Jayne in Bolivia

Last May my wife, Jayne, volunteered to go to teach English in Bolivia. I originally wrote this primer on the country so she could send to her friends. She survived, save for a multitude of bedbug bites. I have had a number of friends ask for a copy, so I will now post it here.

Jayne’s Trip to Bolivia

Jayne is almost ready to head off for a month’s teaching in Rurrenbaque, Bolivia. Since Bolivia is not really on most peoples’ radar screen, I thought I would provide some insight into her impending trip. One more thing, Jayne says nobody is allowed to send this to her mother until she gets back as she thinks Jayne is going with friends to a nice upscale resort in a quaint touristy urban centre and not alone in a remote jungle village.

Bolivia, or officially, the Plurinational (I didn’t even know this was a word as it sounds more like something found in the restrooms of the UN) State of Bolivia is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by seemingly every country in South America. Well, at least it’s bordered by Brazil to the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina to the south, Chile to the southwest, and Peru to the west.



How I imagine one of the UN's urinals to look. In my UN building there would be one of these for each world leader!! I know that I would be the first in line to use the one modelled after Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister. This one obviously is an older model.




She Was Not Ammused

It needs to be said: Bolivia is just one of those places you never really think about. When Jayne says that she is off to Bolivia some people did not even know the country existed and others guessed that it was in Africa or Asia or Central America. Last week I read an article in the New York Times and now I think I understand why this lack of Bolivia’s existence is so.

The story goes that in 1867, the British ambassador to Bolivia got on the wrong side of the country’s dictator, Mariano Melgarejo. It seems the good ambassador refused a glass of a fermented maize drink called chichi. This was to be a toast to the dictator’s favorite mistress. Opting for Victorian British deportment and diplomatic compromise the staid ambassador chose instead a glass of cocoa. Pissing off a dictator is never really a good idea under even the best of circumstances, but when one does that and slights his best mistress at the same time extreme measures may just come into play.

 Incensed and seeking retribution, Melgarejo forced the ambassador to drink the entire bowl of chocolate. He next tied the ambassador onto the back of a donkey, facing backwards, and then paraded him three times around La Paz’s main square. He then sent him packing to London. I’m thinking at this point that this may just be the origin of the phrase “ass backwards”, but this is entirely my own speculation.

Back in London the humiliated ambassador related his story to Queen Victoria and she was not amused. Not at all! Her Majesty ordered the Royal Navy to bombard the Bolivian capital, La Paz.  Her military advisors produced a map of South America and delicately pointed out that La Paz lay far inland, well beyond the reach of even the most powerful British guns. Unfazed, Victoria simply marked the offending country with an X and proclaimed “Bolivia does not exist”.

Thus ignored in Commonwealth circles and due to circumstances both inside and outside of Bolivia, the country has become somewhat of the doormat to South America. Since that time, poor little Bolivia has lost about half its territory. The root causes of Bolivia’s, at least partial, erasure from the map has been its curse of valuable resources: rubber, oil, and guano. Everyone wanted a piece of the resources and Bolivia gets stomped. Guano, incidentally, is the excrement of birds or bats and while this doesn’t appear too desirable a resource today guano was the most important source of nitrates for gunpowder and other explosives up until just before World War I.


Bolivia Must Have Really Big Cereal Boxes

The present Bolivian population is estimated at 10 million. The main language spoken is Spanish, although 36 other indigenous languages also have official language status. I have no idea how they could ever fit all those languages onto a box of Corn Flakes. It’s sometimes hard for me to read the English ingredients and instructions on labels with just two official languages. Either they must use really tiny print or use really big boxes.

Bolivia Has Lots of Weeds and Creatures and Things

Bolivia's has an amazing biodiversity due in part to variable altitudes, ranging from 90 to 6,542 meters above sea level. Bolivia has 32 ecological regions, 199 ecosystems, over 200,000 species of plants, 1,200 species of fern, 1,500 species of liverworts and moss, and at least 800 species of fungus. Bolivia is considered the place of origin for such species as peppers and chilli peppers (I think this fact alone should automatically elevate the stature of Bolivia around the world), the peanut, the bean, the yuca or cassava, and several species of palm. Bolivia also naturally produces over 4,000 kinds of potato. In a just world Ireland would have a national Bolivia day holiday.

