Bolivians, Strong and Proud...

Crossing over the border from Argentina into Bolivia was a truly eye-opening experience. Bolivia is a country of truly amazing natural beauty and scenery unlike any I’ve seen anywhere else in the world, but it is also a country of extreme poverty. I’ve travelled to many developing countries, so this in itself wasn’t a shock, but the process of crossing the border from Argentina really illustrated the differences between the two countries, and made me question how it is possible a line drawn on a map can be so significant in determining the standard of living for the local residents.

Widely considered the poorest country in South America, Bolivia has a large indigenous population. Nearly 60% of the population claim indigenous heritage, with many of these speaking Quechua or Aymara as their mother tongue. While the young people in the cities keep up with modern fashion, most people in the countryside wear traditional clothes and have a strong connection to their heritage. The sense of indigenous identity seems stronger than any place I have ever been. The people are proud, strong and resilient.

To me they appear very different to the Argentinean people, physically and culturally. Argentines are very European in nature, open, warm and affectionate. Argentineans really know how to enjoy their lives, and in general are quite relaxed and carefree. In Argentina I was reminded of the phrase ‘Europeans work to live, whereas Americans live to work’ and I would definitely class Argentineans as European in nature in that sense.

Bolivians, on the other hand, are a hardworking bunch. I guess they have to be, given the poverty inherent in their country. Bolivians seem to lack the effusive warmth and openness of the Argentinean people, but in contrast they seem to have an inner strength that comes with facing years of adversity. They seem to be slower to trust, and tougher than their Argentinean neighbours. That’s not to say that Bolivians are not kind or warm people. On the contrary, they are wonderful hosts, proud of their country and excited to share it with visitors.

While in Tupiza, I went exploring in the town, and found a lovely street market, where I purchased some oranges and got talking to two local ladies. I decided it was a good idea to learn to speak a few phrases in Quechua as well as Spanish, out of respect for the Indigenous people. So I asked the ladies, Isabelle and Angela, to be my teachers. They were absolutely delighted to teach me as many phrases as I needed and more, and had endless patience in practising with me, asking me over and over and over again ‘Iima nalya cashanki?’ (How are you?) so I could practise responding with ‘Wa lechla’ (Fine thanks). After a while, the ladies decided that I had mastered the basics, and so taught me how to say ‘What are you going to buy from us today?’ and ‘Oranges, potatoes, fresh produce’. I forget these now, but I had so much fun calling out to locals passing by, and watching their faces as they saw that a foreigner was sitting at a street stall trying to sell them something, and in their language. Not to boast, but I think I was responsible for more than one purchase that day that otherwise wouldn’t have been made! Isabelle and Angela thought that I was hilarious, and laughed uproariously at my attempts to get the phonetics of Quechua just right… Their joy in my efforts and in my mistakes was catching, and I found myself laughing right along with them.

From my first day here I have been in awe of the strength of the Bolivian people. They live in an incredibly hostile environment, barren, and dry. Most of population live in the altiplano, at over 3km above sea level, where almost nothing grows, including trees and crops, and yet somehow it manages to support them. I found it hard to breathe just walking down the street, but they manage to work, run, play soccer, carry heavy loads, and more… Despite its tropical location, the altitude means that overnight temperatures are often below freezing, with temperatures hitting minus 25 regularly overnight in winter. However, the higher altitude, along with the lack of pollution, means that the summer sun is stronger here than almost any other place on earth, with an average time of 7-8 minutes in the sun enough to burn a local, let alone a little whitey like me!

Bolivia is now a land-locked country, but I was surprised to learn thanks to my guidebook that this wasn’t always the case. Originally Bolivia had a much larger area, including 350km of coastline, but wars with Chile, Paraguay and Brazil over the past hundred or so years have meant that much of the territory that was originally Bolivia is now ruled over by other nations. As I read the rest of the Lonely Planet’s introduction to the history of Bolivia, I could hardly believe that so many disastrous things had happened to the one country. The section read almost like a comedy of errors, except for the fact that it was all true.

Nowhere was the unfairness of history more evident to me than in the city of Potosi. Arriving in the city I was immediately struck by the juxtaposition of the evidence of the rich colonial past and the poverty in the surrounding area. Back in the 1800’s Potosi was one of the world’s richest cities, rivalling London in its opulence and wealth, thanks to large quantities of silver discovered in the surrounding mountains. The Spanish mined the silver dry, using indigenous and African slaves as workers in the mines, and it is said that over 8 million workers met their deaths in the mines.

While this is considered ancient history now, visiting the city today illustrated to me just how unfair the acts of colonial powers in the past were. Spain today is a wealthy, developed nation, but it became so due to the riches it obtained in the past. The silver it extracted from Bolivian mines helped to underwrite the Spanish economy for hundreds of years. The silver of Potosi was stolen from the Bolivian people without compensation, and today when I look at the faces of the rural workers, the farmers, the miners, and the children working in the streets, I can’t help but think about how Bolivia as a country might be different today, had the colonial powers of the past acted with more integrity. I wonder at the fact that the people of Bolivia don’t seem at all bitter about the past. And I understand a lot more, the strength of spirit that keeps these people going.