Miss Maps Goes Solo

This town gleams, it has a year round spring like temperature and a rule that all buildings must be white washed once a year.  It sparkles in the sun.  It´s beautiful, sophisticated, full of culture, friendly and safe.  The richer people of Bolivia definitely live here.  So far I´ve had great pasta with vodka and tomato sauce and the most imaginative goats cheese salad I´ve ever eaten.  The salad and 2 glasses of good white wine in a top French restaurant came to about 2.50GBP.  There´s also a lot to do, which is good as I´m here for over a week.

One night I went to a gringo bar and watched City of God, a Brazilian film about the favelas (slums) in Rio, based on a true story.  Such an excellent film, weirdly Guy Ritchie in style.

For the first few days I was pretty much on my own, which prompted a bout of self analysis.  I might post those diary entries later.  As ever, I met people as time went by and ended up having a wonderful day with Hannah and Katalina who I met on the bus journey here, plus Michael and Cristoff who I met in the hostel.

The 5 of us decided to go for a hike.  We got the details of where to go from a travel agency, we would´ve gone with them until we realised it was $25 per person.  That´s a lot for a 5 hour hike but as the guide put it “You´re tourists so you have a lot of money.”  That was the end of him.  Armed with the name of the village to start at and Michael´s GPS, we set off.

The taxi took us to the beginning of a dirt track which led to the village 13km away.  From here we had to grab a lift with one of the trucks heading that way.  This isn´t dangerous.  When buses don´t go somewhere the local trucks and vans become substitute buses, they even have a small set charge.  In fact, hitch hiking in South America is a very common and safe practice.  So anyway, our `bus´ was a big flatbed truck.  We climbed in the back amongst the builders sand and, grinning widely, clung on for dear life as we headed up the mountain road.  The scenery was stunning.  When you´re in it, open air, smelling it and ducking from the passing trees, it becomes so much more special.  4 or 5 locals hopped in and out of the truck as we went and one helpful guy offered to show us the way.  We never really found the actual trail but it didn´t matter.  We had a great walk through a couple of tiny traditional villages.  What a treat to go somewhere other gringo´s don´t.  We spotted an amazing building in the distance it was once a very grand colonial style mansion which is now derelict.  We decided to check it out.  On the way we encountered a pack of dogs who were pretty upset by us being there.  5 small children emerged from what I thought was another derelict building to see what was going on.  Turns out they all live there, their parents had gone to Sucre all day and they had to stay at home to look after the dogs, pigs and chickens!  It´s amazing the lives that different children across the world live, can you imagine that happening to you Dan and Tab?  (Niece and nephew)  Another family were working on the land just in front of the old mansion.  Two little boys were playing at sliding down the hill on two old plastic bottles that had been squashed flat and arranged in a cross shape.  A 19 year old girl and her parents were nearby.  They were so happy to talk to us and let us see the place.  The dad was attaching a wooden bar between the heads of two bulls, while the mum looked on.  They work 3 hours per day to cultivate a patch of land shared by the whole village.  What they can´t grow they trade their crops for in Sucre.  What an interesting encounter.

We had lunch of bread, cheese and sausage down by the river and were joined by a century old woman with no teeth who invited us for tea!  On the way back the village was in full party preperation mode.  A local girl had her 15th birthday, a very big deal in South America.  For a village with very little facilities they certainly had a good sound system.  They offered Michael some of the local brew and even invited us to stay and dance.  How I would´ve loved to do that, but we had to make our way back.  That was definitely a day I´ll never forget.

On Sunday me, Justine, Pippa, Hannah and Katalina went to a local village for the famous market.  Some of the communities around here are known for their weavings.  I´ve become addicted to these gorgeous textiles and am on the look out for one to hang on my office wall.  The market was great, although having my arm constantly grabbed by sellers with arms full of blankets started to wind me up.  I had a serious lesson in bargaining from Katalina, she´s really good at it, much tougher than I am.  Anyway, I never found the right textile for the right prce, there´s still time.