Furthermore, Bolivia has more than 2,900 animal species, including 398 mammals, over 1,400 birds (70% of all birds known in the world), 204 amphibians, 277 reptiles, and 635 fish (all freshwater, of course). In addition, there are more than 3,000 types of butterfly.

Bolivia Cuisine is Probably Salty and Batteries Are Probably Cheap

Southwest Bolivia is home to the world's largest salt flat, about 10,000 square kilometres at an elevation of 3,656 meters (11,995 ft) above mean sea level. It is covered by a few meters of salt crust floating on a brine base, which leaves it almost absolutely flat. It varies less than one meter in height over the entire area.  

It is estimated that Bolivia has 5.4 million cubic tonnes of lithium which represents 50% to 70% of world reserves. This light metal is used to make high-capacity batteries used in iPads and iPhones and electric cars and such. The government so far has resisted destroying this unique natural landscape and has not allowed large scale mining of the lithium to meet the increasing world demand for us to make a couple more unnecessary cell phone calls and send a few more trivial text messages each day.

Exciting Sports

Bolivia has a highly developed sporting program. One of the most popular sporting events is wrestling. Bolivian wrestling is not like the phony North American choreographed event.  Bolivian wrestlers are highly skilled professional athletes. Words cannot describe the beauty, grace, and finely honed skills of these world class athletes. You just have to watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz8ES8Z3Y48

High in La Paz

 Jayne will be landing at the La Paz Airport, the highest in the world at an elevation of roughly 13,325 feet. To put this in perspective, Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, is 12,972 feet. Not surprisingly, La Paz is also the highest capital city in the world. To counteract the effects of altitude sickness due to the thin air, all the hotels serve coca tea. Coca should not be confused with cocoa which is the dried and fermented seed which serves as the basis of chocolate. Coca is best known throughout the world for its alkaloids from which cocaine is derived. Undoubtedly the tea will be a bit tepid as water boils at 88 °C in La Paz but then again, after a coca tea or two who is going to care?

A Scenic Drive Down a Historic Highway

After an overnight stay in La Paz, Jayne will head to Rurrenabaque, a small town of about 14,000 north of La Paz. Locals commonly refer to the town by its shortened nickname, "Rurre".

The town is reached by bus from La Paz, an 18 hour ride down the North Yungas Road (410 km) or by a one hour flight.

The North Yungas Road (more commonly known as the Road of Death or Death Road or Death Highway) is legendary for its extreme danger and spectacular scenery. It is internationally recognized as "world's most dangerous road". Two to three hundred travellers are killed on this highway yearly and the roadside is marked by thousands of crosses showing the location of fatalities. Because of the extreme drop-offs of up to 2,000 feet, its single-lane width (much of the road no wider than 10 ft) and lack of any guard rails, the road is extremely dangerous. The usual natural hazards of rain, fog, landslides, flash floods, etc., just add to the excitement.

 The local road rules specify that the downhill driver never has the right of way and must move to the outer edge of the road. This forces faster vehicles to stop so that passing can be negotiated safely (in theory, of course). Also, vehicles drive on the left, as opposed to the right, as on any other road in Bolivia. This gives a left hand drive vehicle's driver a better view over his outside wheel, making passing safer (in theory, of course). Jayne decided that she would fly.

The road itself was built in the 1930s during the Chaco War by Paraguayan prisoners.

Bolivia and Paraguay Go Postal

The Chaco War (1932–1935) was fought between Bolivia and Paraguay over control of the northern part of the Gran Chaco, a flat, hot, waterless plain, which was incorrectly thought to be rich in oil. The war between the two poorest countries in South America was the bloodiest military conflict fought in the continent during the 20th century.

