Overall, though.. (sv part 7)

Overall, though,

Being out in the country for a few days, seeing smaller towns where people live really simply, reminded me how excessive north americans are.

I'm not just talking about hummers. I'm talking about how many outfits of clothing we think we need, how often we think we need to shower, all the unneccesary stuff that's manufactured for us like hair gel, make-up, and fragrances... how disturbingly big our houses apparently have to be, how much energy we waste on things like washing machines (and especially dryers), dishwashers, ohhhh and xmas lights... all the useless and unsustainable things we do like growing grass where we could grow food, etc etc etc. The list is almost infinite.

In general, this trip reminded me how many ways there are of doing things, and that the way we do things, contrary to popular opinion, may not be the best ways. In many cases, the way that i saw things being done might not have been the best ways either.

Basically we've all got a lot to learn from each other and for that we all need to work on our sense of humility and open mindedness.

On the other hand... (summer vacation part 6)

On the other hand...

I do have to pull a spoiled north american act and complain briefly about toilets.
In the last week or so i've used toilets that didn't have seats, didn't have toilet paper (they never do.. don't even expect there to be any.. you always bring your own), didn't have soap, (you're lucky if they do) didn't have towels (almost never) didn't have hot water (even the one in my house doesn't), and sometimes didn't have running water at all. (get a bucket, bail water from the water barrel into the tank, then flush). oh, and as i've said before, the toilet paper, used, goes into a garbage can. not as disgusting as you might imagine, but sometimes pretty disgusting.
oh, and busses don't have toilets.
so i've also had to pee in the middle of the desert, where everything is flat and there are no bushes or trees to hide behind.
in the end you just walk really far and hide behind a large tuft of grass.
this is a functional toilet in a hostel we stayed at at laguna colorado:













the other stall was a little nicer, with amenities like a toilet seat.
that didn't help the fact that your feet stuck a little to the floor, though.
and this is the inside of the door to the stall:













and after touching that, you get to the sink, which has no running water, and no soap, and realize that if you're going to wash your hands it's going to be with your own bottled water and that if you didn't bring soap you're not getting any.
mmmmm.
i think i preferred peeing behind a tuft of grass.

oh, and i've also seen kids peeing on sidewalks, and, in potosi, a lady squatting over a drain in the gutter, carefully keeping her skirts off the ground. I was more impressed than anything else.

Summer Vacation part 5:

On a related note to part 4:
Cultural relativism, attitude, humility.

There are lots of things that we do a certain way, on the assumption that our way is the proper way of doing those things.
On the bus ride from Potosi to Uyuni, the bus was packed. All the seats were full. Kids were sitting on parents' laps. People were standing in the aisles. People were riding in the cabin with the driver. Nicolas, who i was travelling with, was kind of uncomfortable. His reaction was pretty natural, because based on his experience of Canadian busses, he didn't expect to have anyone standing beside him, looming over him, leaning against him on the sharper corners.
It takes a sense of humility to deal with things like this. You have to remember that this may not be appropriate to you, but it is appropriate in Bolivia, and guess what? You're in Bolivia!

And of course, these things work both ways. While we felt sort of crushed on the way to Uyuni, on the way home from Potosi we wouldn't have been allowed on the bus at all if we'd been in Canada. The seats were all full, so they put us in the front of the bus with the driver, which is about the size of a large bathroom and partitioned off from the passengers. Actually, it wasn't just Nicolas and I who were in the cabin. At one point, including the driver, there were NINE of us. A tenth guy tried to jump in while we stopped, but the driver decided nine was enough and closed the door on him.

Of course, there are limits to cultural relativism, like avoiding food that looks really unsanitary, even if it seems to be acceptable by local standards. And there's rights and equality issues, which prettymuch every culture needs to work on in one place or another.
But for the most part, whenever you want to think something's not being done "properly", you may need to check your ethnocentrism and think again.

This isn't just a question of being respectful of the culture you're living in.. it's also a question of expanding your understanding of things and growing as a person.

Maybe, for example, the north american obsession with personal space bubbles is kind of egotistical and selfish.
And while cleanliness is important, maybe north americans take it to a degree that is a bit on the excessive side.

