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Uyuni, Bolivia- South America has become the site of perhaps the world´s most critical battle over the flavor of international commerce and the meaning of cultural identity in an era of rampant globalization. At present, all over the continent, nations are being forced to decide whether to join the “free-trade” tidal wave under the strong arm of GWB and the multinational corps, or to forge an alternative to neo-liberalist “imperialism” by creating regional and hemispheric alliances with which to challenge the USA. Globalization is a given. The question is how to respond to global markets and develop internally while retaining both traditional ways of living and control over national resources. In simpler terms: how to not get screwed by the big boys. The battle is being drawn in virtually every country in South America, causing internal and international conflict. Ecuador, Chili, Colombia, and Peru have all made, or are making, their deals with the US, but not without massive civil dissent and sometimes overt repression.

The other side, firmly and defiantly challenging US hegemony, is being led by the vocal rabble-rousing President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, and the indigenous champion of the Bolivian populace, President Evo Moralis. Together with Cuba, they have formed a trade alliance that they promise will stand proudly and effectively against the US cartel, and provide a vehicle for economic development and global trade independent of blood-sucking foreign investiture and multinational financing (read IMF and World Bank). Chavez is meddling in the affairs and elections of neighboring countries, trying to increase his brand of socialist-democracy throughout the continent. His open support of Ollanta Humala in Peru´s recent presidential election may have actually contributed to Humala´s defeat, as his opponent, Alan Garcia, was able to convincingly portray Humala as a puppet of Chavez. (Or maybe Garcia won because the name “Alan” was painted on virtually every visible space in the whole of Peru; on curbs, homes, trees, mountains; even after hiking hours up above the tree-line I would suddenly encounter a large boulder painted blue with “Alan” in big white letters.) Meanwhile, Evo Moralis is busy nationalizing the major resource industries of Bolivia (e.g. gas and oil) and redistributing vast tracts of farming land to the poor and indigenous campesinos. (more…)

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La Paz, Bolivia- From the tranquil waters of Lake Titicaca to the bustling chaos of La Paz, the transition could hardly be more abrupt. After hours by bus through bare countryside, you are suddenly in a massive city. Red brick and mud block buildings, most half built, stretch for miles. A symphonic car-wreck of noise and movement, people shouting, buses honking, dogs fighting, street vendors carpeting the sidewalk, electric wires dangling, scrapyards and sewage. And that is just El Alto, the shantytown “suburb” that grows like a predatory weed out of the valley and into the high planes surrounding La Paz. And then you look out your bus window, over the edge, into the city which covers the valley like a clay-tiled bowl filled with an Incan god´s salad of bones, flowers, buildings, grease, wool, exhaust, and countless human beings.

I landed in the witches market. Baskets full of stuffed toads with red marble eyes. Piles of dried llama fetuses, said to ward off malevolent spirits. Herbal preparations. Offerings for Pacha Mama (mother earth). Shoulder to shoulder on narrow streets. Great piles of tangerines laid out on blankets. The smell of flesh burning over coals. Everywhere the brilliant colors of darkly tanned and wrinkled old women in traditional dress, guarding little street stands, selling everything imaginable. (more…)

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Cusco, Peru and Copacabana, Bolivia- According to the Incan creation myth, the creator god Viracocha emerged from the waters of Lake Titicaca and created the sun, moon and stars. The sun sent his son, Manco Capac, and the moon sent her daughter, Mamo Ocllo, to the surface of the lake, born from the Sacred Rock of the Isla del Sol, to found the Incan empire in Cusco. The empire spread throughout the Sacred Valley of the Incas and high up into the surrounding mountains. The architectural and astronomical wonder known as Machu Picchu is just one of many stone villages and fortresses found in the sacred valley. At its height in the mid 1500s, before the Spanish arrived, the empire spread from Ecuador to Chile. It’s center was Cusco.

What was the center of Incan culture is now the gringo capital of Peru. And along with the gringos come droves of poor Peruvians, most of Incan descent, trying anyway they can to make a living from the money we seem to carry in endless supply. From high dollar posh hotels and luxury train tours to dirty shoeshine boys and little girls selling finger puppets for pennies, the visiting gringo is inundated with constant persistent requests to buy something. “No gracias” is the gringo mantra, chanted over and over. Some people just print it on their shirts. Cusco has everything. There are Irish pubs, discos, expensive jewelry and art boutiques, shiatsu parlors, bungee-jumping parks, whatever you want, all literally built upon Incan ruins. After the Spaniards sacked the city and killed the inhabitants, they simply built their colonial mansions right on top of the existing Incan stone foundations (Typical Cusco alley with Incan stone foundation shown right). As a symbol of their triumph, they purposely constructed their (quite amazing) churches over previous Incan temples. It is widely believed that the famous lost treasure of the Incas is buried in tunnels underneath the city. (more…)

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La Paz, Bolivia- It’s been weeks since my last post. I skipped through Lima, stopping only long enough to catch a night bus out. It´s smoggy and dirty and surrounded by endless slums built on lifeless desert sand and grit. I didn’t stop to visit the more upscale areas, which I´m sure would have given a different impression. But what I saw on the way in and out was enough. It’s the inverse of most American cities, where the wealthy suburbs sprawl out from an often impoverished core. In Lima, the wealth is concentrated in a few exclusive areas and the poverty just spreads out in all directions forever.

I didn´t like it. So I headed back up into the mountains. Such a contrast. It could only be an act of desperation that would drive so many campesinos from the almost idyllic Andean hillsides to the harsh life (it seems to me) of the Lima “suburbs”. I spent several days working my way through central Peru on local buses crawling over gutted roads, sometimes 10-15 hours a day, just to travel a few hundred kilometers. I felt like I was seeing Peruvian life as it is. No tours, nothing packaged or presented, very few gringos. … and then I landed in Cusco.

But I’m out of time on this drunk snail of an internet connection here in my hostel in La Paz. I have to get up at 5am to ride a mountain bike along “the worlds most dangerous road” in the mountains above La Paz, and then I´m heading off to the jungle for several days. As luck would have it, about a dozen young hip backpackers in the hostel have just decided to have a big party right outside my door. God grant my earplugs strength.

So Cusco will have to wait. And Machu Picchu. And Lake Titicaca and the Island of the Sun. Each of which deserve a full post in themselves. It has been an amazing couple of weeks. And now I`m off for another week of adventure. It´s a big commitment to try to keep up the travelogue. Each post can take hours, depending on the connection and the number of pictures I put up. But I will try to dedicate a day to writing when I return to La Paz in a week. The stories are worth telling.

There are many new pictures in the Peru section of Photos- including the sunrise over Machu Picchu.

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