The dispute started when Paraguay issued a set of three stamps in 1924. They had a map of Paraguay as the design and the almost the entire word of Paraguay was spread over the Chaco region. This was followed by a 1927 Paraguayan issue of a map showing the entire north of the country as being Chaco Paraguayo.

Of course, this type of postal confrontation could not be tolerated lying down and Bolivia responded decisively in 1928 with a stamp showing a map of Bolivia with an area clearly named Chaco Boliviano. To further bring their point across, three more stamps with the same map were issued in 1930.

A philatelist’s arms race was now in order and Paraguay responded with a bigger and badder set of five stamps issued in 1932. The map on these stamps is again labelled Chaco Paraguayo and no further stress the point each stamp carried the phrase "Ha sido, es y sera", or in English "Has been, is, and will be".

Not to be outdone, Bolivia issued two even larger sets of stamps in 1935. The first set, consisting of 14 stamps, each with an identical design, shows a map of Bolivia on which is marked Chaco Boliviano. The second set was for airmail postage, and again the main design feature of these stamps is a map of Bolivia, and the only regional name to appear is the Chaco Boliviano.

Postage stamp diplomacy was obviously failing so the two countries resorted to the time-tried traditional measures of open warfare and after 100,000 deaths, Paraguay wiped its feet on the doormat that is Bolivia and took control of three quarters of the disputed territory.

Rurrenabaque and San Miguel

Rurrenabaque is a small town, not much bigger than Olds, Alberta (where we live). About 8,000 people live in the town proper and another 6,000 in the surrounding communities. Rurrenabaque lies on the east bank of the Beni River, a tributary of the Amazon. Rurrenabaque is the starting point for many popular tours to the jungle.

Rurrenabaque and the Beni River

The village of San Miguel

The jungle is of course, the Amazon Rainforest. Jayne will be living in the jungle village of San Miguel del Bala. The village of about 40 is assessable only by an hour boat ride upriver by motorized dugouts. The community runs the San Miguel del Bala Eco-Lodge and she will be teaching the local guides English. She will also be teaching alone. She does not have electricity or phone service. As she will be sleeping alone in a hut in the jungle quite a ways from the kitchen area and a few miles away from the village itself the villagers will escort her back to her room as “the jungle is not safe at night”.

Interesting Local Inhabitants

Jayne loves animals and nature and in the jungle village she will have the opportunity to see and experience some of the flora and fauna of the world’s largest rainforest. I will introduce to you a few of them.

Interesting Friendly Insects That Want To Meet You

The woman that is teaching at the village right now has been introduced to a few hundred of the local insects. As such she has offered Jayne the advice not to stay in hut number 1 as there is an infestation of bedbugs. My guess is that Jayne will heed these words of wisdom and not meet these fascinating creatures, but not to worry there are many other interesting local insects around. (Note: It seems that bedbugs can't count as the huts other than number 1 were also partying spots for these little guys.)

Phoneutria, commonly known as the Brazilian wandering spider or banana spider appears in the Guinness World Records 2012 as the world's most venomous spider. Phoneutria, by the way, is Greek for "Murderess".  These beautiful spiders can grow to 4 or 5 inches in length. They are called wandering spiders because they wander the jungle floor at night, rather than going to the bother of making a web. During the day they hide inside banana plants (hence their other name) or hide in dark and moist places in or near human dwellings. Things like shoes and clothing or packsacks are said to be especially appealing.

The local species of this spider is widely considered the most venomous. Its venom contains a potent neurotoxin that causes loss of muscle control and breathing, resulting in paralysis and eventual asphyxiation. In addition, the venom causes intense pain and inflammation. That sounds to me as bad enough but the venom of the spider can cause priapism (really big erections) in humans. Erections resulting from the bite are said to be uncomfortable and can last for many hours and lead to impotence if one survives. I think this may be why all the teachers going to Bolivia are women.

