Week 4: With whom have I spent this past week?

This entry is mostly going to be about last weekend, since after our excursion to Torotoro National Park I mostly just spent this past week working and living life in Cochabamba. Admittedly, the questions I came up with for Weeks 4 and 5 are very much based on the activities I knew I would be doing. What I didn't realize when I came up with this question was how the "who" part really became the most interesting part of our trip to the park. 

Torotoro National Park was not initially on my list of places to visit on this trip to Bolivia, but my Bolivian friends insisted that James and I go. At first I thought Ignacio would come along with James and me, which is why I started mentally preparing for it, but he wasn't able to come. James and I then ended up booking a two-day tour that left from Cochabamba with a group of Bolivian travelers. Most of them came from outside of Cochabamba, so it was really cool to meet people from other cities. There was a couple from La Paz who asked me if I was Bolivian, not because I looked like it, but because of the way I spoke Spanish. They said that they wanted to explore as much of their country as they could before even thinking of exploring the rest of the world. There were three university students from Cochabamba, another couple from Oruro, a guy from La Paz traveling solo, and two girls from Santa Cruz whom James and I were pretty sure were dating (a little harder to tell in a conservative country like Bolivia). One of them had this wonderful energy and contagious laugh, and the other was more stoic and quiet. Finally, we also had our driver Pascual and our tour guide Grober.  

We left Cochabamba early Saturday morning, and our first stop was a colonial town called Tarata. There, we had a delicious breakfast of api con pastel and roamed around. We learned that the place was the hometown of two Bolivian presidents. Grober told us that this wasn't coincidence; only people born in specific places in Bolivia had access to power and could eventually become president. 

The image on the door of our minibus is one of a "sindicato mixto," or a mixed union, called 21 de Noviembre. I'm guessing our driver was a part of this union made up of transport workers who work in various fields.

Check out the doggies and the cacti growing on the roof

The rest of the morning, Pascual took us through mountains and steep paved roads to the town of Torotoro. We had a hearty lunch, a break, and went on our first hike. This hike was along the Vergel Circuit, which involved walking down steps with a steep drop next to them down a canyon, and then walking through the canyon to eventually get to waterfalls. 

Let me say now that I am absolutely not a hiker. I'm not going to say I hate hiking, but it is just not something I seek to do or say I enjoy. I think I must have tripped and fallen off a cliff and died in a past life because I am terrified of descents. I am clumsy even on flat ground, and while going down the narrow steps of the canyon I could not even enjoy the view because I was so scared of losing my footing. Then going back up the stairs after seeing the waterfalls was horrific. Stairs normally suck but we were also thousands and thousands of feet in the air, so I think the altitude made it hard to breathe. (Know that I love pugs so much because I too am an incompetent couch potato with breathing problems.) One of our guides, Victor, had to stay with me, and I felt bad making James stay behind. One of the other girls from Cochabamba also shared in my struggle. Along the way, we met people on the way taking a rest as well. At one point, one of them said, "You're almost there!" and it truly helped. 

Back along the edge of the canyon, we walked along a (thankfully) flat path towards a viewpoint. There, we saw the rest of the group and took this picture. 

The next day, there were two hikes planned, and I ended up only doing one. To be fair, my legs were so sore after the morning one (they only now feel back to normal), and around half the group sat out the second one which involved going into a cave and more ascents and descents. The more energetic girl from Santa Cruz very emphatically declared that she would not be doing that, and I found her the most relatable person ever. The hike that I did go on was on the Ciudad Itas Circuit, which involved a ton of cool rock formations. 

Our tour guide Diego showing us manmade markings in the cave, the red line you see to his left. He said that it might be a camelid like a llama, but the cave markings in Torotoro have gone woefully understudied. 

James and me with our tour guide Victor

James and me in one of the caverns, and below is a fun 360º video taken by one of our guides of our group.

One advantage of being clumsy and constantly needing assistance was the time I got to spend with the tour guides, Diego and Victor. Both were born and raised in Torotoro. Victor said that the first time he made the descent to the waterfalls, he was seven years old. They were so kind and so knowledgeable. It was fun to hear them speaking in Quechua (one of the main indigenous languages commonly spoken in Bolivia), and I got to learn a few words from them too. "Haku" means "Let's go," "Yakuta munani" means "I want water" (ended up saying that one a lot) and "Pachi" means "Thank you." Victor taught me a new way of tying my hiking shoes that would prevent them from getting untied so quickly. Diego told us that he and Victor were part of a union of tour guides, and the day before our tour on July 14, the union celebrated its twenty second birthday. I loved how well they knew the land and how well they could navigate it. I learned that they went on those hikes several times a week, which blew my mind. After this experience, I contented myself knowing that I am very much an ocean and island person, not a mountain person. Even if I am woefully inadequate at going on hikes a mile in the air, there is nothing wrong with that. I can keep my exercise activities to the gym, pool, or dance floor, and I can find ways to enjoy nature without overexerting myself physically. 

In the end, I found myself more fascinated by the people around me than by the landscape, though it really was a marvel. This is unsurprising, considering I have an anthropology degree, after all. For now, I have some more Bolivian cities to explore and people to hang out with. In the meantime, pachi, gracias, thank you for reading. I hope you find some time to be more weirdly invested in the people around you this upcoming week in my honor!