It is better than it looks: I was feeling very sick, and these people were very kind to me. They gave me tea from coca leaves, actually I felt better and made it to La Paz. From there I went to Oruro, mining town:
That first image of the concrete slider always stays with me, don't know why. I never saw something like that. Down at the mine, I met "El Tio". He's the patron of the miners, so to speak, the Daemon of that mine. Drop some candies or any goodies to earn some favour and protection.
Moving on, here is the Altiplano in all its might and beauty
(Sorry its a bit tilted, I was on the bus...)
On a totally different angle, politics and (the misery of) the people are always close to each other.. The mural on the left says: "With Plan Condor they call us Communists; with Plan Dignity they call us Narcotraffiquers; and after 9/11 we are called Terrorists". This presidential candidate accuses the US of meddling too much in Bolivian affairs, and indeed he would be right..
Arriving in Cochabamba, more typical scenes such as those people sleeping on the street or the very colourful market - in another market (in Potosi) you can see the coca leaves sold like grain or tea... So did the bombings of coca plantations change anything in the traditions of these people? I guess not.
And a question for thinking: If people from a country want to use cocaine made from coca leaves, even if their country has outlawed it, and that creates a social problem, isn't that a problem of that particular state and people? Certainly Bolivians could do more to avoid selling coca to abroad, or to crack down on cocaine production inland, but to pay with the sovereignty of their state, have their coca peasants bombed by foreign order, isn't that too much? Sadly, this is a recurrent story between Latin America countries and the United States.
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