Cochabamba, Bolivia: First Impressions

Bolivia certainly takes its cakes seriously: Like coffee shops in New York, there are bakeries with beautiful cakes underneath the glass on every corner in Cochabamba.  As a lifetime lover of sugar and delicious foods that are bad for me, the cakes were hard not to notice as my mom and I spent our first day in Cochabamba walking around the downtown area.  The exquisite chocolate flakes and the glistening icing kept from me only by a thin layer of glass and refrigerated air called my name until I bought my first piece of happiness on a plate.  

 

The site director for the Amizade program was giving us a brief tour of downtown and we bought me a Bolivian cell phone and visited a guitar shop; known for its handmade in Bolivia classical guitars.  It was difficult not to notice how cheap everything is in Bolivia.  Even the most expensive, masterfully handmade guitar made from the finest woods was only 3,500 Bolivianos or a little over $500 US.  A taxi to anywhere in town is never more than a $1.  A meal for two at the finest restaurants including dessert, drinks, and sides is no more than 70 Bs or about $10 US, however, a perfectly satisfying meal for two can easily be had for less than a $2 US.  While I’m talking about food, it isn’t just the cakes that are delicious: Cochabamba is known as the place to eat in Bolivia and it certainly lives up to its reputation.  Everything from traditional foods like anticucho (cow heart), guinea pigs, pique machhu (steak, sausage, other meats, and vegetables) to exotic foods like sheep testicles and cow tongue (which are both delicious by the way) to Italian food and fried chicken (and Bolivians LOVE fried chicken; there is practically a fried chicken place on every block) is delicious.

Pique Machu: A traditional Bolivian Dish

Cochabamba is a modern city that is far from primitive; there is excellent healthcare, and a 3G network faster than in the US (I can skype consistently on it; in fact most people who have internet use the 3G network because it’s faster and cheaper than what they can get in their homes). However, Bolivia is the poorest country in South America and also has by far the highest population of indigenous people and this is obvious everywhere you look.  While many people dress similar to we do in the US there are a large number of people wearing the traditional clothing.  Many of them sit on the sidewalk and sell agricultural products (by the way, the avacados along with most fruits are huge and delicious; fresh from the Amazon basin only a few hours drive away).  There are a lot of beggars with children, which is really sad.  Clean water is readily available to people who can pay for it, but for those who can’t it is harder to come by.

Photo courtesy of Lauren

My first several days here in Cochabamba I three times went to La Cancha, one of the largest open-air markets in the world.  The market is basically whole city blocks of vendors packed on top of each other selling literally anything you can think of from cleaning supplies to books to pirated movies to fruits and grains of every variety (Bolivia and the surrounding countries have an incredible biodiversity including thousands of kinds of potatoes) to raw meat (even in the market cakes are refrigerated but raw meat never is).  You can wander around in the market for hours never repeating territory and never knowing quite where you are.  Although the locals claim there is some kind of organization to La Cancha, I certainly didn’t figure out as the guy selling human hair and dried baby alpacas was right next to the shoe repairman who was right next to the guy selling cell phones and TVs.

Photo courtesy of Lauren

Photo courtesy of Lauren

Dried Baby Alpacas: Photo courtesy of Lauren

The Raw Meat Section at La Cancha: Photo courtesy of Lauren

Fruit fresh from the Amazon

Human Hair on the right

The complete and total disregard for copyright laws is amusing.  Presumably pirated or smuggled Hollywood movies and popular music complete with packaging like you would buy it with in the US are readily available on every corner, from classics to new releases.  Paying more than 10 Bs or $1.50 for a movie would be absurd.  Copyrighted books from textbooks to novels can be copied and bound in any copy shop for less than 50 Bs or about $7.50.  While legally obtained books are available, for many people these imported products are just too expensive and the only way they can afford to read or study in school is to copy books in the copy shops.  Like china town, designer purses and designer jeans are readily available for cheap and you can choose a brand name to be sewn on (a lot of US clothing companies use Bolivian labor to manufacture their products).   There are a number of restaurants that are obvious rip-offs of US chain restaurants as well.

Driving is complete and utter chaos, but I think that deserves a blog post in itself so keep checking back J. 

Cochabamba is famous for its year-round pleasant climate.  Cochabamba on average gets less than 18 inches of rain a year (comparable to notoriously dry Tuscon, Arizona) and my first week here was blue skies and sunny.  We are now getting record rainstorms like Cochabamba has never seen before, but its still light compared to what we see in Morgantown nearly weekly.
Bolivians are very politically involved.  Seemingly a result of a corrupt government that won't get anything done without protests and strikes.  More on this in another blog post.

Men discussing politics in the Plaza Principal

The Plaza Principal: The Main Plaza in Cochabamba