Downtown El Alto
It’s really amazing, the ubiquity of Che Guevara in Bolivia. You see his face everywhere, which actually is not too surprising since one of Bolivia’s claims to fame is that it is where Che began his trek throughout Latin America (some of you might be familiar with this from The Motorcycle Diaries, movie and book). I also heard that Che was killed here, but I’m not sure if that is true or not. Anyways, I found the roadside painting below quite interesting. Is Evo Bolivia’s next Che?
Evo Morales, the new "Che"? Roadside in El Alto
I took the next picture at a festival against racism, in La Paz. The poster “Sin duenos ni patrones” is referring to the Guarani indigenous people living in the Chaco. The Guarani want the goverment to grant them rights to their ancestral territory there, and the government wants to give them these rights– this poster is in fact part of a massive public relations campaign financed and executed by the government’s agrarian reform insititute. However, the problem is that these people are currently living on large private estates, the largest of them owned by an American and his family, incidentally. The international community has determined that the Guarani are being held captive against their will, and that they are working in conditions of semi-slavery. So the need to free them from this situation is obviously pretty serious. But when the government came to the land to try to measure it, etc, the owners (including the American) chased them away with gunfire. Check out the garbage that was printed in the New York Times, then read the REAL story, written by a Fulbright scholar studying land conflicts in Bolivia.
"Sin duenos ni patrones": Guarani indigenous peoples living in semi-slavery conditions in the Chaco area of Bolivia
I finally ventured inside the 16th century Church of Saint Francis in La Paz:
Iglesia San Franciso, a view from the inside
The altar in Iglesia San Franciso, really amazing
A few pictures from the pre-Inca archeological site, Tiwanaku. They were throwing a lot of information at me on the tour so I can’t say much about each of the photos here, sorry. However I can tell you that Tiwanaku is a very important spiritual place, all the Aymara go there on Aymara New Year in June, it was possibly the ‘capital’ city of the Inca empire (or pre-Inca empire) at one point, but they archeologists really can’t be sure, partly because the place was destroyed by the Spaniards during the colonial period. It’s too bad, too, becuase apparently the site is enormous, although what I could see was not so impressive. But they say that the largest pyramid in the world exists there, covered by the earth. Since I’ve heard this boast before, in Guatemala, I’m not so quick to believe it. But at the very least, it is an important site and in 2012 there will be a major gathering of all the indigenous pueblos around the continent, at Tiwanaku.
Tiwanaku. These masks were found all over the four walls of a large room.
A close-up of one of the masks.
This would be a lot cooler if I could give some information about the significance about this statue.
This guy is important, I saw him all over the place, including at the airport.
Finally, I got a couple of shots of the Altiplano and the Cordillera Real, the mountain range separating the altiplano from the valleys and lowlands.
The view of Mt. Illimani, from my hotel room window in La Paz.
View of La Paz from above. Altiplano in the background.
Another aerial view of La Paz
Bolivian Altiplano, with the Cordillera Real in the distance.
Today Bolivians are voting in a referendum to decide whether to allow the President and the departmental governors to continue governing till the next normal election cycle. I’ll try to comment on that in my next post. Meanwhile, I’m typing this up from Antigua, Guatemala, in peace with the warm sun, tortillas and avacado. Adios for now!
[...] And now on a lighter note, some photos from BoliviaIt’s really amazing, the ubiquity of Che Guevara in Bolivia. You see his face everywhere, which actually is not too surprising since one of Bolivia’s claims to fame is that it is where Che began his trek throughout Latin America (some … [...]
nice photos!!!!