Traveling Mercies

I dedicate this to the Sucre posse-
May we never forget to leave home



I consider myself an experienced traveler, I dare say I am even good at it. I have my passport number memorized. I advocate to all who will listen to please sign up for sky miles. I dress nicely (either a skirt or a dress) refusing the safari vest/quick dry pants/hiking shoes tourist uniform. I try to stay off the Gringo trail and use any travel guide other than the Lonely Planet. And, most of all - I do my homework; I watch and read as much as I can before I arrive in a country so I am informed. So. Bolivia, what are you doing to me? I love you, but your system is absurd. These last three weeks have almost killed me.

Bolivia, this is what you have taught me:
Paying for a plane ticket does not guarantee your reservation, you must confirm it in the following two ways:
1. Bolivar allows you to call in, but you cannot call from just any call center. The telephone number must match the telephone service, ie - TIGO phone = TIGO line
Even having a native spanish speaker with you, albeit Catalan, does not ensure success
2. If you are flying TAM, you must physically go to their office. When I asked them why you can´t do it online, they just repeated that you must come to their office. Note that going to the airport is pointless, only the military desk is open, the internationl branch is located in Plaza Constitucion.

Never buy from a travel company in the US. If so, you risk owning a ticket that used a system to find the cheapest available tickets. While logical, they do not like this at TAM. If this happens to you, you will show up to confirm your flight only to be told you have to buy another ticket entirely because your first one is void. As of April 30, TAM does not work with AeroSur. You will recieve no prior notice to inform you of this (Practice your travel vocabulary, all the conversations will be held in Spanish)

Before buying a second ticket, go immediately to skype and call customer service for a refund. Do not get angry at the nice man in India, because of the distance, the echo allows you to hear how rude you are being. Although, continue to fight like its your money, even if your university is paying for the ticket and the new price works out to a better cost ($3 margin)

After all that, when the former-president sells off the airline to cut a World Bank deal, your best best option is still the military airline TAM.

Never take Dorado buses, they are infamous for drunk driving.
Furthermore, three days before a bus trip, don't read newspapers or glance at headlines - the automobile accident pictures are not censored

Try everything to reserve a ¨bus cama¨or ¨¨semicama¨ for long trips, when the Bolivar rep says they have none available, send your friend to another company to scout out the competition. When found, leave the counter and immediately book reservie it. If you don´t know the last names of your new-found traveling posse, make them up

Save money for the national tax, otherwise you can´t get out

If you hear fireworks during the day, it is a protest - find out who is striking and make alternative transportation plans

Maps are not that important, use graffiti as landmarks - its more interesting. If you are in Cochabamba, you will receive a political education - this is high class work, they use soundbites like neoliberalism

When in doubt, just use skype. It never gets old telling the customer service representative that you cannot give a number (in case you are disconnected) because you are calling from abroad

You must bring your own lock even if you pay $4 and your only option is to stay at the normally priced $2 local hostel. Yet, this won't ensure that there will the appropriate number of beds for 6 people (located in separate rooms)or that that a random Bolivian man will take the bed reserved for the driver.




Any tour company with the world "solidarity" in their logo can be trusted to guide you to Toro Toro, land of the dinosaurs




Do what you must to access the news, particularly if it is for the first time in 2 months. (Adding just the right amount of tension to the chord be stretching it across the room until taut is the trick)



Having an official despedida does not mean you won't be so determined to come back you will fly while sick (they can´t stop you from boarding if you just tell them No, you cannot go see the airport doctor who is working at gate one)



You need the month of June to get a 6 day tourist visa:



-Start by reserving a minimum of 6 days to accumulate all the paperwork, since every service is decentralized, it works out to be about a day for each task (printing forms, making copies, having color photos made)
-You will need the patience for one walking tour of Cochabamba to discover there is no longer a Paraguayan consolate in CBB and therefore the online information is wrong
- A fluent Spanish speaker is convenient for calling the Embassy to confirm credit card information is standard or with a 7 number saga to find the actual location of a Paraguayan State representative
- If you try to work on your visa during the morning in Cochabamba, walk to your destination - this will ensure you will miss the traffic caused by the standard protest, but allow you to still see the marcha.
- When the riot police pass you, don't stare!
- To be safe, change your ¨intention of travel¨ from the Americas Social Forum to generic tourism
- block off more than enough days in La Paz, you must arrive before Independence Day and any holiday
- Don´t finish the argument with the employees, let them tell you to re-do your paperwork by hand, even though everyone knows its more convenient to use the typed version
-Having a flexible schedule, such as no real job or kids, is more convenient when you are forced to take 2 mornings off to finalize the process
- Finally... never make a political statement or offer statistics when going through this process for the first time. They don't care that Arizona is being sued by the United States government or that between 1980-1986 (the height of the dirty wars in Latin America) only 341 people received legal entry into the US from the 30, 000 who applied




If it is your first trip, and you didn't know you would need a lock in the rainforest, strategically place items (books, bumper stickers, indigenous weaving) to show that your are on the side of the people



20 hours on a bus with 5 am arrivals is worth it if you see The White City and one white lamb

Finally, when your Bolivian dad literally blesses you with the Sign of the Cross in the airport, add your own prayer for Traveling Mercies-

La Paz vs. YGC

It is just too fun, I can´t give up posting personal emails. They just seem to be a more dynamic way to mirror life here.


