Wednesday, June 29, 2005

El Alto, el fuego



From http://www.pagina12.com.ar/suplementos/no/vernota.php?id_nota=1759&sec=12:
Cronicas sobre las recientes manifestaciones en Bolivia

BoliviaWiki



From http://www.centellas.org/politics/politiddly.html:
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Monday, June 27, 2005

Juan Pablo



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/jlujan/21990358/:

lujan posted a photo:


Juan Pablo


That smile never leaves his face!

Uyuni Panorama



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/ooyooy/21871595/:

vodkamax posted a photo:


Uyuni Panorama


Uyuni Salar

Bolivia



Made out of 3 photos



DSCN7775-ok pano copy

Sunday, June 26, 2005

Bolivia



From http://www.ou.edu/intprog/Flyers/Bolivia.htm:
No hay contenido disponible

Saturday, June 25, 2005

coca



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/el_waka/21453684/:

El Waka posted a photo:


coca


man eating coca leaves before going to work

'Watch Your Step' vs. 'Step Right In'



From Moreover - Consumer: travel news:

Bolivian mine workers protested in La Paz this month. ANXIOUS Americans planning a trip to Bolivia the first week of June were probably spending as much time surfing the Web as they were packing their suitcases.

From Moreover - Consumer: travel news (feed)
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Friday, June 24, 2005

The Real Thing - video about Bolivia and the drug war



From http://gnn.tv/videos/38/The_Real_Thing:
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E-link Americas Broadband High-speed internet for underserved areas of Latin America



From http://www.elinkamericas.net/main.php?content=news&news_id=33:
Oh goody, wireless and sat services for Bolivia at reduced cost

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

CIA - The World Factbook -- Bolivia



From http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/bl.html:
No hay contenido disponible

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

i spend a great deal of time concerning myself with negative things.i search...



From MAMA GONNA GO OUT IN STYLE:

i spend a great deal of time concerning myself with negative things.

i search high and low for a substitute for "things", but nothing comes to me. my few dabbles in college english courses taught me to replace "things". you know, highschool may have as well. but i don't remember much from highschool. it also taught me not to use "but" or "and" at the beginning of a sentence. well guys, i'm pretty much a rebel. without a cause, that is.

though i know replacing "things" with another word is not exactly what was meant, i don't like to re word my way of thinking. this is the bad english i was taught. this is the way thoughts process in here. genuinely.

"things" fits. "things" are futile, inconsequential... sometimes just accidental. "things" are exactly what should concern me least, but realistically what concerns me most.

so here i have comprised a list of "things". non-negative
"things" i have concern, love, and appreciation for:


o ninja turtles
o apple crisp rice cakes
o mascara that is not waterproof
o old friends that tell the tale of who i am. really.
o the scent of leather boots filling my dad's closet.
o the south.
o the center of my chest where bones are beginning to show.
o the downstairs area of my apartment.
o making up songs in the shower/car/head. and they're beautiful, let me tell you.
o yawning and sneezing. not necessarily simultaneously.
o swimming at night, when no one is around.
o gut laughter that gives a feeling of being exposed. the kind of laughter that makes you let your guard down.
o chips and salsa.
o cultural differences.
o language and my ill use of it.
o the thought of ice cream cone figures as earrings.
o daydreaming about a trip through bolivia, peru, and argentina.
o restrictive movements at night as i'm lodged between cody and my puppy, bastian. i just can't bring myself to disturb their sleep, no matter how uncomfortable i may be.
o shoes. oh shoes.
o gray weather. storms. cold rain that makes your teeth chatter.
o sundays filled with absolutely nothing but lying in bed watching dvds.
o cooking hearty, spicy meals.
o my reclusive nature.
o rooms with solid white walls.
o my thesaurus (which has still not let me properly replace "things").
o playing scrabble with brittnee. it's easy to win, because through these scrabble games, we realized that she is dyslexic. no joke. i win everytime.
o ocean ocean ocean.
o blue coconut snocones.
o fond memories of my completely yellow, childhood room.
o the acute scent of your hair, still lingering.
o sharp cheddar cheese. to the extreme.
o camisoles.
o early morning showers.
o croissants and full bellies.
o voices.

YOU SHOULD ADD TO IT.

