Happy Birthday Potosí!

The 10th of November is an important day in Potosí. Why, you might ask? I asked that same question around the office and around town. The best answer I received was that it was date that Potosí (as a Province) was created. Other answers I received varied from it being Potosí´s independence day to “I don’t know, but go watch the parade!”. Either way, I have never witnessed celebrations or spirit quite like this.

All week long, various marching bands were marching up and down the streets of Potosi practicing for the big day. Here’s a picture outside my office window! Ha ha! (Too bad I can’t convey a sound clip across this posting! Some of the tubas and big drums would make the windows rattle!) Things then got into full swing after work on the 9th. The parades through the big square in town (aptly named the “Plaza 10 de Noviembre”) had already started. It was complete with news reporters taping from the top of vehicles and loud speakers set up in from of the government buildings making various announcements about the history or giving info about the people walking by in the parade at the time. They even set up lights on the Cerro Rico, to highlight its silhouette in the night.


And of course, since it was a special time, there were constant fireworks / firecrackers / dynamite going off! Every time I heard the telltale “schwoofff” sound, I would plug by ears for the expectant subsequent 3 loud BANGS! Despite those efforts, my ears were still ringing by the time I headed to bed.

The next day the city was basically shut down. The “big” parade from yesterday paled in comparison to the festivities today! I stood crammed into the crowd, listening to the booming voice over the loud speakers and the marching bands, as the procession went by. Although I only watched for about 2 hours, the parade had started hours earlier and continued well into dusk. People from all the surrounding areas and towns had arrived to participate in the big day. If it weren’t for that reason, I wouldn’t have thought there was anyone left to actually watch!

As usual, I enjoyed watching the spectators as much as the event itself. Boys climbed the trees to get better views….

These guys managed to hide up on top of this tree for about an hour before the police guys came and ordered them down....
… or climbed onto window ledges….

….Even ladies perched themselves on small ledges hanging on to gratings to get a view over the crowds.

And, with every festival, the street vendors were out with a vengence. There was everything from women selling boiled corn….…. kids selling freshly made ice cream, frozen yogurt, and other forms of “helados”…..

… women offering a variety of goods from her basket or from inside the cloth tied to her back…..

…. And various carts set up selling everything from meat to puffed snacks…

The marching bands were interesting, all in their own uniforms.

Maybe the most disturbing, were the few female marching bands. The outfits they had to wear were incredible – especially considered most people are covered head to toe all day long! I was impressed that none of them tripped since they had to wear high heels (sometimes stilettos!) while marching and playing their instruments.

There were about 5 groups between each marching band. These groups varied from law enforcement (army, police, security guards, etc.)….


…. groups of miners…..
…. groups of “campesiños”…..
…. School groups…..
….. and everything else from business to politicians.

I was able to catch a glimpse of the newest political figure in Bolivia, the first Indigenous President since Bolivia’s independence: Evo Morales. He was decorated with flowers circling his neck and doing his duty of clapping and waving at everyone as they went by, flanked by other (important?) Bolivian officials.

Of course, with any big event like this, there was lots of law enforcement out to keep the peace, including this guy who was running to get this woman to move her fruit stand out of the way…
And still, even when I was going to bed, I could hear the marching bands cruising the streets, not ready to give up the celebrations.

I think Canada has a few things to learn about how to celebrate!

Getting to know Potosí

Okay, I´ve been able to post a few new photos of Potosí.

First, here´s a quick shot of one of the ¨markets¨ that the bus went by during the night trip from La Paz....


As expected, I figured a few of the expectation I had when I left Canada would be changing when I got here. Living arrangements have turned out to be one of them. The original plan was to live with a family. Unfortunately, that isn´t going to happen for a few reasons. The first is that unless families are very well off, they typically only have enough space for the family they already have! Second, there was a volunteer here previously that was living with a family but ended up moving out after only a month due to ¨problems¨. I think the problems were associated with space (like I said before) and also that she was vegetarian and had a hard time fitting in with the family.

None the less, the plan for my time here is:
- Next two weeks: hanging out in a guesthouse
- After that: moving in with another volunteer from Calgary, Canada into an apartment that is currently getting fixed up.

I was initially really upset about not living with a family here. But, on the other side, I´ll be learning all sorts of other stuff about life in Bolivia including buying my food in the markets, cooking with those ingredients, etc. And besides, I´m getting quite a lot of exposure to the culture so far with work and wandering around town!

So, here is a view from my room in the guesthouse:


Th mountain in the background is named Cerro Rico, which means Rich Mountain. It is said that is used to be twice as big 500 years ago, before the colonization by the Spanish. When the Spanish came, Potosí turned into the richest city in the world through the mining of this mountain. Unfortunately, all the silver they took out of the mountain was sent back to Spain at the expense of many indiginous lives that were lost from being forced to work in the mountain. Although that isn´t the case now, the city has a glow from that time period. As an example, here is a picture of the room I have breakfast in every morning in my budget ¨guesthouse¨ before I head to work....


Most of the buildings here are made out of stone. And, the walls can me up to a meter thick! Although it makes it really beautiful, it also retains the chill from the night. So, I´ll be sporting my wooly socks and fleeces despite that I can get a sunburn in 30 minutes at 10am due to the high altitude!

Also, the area that the guesthouse is in, is considered a ¨tourist zone¨. So, we have the priviledge of signs on our street like the one below that says: ¨Prohibited from urinating or throwing (garbage)¨. You might think this is funny, but the other day when I was waiting to cross the street, I almost got pee-ed on by a boy when I wasn´t watching that I who/what I was standing beside!


But, enough of that fun stuff. Here´s another view from the guesthouse of the Andes, taken yesterday during a thunderstorm. I´ve noticed a pattern of thunderstorms happening every second day, but yesterday´s was bad enough for the power to go out to all of Potosí for the better part of the afternoon / evening. The locals didn´t blink before lighting up candles in each room. I guess this isn´t that uncommon.

Today was a clear day and I got out to wander the streets. Most streets are all one lane wide, and cobbled if they aren´t dirt. I´m not exactly sure how everyone knows which way they are allowed to drive on them since they they are all ¨one-way¨ streets. As for intersection rules, it basically follows that whoever honks first upon coming up to an intersection has right-of-way. Although it seems a little bizarre, it does infact seem to work rather well!!!

Here are a few pictures from my wanderings around Potosí the last couple days. You can see the age of the buildlings dating back to the colonization period (and maybe also see why I find it amazing just wandering around through these streets!).

And here, a bit of the same thing, but with a building in a bit of disrepair....

You can see that most of the streets are on a hill. Since I now feel like I have acclimatized to the altitude (i.e. have my appetite back and I´m not constantly nauseous, can actually sleep, and don´t feel totally woozy!), I know that taking the streets slow and being out of breath at the same time is normal!

Anyway, tonnes more to write, but I must get back to studying Spanish (of which, on average I figure I´m learning about 50 new words a day... talk about overload!).