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The low down from La Paz
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Seth Familian
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Nov 26, 2001 16:50 PST
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(My apologies in advance for this e-mail's regression into pure
travelogue with little 'insight' or deep profound cultural analysis, but
hey! sometimes you just have to stop stepping back and share the amazing
experiences and adventures that come with travel! So here goes...)
Hey there!
Since I last wrote not so very long ago, I've been biking down huge
mountain roads, marveling at 1,200 year old trees in first growth
rainforest, chasing after anacondas and aligators in the Pampas, and
enduring the craziness that is La Paz, Bolivia. So whew! Where do I
begin??? How 'bout from the beginning? :)
After heading back to La Paz from Coroico (that lush gem of a town
perched atop rolling jungle hills that overlook the whole Cordillera
Real range of the Andes) in a tiny collectivo up one of the craziest
roads I've ever seen (it's a rough dirt tract that ascends 3,600 meters
(over 10,000 feet) in less than 40k), I decided hey! it would be pretty
cool to ride down this road on a bike! And so I did.
Riding (or flying, really) on a mountain bike down what one
international organization has called the most dangerous road in the
world is actually one of the safest ways to descend this fearsome
stretch of highway, as bike riders tend to have far more control than
the huge trucks and buses that run in both directions on the road's
single lane. And what's more, it's incredibly fun and exciting. The
same 10,000 foot descent that had, about a week ago, taken me three days
to trek via foot, took a bit under five hours on bike, and covered the
same incredible journey through many ecosystems and breathtaking
landscape. And though the mountains rushed into a bit of a blur at
times, I still had time to stop and stare in awe at the thin whispy
hundred foot waterfalls that cascaded onto the road and then down 1,000
meters below into the lush Choro valley.
I spent a few days in Coroico to give my body a rest, and then I hopped
on a bus to commence a nearly 20 hour bus journey to Rurrembaque,
Bolivia's hub town for exploring its jungles and pampas region. The bus
ride was no laughing matter, as it wasn't a smooth 20 hours on nicely
paved road but rather a downright hardcore rough and tumble ride on
nothing but bumpy dirt roads. Combine that with the annoyingly frequent
stops to fix the bus (at one point we stopped because, as the driver
said, 'we need to replace the engine') and the fact that most of the
drive took place in the middle of the night, when one would presumably
want to get sleep, and you can probably start to imagine what kind of
ride it was.
But despite the ridiculousness that was getting to Rurrenbaque, actually
getting there made up for all the inconvenience. And our lack of sleep
didn't stop us from jumping on a boat only hours after we hopped off the
bus and heading up the Rio Tuichi to spend two days in pristine tropical
jungle.
What can I say about the jungle, other than that it's one of the most
fascinating and incredible places I've ever been, and with each step I
took, I further damned the McDonalds' of the world for destroying such
places for one year of grazing land. Why is the jungle so fascinating?
It's an overwhelming combination of size (we saw one tree that was, as
mentioned before, 1,200 years old and so huge around the base of its
trunk that it would take more than 20 people to surround it without
breaking hands), lushness (I've never seen deeper, more resillient and
enchanting shades of green in my life), astounding variety (it's not
like a pine forest with, well, all pines, but rather a totally robust
place filled with almost countless species of flora), and equally
astounding importance (in our two days of wandering through the jungle,
our guide pointed out the most incredible species of plants, such as
trees that produced rubber, curarie (an important paralytic toxin used
as a foundation for anestheisiology, bark that could cure rhumetism,
malaria, or even impotence, and a single vine, called una de gato (cat's
claw), that not only helped fight AIDS and cancer, but also provided
perfectly potable water when cut, and could regrow from only a small
piece planted in the ground). It was really that astounding, and all I
can say is that if you ever have the chance to go to a primary (first
growth) tropical rainforest, GO!! GO NOW!!
From the jungle we headed back to Rurrenbaque and then into the Pampas,
or the savannah-like grassland that serves as a home for species as
diverse as giant birds (storks, eagles, blue jays), even bigger guinea
pigs, and some pretty scary things too like aligators, caymans (meaner,
bigger aligators), pirana, and anacondas. What made the Pampas so
crazy, though, wasn't simply seeing literally hundreds of each of these
animals (except for the anaconda--more on that later), but the WAY we
saw everything: in an oversized canoe totally akin to the Jungle Cruise
boat you'd find at disneyland. And the more I thought about it,
everything seemed like that Jungle Boat Cruise; the animals looked
almost mechanical as they assumed these perfect poses and then slowly
moved as we passed by, the river was the exact same color, texture,
size, and character (i.e. its windiness) as it is on the ride, and the
dense banks of the river even looked just like Walt Disney had made them
in Anaheim. But there was one crucial difference: this was all real!!!
Which made the experience all the more surreal. Don't get me wrong:
taking a five minute ride down Disneyland's jungle boat just can't
replace three days in the Pampas, but it was pretty odd to see the
similarity between the two.
Like the jungle, the pampas is equally robust in its diversity of
wildlife and its sheer ability to inspire awe at every turn in the river
or with every step on the grassland. On our first day, our boat stopped
by a bank of seemingly meaningless trees, but when we stopped and waited
for about 30 seconds, nearly a hundred tiny spider monkeys popped out
from behind the branches and cocked their heads curiously at us. The
curiousity quickly gave way to a feeding rampage when we soon produced
peeled bananas for them, and before we knew it spider monkeys were
deftly eating out of our hands, their movements so quick and precise
that it was often hard to catch them.
That night we realized how truly immense the aligator population is on
the pampas, as we took a night boatride and shined our flashlights
towards the river's banks, surprised by the eerily numerous appearence
of pairs of small orange eyes (of aligators) reflected in the light. It
was especially confidence-inspiring to find four such pairs of eyes
right by our campsite--one of which belonged to 'Pedro' apparently the
'mascot' of the camp (translation: our guides weren't the most eco-savvy
bunch in the world and liked to feed the aligators that hung out by the
site, which then made the aligators dependent on leftovers from the
campsite and increasingly unable to fend for themselves in the pampas.
Yeah eco-responsiblilty!).
Perhaps the highlight of the whole trip was trekking for a few hours
across the seemingly endless grassland of the pampas towards a small
lake where anacondas were known to live. Before we knew it, our guide
had produced a 10-foot long anaconda and then proceded to place it on
each of us for the all too important photo op. I must admit that having
a giant anaconda stretched across my shoulders and wrapped around my
neck was one of the more uncomfortable experiences of my life, but it
was still pretty damn incredible! (And yes, I do have the photo to
prove it!!)
I'm realizing that this e-mail is becoming ridiculously long, so I'll
cut things short and just say that my time in the Pampas and the Jungle
was some of the most incredible I've spent in all of South America so
far, and my seemingly endless words only begin to describe how floored I
was by each place. I'm now in La Paz where life continues in its usual
bustle, only interrupted at times by the occasional street protest and
tear gas infusion (one of which I actually got caught in about a week
and a half ago--but luckily got away from pretty quickly), and in a few
days I'm off to the vast salt plains of Uyuni, supposedly THE most
beautiful place in Bolivia (though from what I've experienced over the
past week it'll be pretty hard to top--but I'll keep you posted!).
So do give yourself a pat on the back for making it this far in the
e-mail, and if you get a chance, let me know what's up in your
world--I'm always curious to know! I hope you're all doing well and
I'll be in touch once I've ventured through Uyuni!!
take care,
Seth
p.s. Sorry about the lack of photos thus far in my travels; fast
internet access in South America is an oxymororn. I have devised a
plan, though, so sit tight and I promise at least some photos are to
come very very soon!!! :)
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