Aventuras en Bolivia: Parte Uno

I've been in Bolivia for almost a week now as Bryan's field assistant and have had quite an array of experiences...

I arrived last Tuesday at the highest international airport in the world (just outside of La Paz, at ~13,000 ft. ele.) where Bryan was there to greet me. After a small breakfast of mate de coca (local tea made from coca leaves that helps with altitude sickness) and bread, we went out to a few of Bryan's geological field sites. Apparently, the first day for a gringo in the Andes should only include rest and acclimatization, but since Bryan had already been down here for a week and we needed to get started with our fieldwork, I headed out with him. So, for my first day, I ended up hiking (albeit slowly and gasping for oxygen...) around the Eastern Cordilleras of the Andes at around 14,000-15,000 ft. ele., doing recon work with Bryan. Our home-base is in a well-to-do Bolivian family's casa just south of La Paz in a district called Achumani. We're renting a room from them for these 6 weeks, but will be out camping in the field half the time.

Bolivia has a very high percentage of indigenous people compared to other Latin American countries, so most of the people we see around La Paz are Aymara (a culture even older than the Inca) and speak both Aymara and Espanol. Luckily, my rusty Espanol has returned very quickly out of necessity and I can hold conversations with the locals. The streets of La Paz are extremely busy with pedestrians, street markets, stray dogs (that interestingly enough, all look like pure-breds), and tons of minibuses (exactamente the same transportation in Jamaica). It's very hard to walk around La Paz due to the altitude; also, the whole city is basically uphill in any direction, so we're constantly in need of short rests and mate de coca. Whenever a Bolivian sees us winded, they call for "Mate de coca!", it's really a cure-all here and just tastes like an herbal tea.

The Aymara women, both in the city and rural areas, dress in the traditional "chola" ensemble consisting of numerous wide skirts, a blouse, sweater, shawl, and topped with a bowler hat. I don't know what it is with the bowler hats, but they are apparently very fashionable for women! They also sling a hand-woven blanket around their shoulders to carry everything from babies to potatoes on their backs.

Our field areas are in the mountains around the Altiplano at about 13,000-15,000 ft. elevation. Quick geography lesson, the Andes here consist of a very high plain (Altiplano) in the middle, flanked by 2 large mountain ranges, the Cordillera Reals/Eastern Cordilleras to the East (bordering the Amazonian Basin) and the Western Cordilleras to the west (bordering Chile). We're working in some smaller mountains in the middle of the Altiplano.

On the third day here in Bolivia, we didn't waste any time and got to work travelling with our Bolivian geologic field assistant, Nelson, to our first field area, a very rural mountain range near the puebla of Penas. Nelson is Aymara, and speaks both Spanish and Aymara, so we rely on my Spanish to communicate. Nelson explained to the locals in Aymara that we were geologists doing research about the movement of the mountains and studying the rocks, and asked if we could set up a campo in the area. A local farmer was eager to have us set up camp in a resting potato field (the season for growing potatoes is Feb.) where we were surrounded by a few small adobe casas, llamas, cows, sheep, burros, and of course, rocky mountains. Many of the locals came to our campo just to stare at us, they were VERY curious, so I asked Nelson if they'd ever seen gringos here, and lo and behold-- never had they seen gringos before! That explained their extreme interest in us! We camped there for the last 4 days, trekking up a tall mountain everyday (more than 1,000 vertical feet) to do research (stratographic columns, rock samples, measuring paleocurrents, etc.) The trek was worth it every time!! The views were incredible-- unlike any in my life!! In one direction, the sapphire blue of Lago Titicaca, in the other, the glacial-topped mountains of the Cordillera Reals... I still don't know which view I prefer.

In our second night camping, Nelson said that it was an Bolivian holiday where all the pueblas in the altiplano have huge fires to celebrate San Juan de Bautista, and that when we'd get up in the morning the sky would be filled with clouds. We went to sleep with the view of fires burning on the vast altiplano... That night we awoke to the sound of crashing thunder and it began to hail, when daylight approached, we peeked out our tent and were greeted with a very snowy scene. Nelson wasn't kidding when he said the sky would be filled with clouds... After asking around, we found out it only snows here 3-5 times a year, and that it almost never snows in June! We were freezing, but when the equatorial sun was overhead, the snow melted pretty quickly.

We returned last night to the casa in Achumani, and took some much-needed showers. Today we're taking one of our few days off, tomorrow we'll begin research in an area called La Valle de la Luna (The Valley of the Moon) for the rest of the week, returning to Penas for 5 more days of camping & research next week.

Thoughts upon leaving the country...

I leave Monday for South America, where I'll be Bryan's research assistant in the Andes until August. Bryan's been down there for a week now, while I've been working at the wildlife center wrapping things up until my leave of absence. I feel like this is another transition in my life, and I'm having mixed feelings that I needed to get out.

First off, it's going to be strange leaving my job for so long-- I'm both worried and excited about what changes are going to occur at the wildlife center in my absence. We're getting a new Executive Director, new enclosures are being built, new interns and volunteers will be trained; there will be new stories of animal rescues and successful releases that I won't be a part of. How much will change while I'm gone? I'm also worried because I love my job, the animals, and the people I work with, but the grant that I'm paid under ends only 2 months after I get back. I've been writing grants like crazy to help fund the Wildlife Education Program and haven't heard back from most of them, so I'm in this weird stage where I don't know if my job will be funded for very long when I return.

I'm also extremely, immensely, tremendously EXCITED about living with a Bolivian family in South America and going on new adventures with Bryan while doing geologic mapping work in the Andes. I've been looking forward to living and working in a developing country once again and learning about new cultures ever since I returned from the Peace Corps (even though this will be for a much shorter duration).

In the last 2 days my job has especially touched my heart ...

Yesterday, I gave presentations at an elementary school where they ran a recycling drive all year, collected the money ($300!) and had to vote on a charity to donate the money to. They students voted for CWC! So, I was there at their end-of-the year assembly to accept a big check for the center and give presentations to the students about co-existing with wildlife. The students even gave me little drawings and letters! Very cute!!

In the animal department, when I came into work today, there was a Guadalupe Fur Seal with a whole mess of fishing line caught around his neck in our hospital. Cindy rescued him last night out in Malibu at Point Dume. The fishing line is so tight around his neck that its already gone through his fur, skin, and blubber but, he was saved just in time! Here's a couple pictures I took:

The other animal that moved me ... a little fawn found running around the 101 freeway. His twin was found dead on the freeway, his mother possibly also dead, while he barely survived. I guess animal control had to shut down the freeway yesterday evening to catch this baby. Deer are so scared of people (since we are their predators) that he was running away from animal control and as a result has a lot of injuries from the his flight. He was finally caught and brought to us, bleeding and scared. We have him in our sensitive species room and will be putting him with other fawns soon.

Both animals have just been through so much, a lot of pain and stress it's days like this when I feel like my work at the wildlife center really is making a difference helping to give wildlife a second chance, trying to offset the negative impact people have on the environment, and educating children about nature and what they can do to help save our planet.

I will miss the center while I'm gone, but man, am I excited to travel again!