Interesting and Adventurous Fish

While there are piranhas and other fish with big teeth in the river it is some of the smaller ones that are most interesting. Vandellia cirrhosa, the Candiru, is a species of parasitic pencil catfish native to the Amazon Basin. This species can grow to a length of about 7 inches and is infamous for entering the urethra of humans who are urinating under water, probably mistaking the urine stream for expelled water exiting the gills of fish. Notice they are almost transparent and very hard to see.

Their normal hosts are other fish to which they attach themselves to the aortal arteries from within the gill chamber and ingest the blood of the host. Barbs on the spine keep them in place. One would hope that it is the small candiru that try to swim up the urethras and not the larger 7 inch varieties. Now if one was first bitten by the wandering spider and then went to the river perhaps one of the larger candiru … Sorry, it’s just too nasty to further contemplate.

Happy Looking Reptiles 

The black caiman is one of the largest reptiles in the world. It is the largest predator in the Amazon basin and the largest member of the alligator family. Adult black caimans are 10–14 feet in length, with some old ones larger than 16 feet. Unconfirmed sources report that the black caiman can grow to 20 feet or more. Their teeth are designed to grab but not rip, so they generally try to swallow their food whole after drowning their pitiless prey.

The Green Anaconda is a large, non-venomous snake and one of the largest snakes in the world reaching up to 22 feet long and over 200 pounds in weight. Reports of anacondas 35–40 feet or even longer exist.

Primarily nocturnal, anacondas tend to spend most of their life in or around water. Because of their large size, they are rather slow and sluggish when traveling on land, but in water they are as graceful as synchronized swimmers. They tend to float atop the surface of the water with the snout barely poking out above the surface. When prey passes by, or stops to drink, (or puts their hand outside the boat?), a hungry anaconda will snatch it with its jaws (without eating or swallowing it) and coil around it with its body. The snake will then constrict until it has successfully suffocated the prey. Prey can be anything they can manage to overpower, including fish, birds, people sized mammals, or other reptiles such as caiman.

Cute Interesting Mammals

While there are pink river dolphins in the river and they are kind of cute, the cutest animal is undoubtedly the jaguar. Panthera onca is one big cat, the third-largest after the tiger and the lion. Dense rainforest is its preferred habitat. It also really likes water and enjoys swimming.

The jaguar is largely a solitary, opportunistic, stalk-and-ambush predator at the top of the food chain. This graceful cat will walk absolutely silent and slowly down forest paths. It will listen and stalk unsuspecting prey before suddenly and violently rushing and ambushing their pitiful prey.

The jaguar usually attacks from a target's blind spot and this cat's ambushing abilities are considered, by both indigenous people and field researchers, to have no equal in the animal kingdom.  The prey is probably dead before it is even aware there is a jaguar in the neighbourhood.

The jaguar has an exceptionally powerful bite, twice the power of a lion. This allows it to employ an unusual killing method; it bites directly through the skull of the prey between the ears to deliver a fatal puncture to the brain. It has been reported that "an individual jaguar can drag a 360 kg (800 lb) bull 8 m (25 ft) in its jaws and pulverize the heaviest bones".

Interesting and Colourful Amphibians

 Poison dart frogs (formerly called poison arrow frogs) are not venomous, but poisonous; venomous animals use their toxins to kill their prey. I for one was happy to learn that. The frog's skin is densely coated in alkaloid poison, which prevents nerves from transmitting impulses, leaving the muscles in an inactive state of contraction. Chickens and dogs have died from contact with a paper towel on which a frog had walked.

The Golden Poison Dart Frog is estimated to contain about one milligram of this poison, enough to kill about 10,000 mice or between 10 and 20 humans, or two African bull elephants, whichever comes along first.

To make a poison dart you carefully expose the frog to the heat of a fire, and the frog exudes small amounts of poisonous fluid. The tips of arrows and darts are soaked in the fluid, and keep their deadly effect for over two years.

 

 

Since Jayne will have access neither to phone nor internet for the next month we will have to wait until June to hear of her adventures in Bolivia. In the meantime, I hope this primer on the country is of interest. Doug