People in Bolivia, in general, are really friendly. (summer vacation #4)

For the most part you can ask anyone anything you don't know and they'll try and help you figure it out. People tend to be curious about us, ask where we're from, what we're doing here, what we think of it all, etc.

Occasionally though, people are kind of stand-offish and cold.
On one hand, we're invading their space and so i'm willing to have a little humility about it.
But on the other hand, we're really careful to be respectful of how Bolivians do things, and peoples' attitudes towards us are occasionally sort of demeaning or antagonistic in situations where we probably haven't done much to deserve it.
Not the end of the world, but still a really alienating experience.

This made me think a lot about the way i've seen people in medicine hat, alberta,(and many other places in canada) act really standoffish towards mexicans, or south/central americans, or africans. Or, of course, first nations people. There's this cliquishness and sense of implicit superiority that i find really juvenile and disgusting. And i think Canadians do this a lot more than Bolivians do. I hope we can eventually grow up a little bit and learn to appreciate each other.

Bolivia = Mars (summer vacation part 3!)

To the left is one picture of Bolivia, and one picture of Mars. You can all have the fun and excitement of guessing which is which.

Actually, most of bolivia is pretty green.
But for about a day, south of Uyuni, we drove through dirt, dirt, rocks, dirt and dirt. This could have been because it was really dry and also over 5000 m above sea level in some places.

Summer Vacation Part 2!

Summer Vacation Part 2!
some observations from this trip:

First, a reminder: Bolivia is the poorest country in south america.
You don't get that impression when you're in city centres, but if you're not convinced just take a look at how people live in the edges of the cities and in the country. Mud or clay brick houses, usually with roofs and doors, or sometimes not. Both of the places we stayed during our three day tour south of Uyuni were not connected to a power grid.

Check the "countryside in Bolivia" photo album for pictures.

The hostel at the first place we stayed (San Juan) had a generator, so there was about two hours worth of electricity. At night, the whole town was pitch black. Some of the kids with us went out in the evening and had to feel their way home.
The second place we stayed, at the Laguna Colorado (the red lake), to my delight, had solar panels.
Way to skip all the dirty electricity and move straight to the sustainable stuff!
Of course, the solar panels are probably there because they were cheaper than installing hundreds of kilometers of wire, not because of a deep and personal concern for the environment. Still, I’ll take that.
On the other hand, while the second place we stayed did have more than two hours per day of electricity, it didn't have running water.

Summer Vacation: Part 1

(because yes, it is summer down here...)

Over the xmas break I got the chance to travel a little. Now i´m finally getting the chance to write about it.

first stop: Potosi; the highest city in the world, 4060 m above sea level.
[it should be noted that while potosi is the highest *city*, Wenzhuan, the highest *town*, is over a kilometer 1000 m higher. i'm sure the tourism department in potosi has nightmares about population explosions in Wenzhuan....]
The altitude slowed us down a little... we were a little more out of breath than usual and were really appreciative of mate de coca (coca leaf tea, which helps with the altitude), but we didn't have any serious problems.
potosi is a mining town.. we didn't get the chance to tour the mines because it was xmas.. instead we celebrated xmas with about a dozen other people from our hostel. we had dinner, drank wine, and watched music videos from the 80s.
(If you ever miss the 80s, just come to bolivia.)
Before going on to Uyuni, Nicolas and I did get the chance to climb up into the bell tower of a church and take pictures.

(check the potosi and uyuni galleries for photos)

then, Uyuni:
what's in Uyuni? not a lot. but what did we see on a three day tour south of uyuni?

salt desert. salt, piles of salt, hotels made of salt, salt carvings. an island with giant cacti and a cave. surrounded by salt. dirt, rocks, dirt, dirt dirt. coloured lakes, flamingos. volcanoes, geysers, hot springs, boiling glooping pits of something steamy and muddy looking. train cemetery.

(all, or almost all, in the galleries)
Coming up: Summer Vacation Parts 2, 3, 4, etc: a series of posts with my overall impressions of the trip.
(more interesting, i hope, than a checklist-like list of things i saw)