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La Paz – La Cumbre – Coroico – La Paz, Bolivia
A week ago, I had no idea what The Road of Death was. Upon hearing …
Newer: Day 181: Try Standing in My Shoe →
La Paz – Uyuni – La Paz, Bolivia
So the whole point of coming to Bolivia was to visit Salar de Uyuni, the biggest salt flat …
Day 180: Library Pictures
La Paz – Uyuni, Bolivia
Woke up with aching body and my left side totally sore from the fall. I packed up my backpack and brought my dirty clothes to a laundromat service. This was my second time having my laundry done for me in my half a year of travelling. It’s just so cheap here (1kg for 1 dollar), it’s hard to resist. Besides, I wouldn’t have time to get them to dry in time for my night bus to Uyuni if I were to do it myself.
The plan was to just hang around in La Paz until the 7pm bus left for Uyuni. Our psycho guide, Chelo, hit me up on Facebook and offered to show us around town. Ben, Nat and I went to Mayhem’s biking office to pick up our free Death Road T-shirt and CD of our photos. Chelo brought us strolling around the neighbourhood, pointing different things out to us like: man-nipples, Guy Fawkes’ mask look-a-like, Saltenas, Theodore Dreyfus, etc.
About Theodore Dreyfus… he’s a 22-year-old British kid who plunged off Death Road a few years ago. Since his death, local biking companies had set aside some funds to buy an ambulance, train their guides on emergency response, and set up barriers on certain parts of the Death Road.
On our way back to the hostel, Ben, Nat and I bumped into the Coca Museum. Though small, it’s jam-packed with information. I guess I did learn a thing or two. Well, at least, I now know that the Coca leaves that I chewed and drank its tea are the same source that people made cocaine from. Probably a common knowledge, but somehow I didn’t know.
Coca has been an identity and way of life of a lot of culture in South America, for both health and spiritual purposes. The history is deeply rooted and is apparent in this 800-year-old oral poem of the Legend of Coca:
“Guard its leaves with love. And when you feel pain in your heart, hunger in your flesh and darkness in your mind, lift it to your mouth. You will find love for your pain, nourishment for your body and light for your mind.”The poem also foretold about the abuse that Westerner would have on Coca when they started extracting cocaine from it:
“If your oppressor arrives from the north, the white conqueror, the gold seeker, when he touches it he will find only poison for his body and madness for the mind.”