Dear Michael,
I did not forget the 4.30 deadline. I am in La Paz to get my visa for
Paraguay so after I picked it up at 3.30 I immediately got a taxi back to
where I stored my bags. In an attempt to be as efficient as possible and
on time for our meeting, I asked the driver if he could wait and take me
to my hotel, he said no because there were marchas (a protest) and so the
streets were blocked. I tried again with another taxi only to arrive and discover that the ¨internet¨ advertised is one computer in the lobby. I would skype you
from here but I there computer is behind the desk, so there is no privacy. We could just IM, which would be quite humours because it looks like I work here. Ironic, considering while I type this email there ithe real employee is behind me using a typewriter.

Let me know if we can reschedule. I am heading out after this to look for an
internet cafe. I apologize for the delay.

Ali

We Would Have Met

Subject: We Would Have Met
From: Ali Boyd
Date: July 28, 2010 12:13:20 AM EDT
To: Dean Chahim

Dear Dean,
We would have met Sunday in a tiny pueblo with only one phone. I would have been standing next to the plaza, in between the tourist office and the replica of a dinosaur. We would have not even mentioned the dinosaur, because, it was of course normal. (This is Toro Toro, famous for its prolific dinosaur footprints). I would have seen you first because I was facing the exit from the main road as I waited. I met Claudia when she asked me, without an introduction, if I had been into the cave yet. I would have told you, as I told her, that yes we went the day before. After formal introductions, we would talk logistics - where we work, where we live, where we stayed in Toro Toro, what time we were leaving. I would have told the same antecodoate about waking up in a sketchy hostal, 5 of us sharing 3 beds, and finding another man in the bed reserved for our driver, Ricardo.

We could have laughed about the absurdity of a $5 room and the stranger we did not pay for, and then left to go talk Bolivian politics. I could ask you if you saw the abandoned houses flanking the Santa Cruz road. Our conversation could have played out effortlessly. "Did you read the El Diario article about the police forcefully evicting the squatters? The pictures were so intense! It looked like a war zone, with all the tear gas and riot gear! What do you think about squatters rights? The Landless Workers' Movement?"

But, we did not meet Sunday. In your place, I met your Engineers Without Borders posse and a friendly girl named Claudia. Maybe one day we can line up time zones and I won't have to explain that we have yet to meet, frente a frente, that we have only worked for Beyond Good Intentions. This "six degrees theory" is starting to seem like a joke -

Until then, we will continue sharing the Latin America we love so much,
Ali

To: dgourdin@uchicago.edu / Subject: Visas

Yet another email. They seem to be the most effective way to show the tension between real life and politics:

Subject: Visas
From: aliboyd@mac.com
Date: July 17, 2010 11:06:25 PM EDT
To: dgourdin@uchicago.edu

They are 135, approximately the same amount it is for Bolivians to enter the US. Though its a little different when you are the poorest country in South America and the American government is convinced your life goal is to fly legally into a country and then never return. From Rio, it is about a 5 day trip one way via bus and/or train.

Your only option would be to fly or meet me in Paraguay (Asuncion on the 11th) but I think would push your Chicago schedule too far. Also, that is another Visa. Maybe you should just change your citizenship ... The tickets are running at about $800. [Because] we have no infrastructure here thanks to extreme poverty and no real commercial airlines thanks to former President Goni who sold the airlines to cut a World Bank deal. Even though he fled after The Gas Wars for the sanctuary of the US, there are only 3 commercial airlines, one of which is military.

I would still say come. I am convinced if I could show you this version of the Global South you would be permanently recruited from Africa. Did I mention the Bolivian VP is a sociologist?"

ATM vs. Anarchy

One of my favorite emails sent to my mother while trying to live in Bolivia:

Subject: ATM

Tried it again. I even went to my favorite ATM in the city - the machine conveniently next to la Universidad San Simón and placed above the anarchy graffiti, instructing us to "destroy and rebuild" ...
I thought since I was trying to fight The Man but still use The Man, it would show a little grace.
Alas, nada... hypocrisy is transparent.

