Oh Bolivia....

So I thought it would be a good idear to write a little bit about Bolivia. No, it is not an Eastern European country. You may be thinking of Bulgaria. Bolivia is a landlocked, South American country. It borders Peru to the west, Brazil to the north/east, and Paraguay, Argentina, and Chile to the south. That means lots of nearby countries to visit! Yay! I am a little bummed about it's landlocked status. What's this California baby to do!?! Those damn Chileans! I personally blame Pepe for this ;)

Bolivia is probably best known for it's high altitude and is home to the world's highest capital city, La Paz (~12,000 ft) and the world's highest navigable (not sure exactly what that means) and silliest named lake, Lago Titicaca. It has been called the Tibet of the America's for it's remoteness and altitude. It is probably more recently known for it's 'radical' president, Evo Morales, and his stance on the controversial coca industry. Coca is the raw plant material from which cocaine is made. You should take a minute to check out the links I've put on here and read some good articles on Evo and the whole coca issue.

Bolivia was once part of the mighty Incan empire and still has a huge population of indigenous peoples (over 60%). In addition to Spanish, there are three official indigenous languages! I was reading over a brief introduction to the Quechua language (materials sent from the Peace Corps.) and you could say I'm a little bit freaked out! But I guess I'll worry about that when I get there.

Bolivia is the one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere and has a long history of political upheaval. From reading my Lonely Planet (and I know my Lonely Planet should not be thought of as the authoritative guide to the history of Bolivia, but it's convenient) it sounds like Bolivia has had some really bad luck and has basically been dumped on for the most part of recent history.

So it's gonna be crazy!It's going to be a big change, but I can't wait! And hopefully I can do some good...

Cochabamba Chaos...

Alright just a week till I begin this little adventure. Perfect timing too...apparently there have been some pretty violent protests in Cochabamba, Bolivia. This is where I'm scheduled to be in about 10 days! Leftist Evo supporters have been protesting, calling for the resignation of the conservative governor of Cochabamba. It started out peacefully, but got pretty outta hand when protesters tried to storm city haul causing a violent response from police. Tear gas canisters were flying... fires were set. At least one person has died and many others were injured. Evo sent in the military and more police and it appears that things have settled down. However, Evo supporters have vowed to keep up protests until the governor resigns. I guess the situation was bad enough to evacuate the all the Peace Corp Volunteers (PCV's) living within the city.

So it's a big mystery how this is going to affect our training group. We are supposed to spend the first three months living and training in Cochabamba. Hopefully things will cool off by the time we arrive... or this situation could throw a big ol' monkey wrench into our plans.

It's an unfortunate situation. However, I am not personally very worried about it. I don't plan on picking up a machete and joining the protests or anything. People have the right to protest and should when they are not happy with their leaders. It' s just unfortunate it had to escalate into violence. This is a very critical time in the history of Bolivia and call me crazy, but I'm actually pretty excited about witnessing these changes (albeit from a safe distance!).