It Can't Be All Bad!

Hello dear readers, friends and curious fellow travellers. It has been a long time since our last article was published, more than 5 months already. As you can imagine, many things has happened: for example, breaking our tablet and losing part of our data. Such as 3 ready articles for this blog. So bad, people – we almost cried!

But don't worry: after learning South American lesson n. 1 (read it here), we took a deep breath, tried to fight against “Monster Technology” supported by our beloved travel dinosaur and, in the end, partly re-wrote the articles.

The next episode will talk about Bolivia, the fifth State we visited during our trip in the continent. A country that is, at the moment, unfortunately present in the news because of its “creative” President Morales.

It won't be easy for us, however, to write about Bolivia. The month we have spent in the country left us with conflicting feelings, wonderful memories and many unanswered questions. A journey through an incredible territory, in one of the highest spot in the world, but mainly broken into two: poor forgotten neighbourhoods or wealthy cities. Deserted and cold highlands or green lush Amazonas forests. Over exploited touristic attractions or undiscovered gems of beauty.

Yes, this is Bolivia and much more. That´s why we divided our article in two-separated parts as well, showing the bad and the good of our journey through these Andean communities. Maybe not the most “politically correct” decision to take but still reflecting our state of mind.

Be aware of the fact that we cannot generalise our experience to the entire country, this is just our partial and humble opinion. And we´re glad to share it with you: leave us a comment, don't be shy. In any language you can!

And don´t forget to read until the end, you will find an amazing photographic surprise.

It Can't Be All Bad!

Bolivia is, since 2004, a plurinational state after its constitution has been modified and the capital moved from the historical Sucre to the more commercial La Paz.

Our route, unfortunately, didn't allow us to visit Bolivia in its entirety. We had to skip the Northern side (also because the “Bolivian Altiplano winter” was following us, check our previous article), belonging to the Amazonas and the Eastern side, characterized by lower altitudes, maximum 400 Mt, and warmer climate. Many of the national trades are made there, in Santa Cruz.

The first impression that comes up to your eyes, strolling around the Altiplano region, is its poverty. A poor area, so poor that sometimes it feels like a direct attack to your conscience. A poverty that you cannot escape because is a presence at every corner, full of trash and strayed dogs. But a region with a lot of dignity, that is trying to lift up its head and reaching a better general life condition.

For everyone, for the people. This is what President Evo Morales is always saying, his main propaganda. Mixing communism and socialism, like if he would shuffle some random cards. He needs the folks to exist, like every politicians: he needs the power to keep going with his businesses. Rumours say that he is one of the biggest coca dealers of the country.

Juan Evo Morales Ayma is an indigenous, born in an Aymara family of farmers and became the first ever indigenous president of whole Bolivian history. He started at the bottom, being a local representative of the campesinos, the rural coca leaves producers (that, we remind you, is a legal activity). He slowly climbed the ladder of power, gaining his respect through a diplomatic fight against American attempts to eradicate the coca production, defended as part of the Andean culture. He reached so many people and earned so much trust, to get even to the top of the country

He fights for the rights of his voters, he says, and this worked for three consecutive elections. But probably politics doesn't age like wine, becoming better older it gets. And in 2016, Morales asked to the people, with a referendum created ad hoc, if it was a good choice to candidate once more or not.

And the people voted "No", they don't want him. And what did he do? Changed the constitution, forced the Federal Court to ignore a law and used the power at UN to be eligible again, for the fourth time, against the will of the people. Like every autocrat would do (as Vivanco and Pappier write here on the NY Times), in exchange of a useless progress: subsidies to the lungs-sick miners and isolated huge new roads through empty mountains.

Those mountains which are probably the main resource of Bolivia, so full of minerals to bring Potosí, centre of the silver extraction, to be as rich as Paris in the 17th century. There is a legend that says that, with all the silver extracted so far, a bridge between Bolivia and Spain could be easily built over the Ocean.

On the other hand, the present tells another story: that richness is gone, replaced by many issues like under age employment, chronicle lungs diseases suffered by the workers and always less silver to find, the mines are practically empty. They are digging so intensively and so deep into the rocks that the mountains have a high risk of collapse.

These mountains which are one of the only basic source of income for the Andean communities, surrounded by several peaks at 6.500 Mt and living at an average altitude of more than 3.000 Mt, where only quinoa's cultivation and raise of alpacas are profitable.

Communities that have to deal with the idea to feel generally robbed. The sea from the Chileans, the silver from the Spaniards, the lithium from the Chinese, the respect from the policemen... corrupted until the bones. And now, freedom from their own President?

And we started wondering: can it be all so bad? We had so many expectations about Bolivia, one of the most famous travel destinations worldwide. Have we been only unlucky or we just took the wrong path through the country?

Once we thought to get disappointed, the wind changed and we got the best out of our experience. Despite political troubles and internal conflicts, there are several reasons to fall in love with Bolivia: one of all it´s the people, protagonist of our next article.

Keep on reading and Risk Curiosity