So now I´m nicely settled into my own hotel room here.  I even unpacked my bag and arranged my toiletries on the shelf, that´s a nice feeling.  Katalina and Hannah have left Sucre for La Paz sadly, but not before giving me a beautiful birthday present.  I´d commented on how much I liked Kat´s earing so she gave me the other one!  Really lovely of them.  On my birthday I´m planning to go and see the nearby dinosaur footprints then go out dancing with Pip and Jus.  Valentines day is definitely cancelled.  As long as the Bolivian airline stops striking I should be on my way to Brazil on Sunday.

It’s the little things

Getting your washing back from the laundry is the biggest treat. At home you have maybe 20 outfits, you wash a few bits when you’ve got enough to make it worthwhile. When travelling, you have say 9 items of clothing and you wash the lot when all your outer clothing is visibly dirty and you’re on the verge of going commando. I got my washing back today and marvelled at the whiteness of my socks!

A Minority Within a Minority

There’s an albino indigenous lady in Antigua. Imagine being an albino when you come from a race of entirely dark skinned and black haired people!

I Miss:

Now this list is obviously not for the big stuff. The stuff that makes me really sad: James, family, friends, my work (sad but true).

OK, so I miss:

Cheese that tastes of something. There’s a lot of cheese in Central American food only it’s all processed crap! If anyone fancies sending me a jiffy bag full of stilton I’d be most grateful.

Going to gigs. Infact music generally. Although I love dancing salsa the music drives me insane and the Guatemalan variety even more so. I plug into my MP3 player regularly but I don’t like to be in my hotel room alone without being able to hear my surroundings so 1 ear is always wonky to ensure I still have some normal hearing capacity. It’s not possible to sing at the top of my voice in these communal buildings and I can’t mosh like I do in my bedroom at home because wearing my headphones I’ll look like an I-pod advert, only not as cool.

I miss the adrenalin of music; listening to, dancing to and watching. You get adrenalin travelling but it’s not the goose bump kind.

I miss the CRO BAR!! Of course.

Hmm, can’t think of any more little things that I miss, that’s a good sign.

ATMs

Your bra holds more than just the usual when travelling.

Money in bra at all times ladies!!

During bank opening hours ATMs tend to be guarded by armed security men. Now I’m not saying that none of them are bad but on the whole these guys are my friends. They’re good people to ask if you’re lost or to stealthily stand near while you glare at your Lonely Planet like the vulnerable gringa that you are.

Most ATMs are cleverly located in little 1-man cubicles giving the privacy needed for the bra shuffle. If not, the security guard unwittingly becomes my human shield.

Between the ATM and your hotel is when you’re carrying the most dosh, do it carefully and in daylight.

Guatemala

On Saturday my teaher and I talked about all sorts of profound things.

This may be a little depressing.

In Guatemala 60% of the population is indigenous. If an indigenous lady goes for a job however she has to change her clothes due to discrimination. Having said that there is an indigenous lady in parliament, yay! There are over 20 indigenous languages spoken here.

The main religion is catholocism although they’ve mixed it with their own Mayan beliefs. Abortion is illegal and I’ve driven past many walls painted with pro-life slogans. Like other countries abortion is now underground and dangerous.

Child abuse is rife. A boy of no more than 7 shines shoes in the central park of Antigua. He can’t go home until he’s earnt 15 quetzales (about 1GBP) because his father beats him.

Life for most in Guatemala is to live with parents until married, then be either a housewife or, for the man, the breadwinner. Families are huge (well done catholocism), my teacher has 80 cousins.

Some people (not sure if it’s the government) want to change the name from Guatemala to Guatemaya. The reason being that in Spanish ‘mala’ means bad so there are apparently lots of jokes in other Central American countries about Guate’mala’ (Guata bad) and Guata’peor’ (Guata worse).

I’ve never seen a country with such an amazing landscape or such interesting, diverse people but poverty, domestic abuse, violence and corruption are rife. It actually doesn’t affect tourists all that much so people shouldn’t be scared off.

I hope it improves for the Guatemaltecas.

And…. here’s a picture of a volcano, more pics under the my photos link.

Adios

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