives of many thousand Bolivian miners. There has also been extraordinary environmental damage and pollution of the air and watersheds. Despite its rough history, Potosi retains a charm and is major city along the "Gringo Trail" of Bolivia. It is another place I want to visit again.

So overall my trip to the Altiplano was wonderful. I did not like Oruro city too much, but the surrounding communities were beautiful. It was great to visit other Volunteers in their sites and see their work and explore their communities. I think that may be the best way to really experience the true Bolivia and see things that are certainly not in any guidebook.

As any trip though, it was great to get back to Tarija, and then home to El Puente. Erica and I continued with the school garden, continued honing our cooking skills, and continued being entertained by the cat. We also were preparing for my mom´s Thanksgiving visit.

We are coming up on one year now in Bolivia. So hard to believe. The time really is flying by and we´ve consistently heard that year two is even better than year one. We are looking forward to the holidays and my mom´s visit. Soon the schools will go on summer vacation and we´ve heard our town will mellow out even more. That is also hard to believe.

Until later...

Marcos