Articles
Archive for February 2012
Dining at Alasita: A cornucopia of culinary delights
28 February, 2012, Helena Cawell
As a lover of food, I have tried some of the best (and worst) of market stall food from a variety of countries. At best it is delicious and authentic, giving a peek at life behind the tourist façade; at its worst it’s a food poisoning nightmare. My visit to ...
Voices from the fairground
28 February, 2012, Patrick Dowling
A selection of interviews documenting the Alasita fair as lived by pacenos. Name: Teresa Ticona de PizarroAge: 52Occupation: Artisan selling toy cars I have been an artisan at Alasita for 20 years. I keep coming back because I love the idea of buying for the desire of having. Unfortunately, I ...
Nomadic Healing
28 February, 2012, Camilla Swift
Every one of us lives bound by nature. Modern medicine may seem to heal quicker, but natural medicine is still the most pure. It heals slowly but lasts forever! Travellers only usually encounter Bolivia's traditional medicine wares at the Mercado de Hechicería, or the Witches' Market, near Plaza San Francisco ...
Honey, I shrunk a festival
28 February, 2012, Patrick Dowling
You buy small, fake money with life-sized, actual money in hopes that you will become rich? Am I the only one not lost in the irony? Bolivianos! Dólares! Euros!' shouts the street vendor directly in front of me, as similar cries ring throughout the Sopacachi district of La Paz. At ...
Ekeko
28 February, 2012, Mathew Grace
Cast a look into many Bolivian homes, and you'll likely spot a small, moustachioed ceramic figurine called an Ekeko. These jolly-looking statuettes resemble small men in Andean attire with enormous smiles, and they usually bear accessories that represent goods people want to obtain in the coming year. They represent a ...
Scattering seeds: Catholicism and the pachamama
28 February, 2012, Patrick Dowling
Pachamama has provided fertile ground for the growth of Catholicism in Bolivia. Coming from a Catholic high-school background, I thought I'd find plenty of common ground with the people of Bolivia. After all, about 95 percent of Bolivia's population professes the Catholic faith. But 85 percent of Bolivians are of ...
Monthly review: La Casona
28 February, 2012, Robbie Macdonald
Av. Mariscal Santa Cruz, next to Walisuma La Paz, Bolivia The 'working lunch' menu seems to be much more of a common practice here in South America than the other continents. Some countries are starting to be infiltrated by western customs and cutting lunch breaks to an hour or so, ...
The culture of protest
28 February, 2012, Georgiana Keate
The history of protest in Bolivia is an illustrious one – you could even say it is one of the many national symbols of the new Plurinacional state You leave your house and home behind, taking nothing but the clothes you are wearing, your children and a bundle of possessions ...
Nazareth Flores Cabao: A marcher’s story
28 February, 2012, Sharoll Fernadez and Xenia Elsaesser
Nazareth Flores Cabao is the Vice president of CEPIB, Central de pueblos indigenas de Beni. She is of Italoma heritage and comes from Magdalena, a town in Beni near the Brazilian border. She recently arrived in La Paz with the TIPNIS marchers. Here she tells us her story. We began ...
A united front
28 February, 2012, Omari Eccleston-Brown
Bolivia does exist, but it’s a nation divided along invisible lines: East and West; loose borders that separate one ancestral community from the next; and perhaps most strongly, the breach between the tropical lowlands and the cold and blustery highlands. There's a certain legend here that goes "Bolivia doesn't exist". ...