From MAMA GONNA GO OUT IN STYLE (feed)
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Monday, June 20, 2005

Dual power in Bolivia



From http://apostatewindbag.blogspot.com/2005/06/dual-power-in-bolivia.html:
No hay contenido disponible

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Asamblea de los Dioses del Agua



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/glangenberg/20313154/:

langenberg posted a photo:


Asamblea de los Dioses del Agua


Asamblea de los Dioses del Agua



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/glangenberg/20312978/:

langenberg posted a photo:


Asamblea de los Dioses del Agua


Asamblea de los Dioses del Agua



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/glangenberg/20312922/:

langenberg posted a photo:


Asamblea de los Dioses del Agua


Roots of Imperialism From Properwinston.com, "Inev...



From Fuck Properwinston:

Roots of Imperialism

From Properwinston.com,
"InevitableWednesday, June 08, 2005
People,When I was in Bolivia two years ago everyone I talked to seemed resigned to--if not insouciantly content with--a move away from democratic (by that, I mean parliamentary) politics. In framing the current tumult as an evil capitalist versus oppressed (and thus, heroic) "native" morality play, the
N.Y. Times unsurprisingly fails to capture the facts and motivations on the ground. When I head down to Argentina in August, I think a trip to Bolivia will be in order. Yet, La Paz might be a little bit sketchy, so I might stick with the lowland cities. best,Grant. "


Ah, american arrogance at its finest. Grant, or Proper, posits that the NY Times article is completely inaccurate compared to the extensive knowledge he obtained during his upper middle class weekend getaway to Bolivia. Bravo Proper! In one of your many pathetic posts, you have exemplified that which has been ingrained into the minds of all americans, the concept of absolute supremacy.

From Fuck Properwinston (feed)
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Friday, June 17, 2005

The beautiful view over Puno



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503180639@N01/19948189/:

pickup_stix posted a photo:


The beautiful view over Puno


No rabid dogs in sight.

Family at the Peru / Bolivia border



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503180639@N01/19948188/:

pickup_stix posted a photo:


Family at the Peru / Bolivia border


The madness of the Peru / Boliva border



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503180639@N01/19948187/:

pickup_stix posted a photo:


The madness of the Peru / Boliva border


spiked-politics | Article | Bolivia: an 'indigenous revolution'?



From http://www.spiked-online.com/articles/0000000CABEC.htm:
No hay contenido disponible

cainco



From http://www.cainco.org.bo/:
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Thursday, June 16, 2005

BBC NEWS | Americas | US behind Bolivia crisis - Chavez



From http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4086452.stm:
No hay contenido disponible

Alan Maass: Is Bolivia on the Edge of Revolution?



From http://www.counterpunch.org/maass06082005.html:
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Dave Lindorff: the Inca and Us



From http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff06132005.html:
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Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Dinner Time - Illimani, low camp



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobyns/19558622/:

Toby NS posted a photo:


Dinner Time - Illimani, low camp


From left: Ignacio (the cook), Alain (our guide), Santos (our main porter), Justin, Hugo (our second guide for Illimani) and Bruce (the American)

Getting gear ready for the climb to base camp - Illimani



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobyns/19558621/:

Toby NS posted a photo:


Getting gear ready for the climb to base camp - Illimani


While everyone else packed things, the Prawn just sat down at a small table set out for him and drank some tea kindly send over by Dad.

After the peak - Pequeno Alpamayo



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobyns/19558620/:

Toby NS posted a photo:


After the peak - Pequeno Alpamayo


The giant and the dwarf - Summit of Pequeno Alpamayo



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobyns/19558619/:

Toby NS posted a photo:


The giant and the dwarf - Summit of Pequeno Alpamayo


From that point on in the holiday I always remembered to stand on the higher slope (or on a conveniently positioned rock)

Campesino girl



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobyns/19554662/:

Toby NS posted a photo:


Campesino girl


The daughter of the man who lent us his donkies and organised porters

Illimani - On the way down



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobyns/19553498/:

Toby NS posted a photo:


Illimani - On the way down


My leg (caught standing on a rope) and Hugo (our second guide for this climb)

Illimani - Climbing a nasty crevice



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobyns/19553497/:

Toby NS posted a photo:


Illimani - Climbing a nasty crevice


This was actually someone from another group of climbers who we had to wait behind at this spot for a freezing pre dawn half an hour or so

Illimani, low camp



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobyns/19553496/:

Toby NS posted a photo:


Illimani, low camp


Illimani, HIgh Camp - That Bolivian Luna Landscape



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobyns/19553495/:

Toby NS posted a photo:


Illimani, HIgh Camp - That Bolivian Luna Landscape


Socialism from below.