¡Bienvenidos a Cochabamba!

Note: I sent this as an email because I am behind on my blogging. I am still trying to publish posts from traveling in southern Africa on study abroad with Furman. But, I need to get this up, so here it is:

I promised myself I would never do an update email. I have a blog, after all. Except when your blogging as if you are still in Africa when you are very much in Bolivia. Besides, I am using a keyboard where 9 1/2 of the keys have labels taped to them. It is just too tempting...

I am in Cochabamba. Thanks to skype. Before you read any further, please go make a skype account. It is a life necessity. My flight left almost 2 hours late from Miami so in addition to listening to a two hiker´s litany of every outdoor vacation they have taken, their new gear, and the family that just ¨let them go¨I missed my flight to Cochabamba. I had to buy a visa upon arrival, 135 USD. My first taste of the progressive government of Evo Morales. He mirrored US immigration policy and consequently made American entry into the country just as expensive and complicated as we make our frontera. I was told I could fly standby at 7 pm that night, 12 hours from then. I called my school in Cochabamba and informed them I was not on the flight that should be arriving in a few minutes. The phone cut out just in time for me to hear them say go to another airline. Oh, ok. Not as an experienced traveler as I thought I was.

So, after buying 2 bottles of water to combat the altitude, (La Paz is the highest capital in the world) I went and stored my luggage. I learned that in SFO - I could lap that tiny airport free of my bag. Realizing I couldn't work the pay phone, I went to the internet cafe and called the school followed by a call to my mom. I booked a flight for 9.30 that morning and then went to get my bags back out of storage. Try conjugating verbs while clearly affected by the altitude. I could barely think in English. I called my mom back and asked her to please call Cochabamba, I couldn't miss my next flight and the cell phone number I was given wasn't working.

Round two. I go to the gate, confidant because I just bought a plane ticket in Bolivia. I was promptly told to turn around, I had to pay the national tax -paid it, went through. Not hard, I will just wait until they line up and fall in the back. So, I am sitting in my gate, just sitting there. My head hurts too much to read and then they announce my full name. I go the man and try to give him my plane ticket. No, we are not boarding, he needs me to follow him. I am led outside, onto The tarmac and into a back room. Surely, it cant be this sketchy hours into the country. My dad is going to be worried. So, what now? A bribe? Questioning? They searched my bag and saw the amount of political books I was importing? They ask if I have any gas in my bag? No, no gas. I am not a terrorist. I am coming to your country to learn extreme activism, remember? Aren't you the people who stage a coup every 8 months? I finally show them my shaving cream nicely tucked under and beside books, they are after all, books about Bolivia and public interest lawyers, not exactly threatening.

I am on the plane not worrying that I have no ride and no way of contacting the school once I arrive. I am traveling much looser than I would have liked. The 30 minute flight takes us over the Andes. I mark myself as the tourist when I get my camera out. I couldn't resist the cliche tourist photo.  Then, I realize this flight is going to both Cochabamba and Sucre. 2nd touristy act. I get out my guide book and open the map to see which city is first. I get off in the right one. In Cochabamba I grab my bag from the 13 that are circling and sit down. Do I have enough nerve to roll with all my luggage, between the crowd of men blocking the telephones? No. I will just wait; they are all watching the world cup, these are serious fans. I spot gringos, stare them down, they keep going. Finally, the director arrives to take me to the school. My mom called from SC and left a message on their voice mail. She's legit; instead of panicking she uses Skype to set up a carpool for me.

I check in and leave to go meet my home stay family. They are a retired couple who live in a nice apartment building. They don't seem to reflect the same frequency in which I want to discuss politics,  but love to talk about family, the medical alert dog my brother has for his diabetes and how much I like to read. They send me out the next night with their 23 year-old nephew and instructions to only speak in Spanish. He doesn't seem to have an affinity for politics either.

Just in case I get scared of a life with no politics, I know that Jesus is always watching. He stands outside my bedroom window. Personally, I think he wishes the Cochabambinos were a little more creative, though he is taller here, they still copied him from Brazil. 

So, I am here. Cochabamba: home of the Water Wars and the first successful fight against a multinational corporation attempting to privatize a life necessity. I can attend language school anywhere, so I came for this city - for a politicized environment.  I am here to learn Spanish and sophisticated social movements (after a strict warning from the school´s director not to become involved in politics. I can look, but not touch. No really, I can get deported -we learned that in South Africa.) 

Moral of my narration - go abroad. Each and every time you have a chance, go south. Save the West for when you are old, with a Volvo and a mortgage. I promise, you will never be bored -

I suggest using this map from Information is Beautiful as a guide