After spending a long period in the andean altitude, going down back to the amazon basin is an emotion, not matter if the climate becomes extremely hot and humid. Santa Cruz de la Sierra is located in the middle of the internal Bolivian trades, but also to and from other neighboring Latin American countries (Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina). No surprise that Santa Cruz, without being a city with intense history, is now the economic capital of Bolivia and the final goal of intense internal migration, driven by the search for work. Santa Cruz is already a frontier town in the east direction, because the Brazilian giant is closed and because it shares a strip of land with Paraguay called the Chaco: a sort of Latin American savannah, a sparsely populated and semi-arid area, turning into the Pantanal at the border, thanks to the influx of water from the Paraguay River and tributaries.
This territory is crossed by the oriental express train, a steel serpent that daily connects Santa Cruz to Quijarro, Bolivia’s last piece of land before Brazil.
Cochabamba and Villa Tunari
We listen for hours to the music that comes from the depths of the jungle: all this cosmos of lush greenery, mysterious animals and craftsmen of nature breathe in unison, incessantly. At the edge of this fabulous world lies Villa Tunari. Crossing point between the Andes and the Amazon Basin, between the brown and the green world. It does not surprise that in the pan-amazonian culture the green takes so many nuances, that is identified with different words in the indigenous languages. Over the Chapare river, where the chaotic progress launched its challenge to nature, there is still not a clear winner, but losing such a wealth of energy, culture and harmony would be an unforgivable crime.
And Cochabamba is watching us in disbelief, in its eternal spring above the misty amazon, proud of its fights that made it an example in the world for having firmly established the right to water as a common good.
Potosi the rich and buen vivir
A long way between La Paz and Potosi, the map deceives: they are more than ten hours by bus through the wildest Bolivian Andean plateau. “I am Potosi, the rich”… Thanks to the largest silver mine in the world, this city has experienced an incredible colonial splendor, in large part still visible because since the hunger for silver is decreased, the time stopped in Potosi. The city is now a fossil of a glittering past, a gem set among the peaks that, given the exaggerated altitude of the Andean plateau, are reduced to mere hills, bare and colorful. The people are friendly and gladly tell the secrets of Potosi: its quiet, its festivals, the hidden beauty, the characters who lived there and the countless numbers of miners who have left their lives chasing the ephemeral wealth in the bowels of the Cerro Rico, in the den of the devil.
It applies well to Potosi the concept of Bolivian buen vivir, a series of propositions and recipes married by the Bolivian people, at least in words, with the vision to ensure a future of consensus and sustainable progress, in harmony with the mother earth and respecting the cultural specificities of Bolivia, a vast and diverse country stretching from the Andes to the Amazon, with a kaleidoscopic wealth of cultures. One of the postulates of living well is to know how to eat well. In Potosi we taste a dish that well summarizes the concept, the k’alaphurka: a delicious soup of tomato, pepper, ají (hot sauce), choclo (young corn), some meat and spices, which is cooked in pumice stone and served in an earthenware dish. A plate of great topicality due to its simple origin and local ingredients.
Gold trail, Incachaca and Santa Rosa
Second part. Our incredible journey continues from Consata and the atmosphere around us becomes more and more friendly. We have built a friendship that can break down the wall of mutual diversity and sometimes mistrust. Admiring the wild beauty of the Yungas, we received some patient lessons of Quechua and Aymara (Inti and Lupi for the word sun), the languages spoken by the indigenous population. We focus on essential concepts such as friends, family, the forest, the mountains, the sky, the sun and the moon.
In the middle of the night, after warmly greeting our friends from Consata, we find a passage to Incachca, on the gold trail in the direction of Santa Rosa. A bumpy trail takes us in the heart of the jungle through a night landscape of incomparable charm. The forest is animated by the sounds of countless living beings, they breathe, sing and dance in unison. We perceive all the immense energy of the Pachamama. With our traveling companions, we reach Incachaca late in the night, where we camp under the stars, but we are so excited that we could not sleep. The jungle prepares us to a magnificient dawn with a crescendo of music tunes. We arrive in Santa Rosa.
Sorata towards the gold route
First part. From La Paz the small and crowded bus rises and falls slowly to Sorata, cozy resort perched on the slopes of Cerro Ancohuma (Janq’u Uma in Aymara). From this plateau begins a furious descent to the Yungas, the area of transition between highlands and the Amazon basin. The fog envelops this enchanted and sometimes spooky world, where sudden chasms open in bottomless valleys.
The village of Consata hides precisely in one of these valleys, where the river of the same name flows. The village received us with great hospitality and we are accompanied by a delegation of young and old along the river for a pleasant and interesting excursion. Here begins the most intriguing and complicated part of our journey to the discovery of the unknown Bolivia.
Ayacucho and anticucho
From Andahuaylas the road continues uncertain between steep climb up to the 5000 meters of the plateau and steep descents to lick the Amazon rain forest, along the valley of Chanka and the tributaries of the Rio Apurimac. Finally we arrive to Ayacucho, abandoned pearl between indigenous culture, religiosity and syncretism, sendero luminoso.
Ayacucho, the city of many Peruvian friends, also on their way to some fascinating and exotic places. Ayacucho, the city of the best anticuchos or offal of bovine and grilled potatoes and best picarrones or pancakes with a special sauce.