From http://leninology.blogspot.com/2005/06/socialism-from-below.html:
No hay contenido disponible

pacha



From http://www.michaelmoretti.com/blog/index.html:
No hay contenido disponible

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Illimani - Trudging back down



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobyns/19392440/:

Toby NS posted a photo:


Illimani - Trudging back down


Illimani - Dawn near the summit



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobyns/19392439/:

Toby NS posted a photo:


Illimani - Dawn near the summit


At about 6,100m. Unfortunately of the 3 mountains we attempted, this one eluded me. Just after this photo there was a nasty crevice we had to climb and then a steep ice face (with really bad ice that would shatter in plates when you hit it with an axe or crampon). Anyway, about 50 metres up the ice face I lost all my points and fell (I was being belayed, but still the few foot drop was certainly an interesting feeling!). Needless to say, our highly intense guide decided that it was too difficult and we had to descend. Very disappointing indeed (we had about 200m to go), but in retrospect it was quite an experience in itself.

Justin - my tent mate for 12 days...



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobyns/19392438/:

Toby NS posted a photo:


Justin - my tent mate for 12 days...


The night at high camp was absolutely freezing - given the cold and has we had to get up just before 1am, I basically wore all my climbing gear except harness and crampons etc

Illimani - Crosses



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobyns/19392437/:

Toby NS posted a photo:


Illimani - Crosses


Just near high camp there was a cluster of about five crosses of various people who had died on the climb. These didn�t include the most tragic recent accident which was disoncertingly in the opening paragraph of our climbing book; six Chileans fell only a couple of hundered metres above camp on their return from the summit in 1999. Anyway, it certainly left everyone quite sober and cautious about the climb that night

Illimani - High Camp



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobyns/19392436/:

Toby NS posted a photo:


Illimani - High Camp


Another disclaimer: I don�t really have many good shots of the actual climb as given the speed at which our guide liked to move, the fact that almost all of the climbing was in darkness for improved ice conditions and it was freezing cold (especially at Illimani because the sun rose on the opposite side of the mountain and didn�t hit you until around 9am, which meant that we�d spend about 8 hours climbing and preparing in the cold!) I rarely could take a photo even when the camera chose to work...

Illimani (6,450m or 21,000+) - Sunset from base camp



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobyns/19392435/:

Toby NS posted a photo:


Illimani (6,450m or 21,000+) - Sunset from base camp


carlos alberto montaner: artículos



From http://www.firmaspress.com/:
No hay contenido disponible

bolivia.indymedia.org | Donaciones



From http://bolivia.indymedia.org/es/2005/06/19762.shtml:
help fund independent media in bolivia!

Monday, June 13, 2005

A quick and dirty alternative primer on events in Bolivia



From http://apostatewindbag.blogspot.com/2005/06/quick-and-dirty-alternative-primer-on.html:
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!Cinco dias!



From Act 1 Scene 6:

EEEK! Five days 'til our trip to Bolivia, South America! Despite the dread of being reacquainted with all those creepy crawly things that go bump in the night, I'm... kinda looking forward to it? I actually am. Last time I fell out of my uncle's pickup truck as we were ascending a hill in the wild forest... everyone laughed and said I looked like a "mono" (monkey) as I scrambled back on. Wild horses, unpaved roads, old-fashioned soda factories with the awesomely old-fashioned glass bottles, gunfights on the roofs, rats the size of cats in the barn, the world's absolute best chicha (the one not made from tribal spittle), untame rivers, strangers laughing at my terrible Spanish, tall trees to conquer, family and dogs chasing dinner all around the yard (their dinner, not mine - I'll settle for some arroz)... It's gonna be a blast!


From Act 1 Scene 6 (feed)
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3 Days in Jeep



From Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle:

All right...after saying in the first post that I would put up pictures of Bolivia, I've finally gotten around to it. These photos are from our trip into Bolivia from Northern Chile. We left San Pedro de Atacama for a three day tour in Jeep that ended in southern Bolivia in a town called Uyuni on the edge of the largest salt flat in the world. I picked a few shots to show some of the highlights and mishaps...



Here is the entrance to Bolivia. I think we are already at around 4000 meters. For the entire trip the landscape is what I would imagine mars to be like, and the roads are just ruts that have been established by the Jeeps over years of use. At any given time there may by three or four jeeps all weaving in and out of some seven braided tracks cutting acros the altiplano.



This is one of the more impressive sights that we had along the trip. THis lagoon is at 5000 meters. We spent our first night at a refugio on its coast. During the day the lagoon turns due to a combinaiton of the microorganisms that live in it and the wind agitating the surface. When we woke up the next morning it was calm and the lagoon had a more vlue-green appearance. On top of the amazing color, its filled with flamingos. The guide told us that there are three varieties of flamingos that inhabit it, and that its one of the only places in the world where that happens. He could be full of shit, but its a nice story either way...



