High Life

I coasted into El Alto, where La Paz's airport is, on Tuesday morning and rode in a taxi with my coworkers/cointerns down to the La Paz city centre. It was a blur of dizzying streets filled with old cars and buses and kids on their way to school. The air was crisp and cool making the surrounding snowy mountaintops clearly visible. Remember in kindergarten when we learned that people south of the equator walk upside down and that their seasons are messed up? Well it's true, and even more so for La Paz where the temperature varies between 18 and -6 degrees celsius on a daily basis. Due to the fact that it is situated on a mountiantop, it doesn't really get much of a summer. It snowed last night in El Alto. I was thrilled...

Yesterday was the first day I could manage any amount of walking around and so I went to visit the FONCRESOL head office with some of the other interns. 2 people will be stationed at the La Paz office, I will be at FONCRESOL’s office in Sucre with another intern, and 3 interns will be working with different microfinance organizations in La Paz. The executive director of FONCRESOL is out of town and so we are not going to get down and dirty until Monday and then sometime early next week I will travel to Sucre, most likely by bus for 16 hours. Awesome! Sarcasm aside, I can't wait for Sucre's milder, more temperate climate.

While on my way to the FONCRESOL office I saw this mural (seen above) for the MAS party, the party of current President Evo Morales, who was elected in 2006 as Bolivia’s first indigenous President. Morales gained notoriety serving as the leader of the cocalero movement, a union of coca leaf farmers who oppose America's 'War on Drugs', which calls for the eradication of coca production. Coca leaves are used for spiritual and traditional purposes by people of the Andean region and international food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies purchase them for various licit uses. [I have been using coca leaves in tea form for the purposes avoiding altitude sickness, which I failed at miserably. The first two days here I felt fine aside from being tired, but then yesterday morning I woke up feeling as though my head was in a vice. I am also short of breath. This morning I ran out of breath after rummaging through my suitcase to find warm socks.] The eradication of coca farming would leave many Bolivians with no income or valuable assets. Morales is a strong supporter of social movements involving the rights of the majority indigenous population and as a result he is not a big hit with wealthy Bolivians. Owners of capital are not pleased with the reforms he is pushing forward in his new constitution as they involve the redistribution of land and resources back to the campesinos (subsistence farmers). The majority of Morales’ supporters live in rural areas and in and around La Paz- the rest of the country is divided. Some of the resource rich eastern states are making efforts to seek autonomy and the state of Chuquisaca fights continually to make Sucre the official capital city.

Even though La Paz's climate isn't really my cup of coca tea, I am happy and excited to be here. Last night some of my fellow interns and I discovered a funky, socially aware, candlelit cafe on an old colonial street playing the likes of Café Tacuba and Buena Vista Social Club and I felt at home. This weekend we are headed off to Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, and we are going to stay a night on Isla del Sol- the alleged birthplace of several revered Incan entities. After that I'm done with all this high business...