It didn't take long before we ran out of gas. The extra tanks were on the roof and our guide pulled out a hose to start funneling it into the Jeep. Bostjan offered to help and told war-stories about how "growing up in Yugoslavia we did this all the time!" He jumps out ofthe Jeep grabs the hose and starts pulling gas down out of the tank.

Appearantly, in Yugoslavia they don't keep their gas reserves on the roof because Bostjan got a mouth full of gas before handing off the hose to our guide to try his luck.

Success. After the gas clamied Bostjan's mouth as its first victim, it struck our guides mouth and eyes! Bostjan steps in to save the day and fill the tank while our guide rinses out his eyes, claming to be totally fine to keep driving....



This is a photo of the not-so-elusive Viscacha. Its like a strange cross-breed between a rabbit, a rodent, and a squirrel. It live in the altiplano and eats whatever you throw at it. They sometimes take on a green tint and bounce up and down these rock faces like spring-loaded mountain goats. They're used to the tourists and come right down from the top of the rock when they hear the Jeeps approaching, looking for some kind of handout.



Local kids from a town on the edge of the salt flat. Its a tiny village and a herd of gringos walking around attracts everyone's attention. We were all hesitant about taking photos at first, but they had obviously seen digital cameras before and were insistant about seeing themselves on the view screen. It was pretty sad and our first exposure to the kids begging in Bolivia. We were to find out that they were in every city, town and village and dealing with them never got any less uncomfortable. I don't like giving handouts and you don't always have spare food handy, so it was pretty hard to know what felt right most of the time. To justify their begging with money or stand by the belief that its better to discourage their begging by not giving. It the end, I don't think not giving does much, as the only other alternative is child labor. And as we saw, the child labor in Bolivia often turns from slling gum on the stret to going to work in the mines pretty quickly.


Part of group after a hike up one of the rock formations we encountered along the way. The terrain wasn't like a desert, as there was not much sand, but rather pure rock. Some times we crossed areas where the rocks were smaller, and some times larger, but always pure rock with little or no vegetation, save for the plants that found a crack in a rock where they could root themselves.


The group playing around on the Salar de Uyuni. In the front is Sarah, with Bostjan and Freddie in the second row, followed by Han, Dino and me in the back.


The far edge of the Salar near the town of Uyuni. You can se how they harvest the salt here to be packaged in the nearby village. The salt miners work every day of the week ankle deep in water shovelling salt into mounds to later be shipped by truck off of the salt flat.


Large parts of the falt were covered by a thin layer of water. It was incredible to be in the middle of it and feel like you were driving across the ocean. Here is bus leaving Uyuni and heading for god-knows-where. I have no idea how the drivers were able to navigate their way across the Salar as thee were no roads and it took a good seven hours to make it to the other side.


From Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle (feed)
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Sunday, June 12, 2005

bolivia.com: 6 de agosto 2003



From http://www.bolivia.com/especiales2003/6_de_agosto/:
No hay contenido disponible

bolivia.com: 6 de agosto 2002



From http://www.bolivia.com/especiales2002/6_de_agosto/:
No hay contenido disponible

boliviawiki



From http://centellas.org/politics/politiddly.html:
No hay contenido disponible

bolivia: library of congress country study



From http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/botoc.html:
very dated information, only goes up to 1989 election

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Lake Titicaca, Bolivia



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/simoncrerar/18671484/:

Simon Crerar posted a photo:


Lake Titicaca, Bolivia


Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/simoncrerar/18671478/:

Simon Crerar posted a photo:


Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia


Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/simoncrerar/18671469/:

Simon Crerar posted a photo:


Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia


Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/simoncrerar/18671463/:

Simon Crerar posted a photo:


Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia


Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/simoncrerar/18671451/:

Simon Crerar posted a photo:


Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia


Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia



From http://www.flickr.com/photos/simoncrerar/18671441/:

Simon Crerar posted a photo:


Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia


Bolivian protests ease as new leader pledges vote - Yahoo! News



From http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050610/wl_nm/bolivia_dc:
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Bolivian leader faces more protests and election demands



From http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N06386632.htm:
Tens of thousands of Indian protesters, miners and students had marched through Bolivian Capital La Paz waving "Nationalize Now" and "The People Demand Nationalization" banners, and vowed to maintain roadblocks causing gasoline and food shortages in the c

Friday, June 10, 2005