If I wanted an interesting day to share with you, this would certainly fit the bill. Only 3 days into our adventure and today was one for the memory books.
Everything that Teresa and I read about Bolivia stated that the locals do NOT like their photos taken and that you should ask prior to attempting to take any. I have followed this advice pretty well…other than the occasional picture of someone’s back or a sneaky photo from the waist. I have lost many good shots due to asking and being refused but today takes the cake!
Teresa and I were on a hunt for somewhere to send a bank transfer for our hotel in Oruro (more on this in a minute) and there was an old lady sitting on the sidewalk begging for money. I pulled out 5 BS to give to her and my camera (she was dressed in traditional dress), and squatted down to her level. I showed her the 5 BS and the camera sign-language style to request a photo for a donation. She instantly became agitated, telling me ‘no’ so I started to stand up and back away. As I am attempting to stand and walk away she is yelling at me, kicking her feet at my legs and as I turned, she started tossing water at me from her water bottle; effectively soakng my left leg. Teresa was standing aside observing my assult and told me later that two local men were attempting to calm the lady down, to no avail. So, even the locals were astounded by the situation.
I try very hard not to offend or disrespect….this incident left me feeling like I had crossed that line. I am re-assured by Teresa that I was appropriate in the situation.
Lesson Learned: Question myself BEFORE approaching others in the future.
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Now onto the search for a bank for transfer…..
Teresa and I decided yesterday to attempt to get to Oruro, Bolivia for Bolivia’s most ‘renowned and largest annual celebration ‘ CARNIVAL !! Most Carnival celebrations will take place this coming weekend and we want to take part in it. Oruro’s Carnival is very unique as it protrays the triumph of good over evil. The costumes and the traditional dances all tell the story of the battle between good and evil. It should be an amazing cultural experience. We spent about 4-5 hours last night online attempting to find accomodations. With a 3 night minimum and most places booked (as well as triple prices on even the worst hotels/hostels); we were lucky to find a place with availability and within our budget. But, we did. The problem was that the hostel that we choose required advance pay via bank transfer or western union. Not too difficult, right? Just go online to Western Union and transfer….. Well, Western Union decided that for some reason they could not ‘verify’ my information. I spent about an hour (or longer) trying to figure this out last night until I finally gave up.
So today, our mission was to get money transfered to the hotel before they give our golden room away to someone else and we are left without accomodation and miss an amazing opportunity to take part in the event.
We wandered out of the hostel late today (around noon); and headed to the corner to make the transfer (per instructions from the hostel staff). Unfortunately, the bank was not open……we figured it would be an easy task to find a western union and complete the transfer so we wandered down the street a little further with eyes peeled for WU or a bank. After at least 5 failed locations that stated they did money transfer then told us ‘no’ and several coffee stops, and about 4 shopping stops…….we finally found a bank that would complete the transfer. Total time spent…..5.5 hours!!!
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After we finally had the money transferred, it was time to email or fax the confirmation the hotel so that they could confirm the transfer and finalize our reservation. Realizing at this point that the room is still not confirmed ‘ours’ and that it could be given away if they don’t recieve copy of the transfer; we were feeling a little pressured. We initially expected this entire ordeal to take mere minutes, not hours! Fortunately for us, there is an internet cafe right across the street from the bank as we exit and spot it. We head in and ask if they can scan our receipt and email to us. This should be an easy task. I could do it myself in about 10 minutes (max) and I don’t WORK IN AN INTERNET CAFE!! We stood at the desk aproximately 20 minutes waiting for the guy at the desk to scan and email to us; he was not having any success. Teresa and I decided to go ahead and get online and see if we could find a fax number for the hotel so we could by-pass the difficulites of scanning and emailing…..*shakes head
Teresa emailed the hotel in Oruro for their fax number as it wasn’t on any of their emails or paperwork. We searched the internet (while waiting for a response) for the fax number to no avail. Finally about 50 minutes later, we had a confirmed fax to the hotel and were walking out. The internet desk guy still DID NOT figure out how to scan/email the paper for us!!
We are confirmed and on our way to Oruro, Bolivia for CARNIVAL on Thursday!
Second lesson learned: Don’t give up and don’t painic!
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I know your wondering….”What about the ROBBERY?” Well, actually it was an attempted robbery and they got away with…….(drumroll here)……..NOTHING!!
I have a cross shoulder bag from REI that I love. It compresses down to less than the size of a pack of cigarettes and when in use holds tons of stuff. I’ve been carrying it here because it’s great to throw snacks in or have a place for toilet paper (not every place provides this), or throw my jacket in when it gets too warm. I’ve used it every day due to it’s convenience.
After the debacle above, we were headed back to the hostel via foot. We came up on an area that was full of street venders, street food carts and the like. It instantly caught our attention. We found a place to stop and grab a bite to eat. After eating, I suggested that we walk around and explore for just a bit before heading the rest of the way back to the hostel. Teresa agreed that a sampling of some of the local goodies would be nice.
I was sampling one of the local fruits, the Tuna (this fruit is actually cactus fruit (in the U.S. people call it a prickly pear). Inside it has many tiny super hard seeds. Deal with it. There are too many to pick them out. The flesh surrounding them is sweet and has a mild very nice flavor. You don’t eat the skin.) I have been trying to get some photos of the unique foods that we are eating here in Bolivia and asked Teresa to take a photo of me with the fruit. As Teresa is taking a photo, a guy behind the booth that we were standing in front of became frantic in attempting to explain to us in Spanish to put the camera away. Careful….thieves…..dangerous were the general themes of what I could make out of his Spanish exclamations. We hurridly put away the camera and went on our way after much ‘mucho gracias’ to the man.
Less than three minutes after the warnings from the Mystery Man; an old lady ‘falls’ into me and I turned to help her and immediately the ‘red flag’ went up that she was perfectly fine as she scurried away as fast as her little old lady legs could carry her. I quickly patted down my bag and looked inside and it appeared all fine. Teresa and I decided that she was probably attempting to rob us and buttoned up our belongings and headed back to the hostel.
On arrival at the hostel I discovered that my bag had been slashed aprox 12 inches in length. All of my important belongings were still intact: hat, gloves, scarf, toilet paper (as worthy as gold), and my daily notebook. Whew!! I can’t imagine how devestated I would have been if my toilet paper had been stolen!!
As I was repairing the slash with some ever-useful DUCK tape; I discovered that there was a second slash aprox 6 inches in length. About a half hour later, Teresa noticed that there was also a slash on the hip of my jeans….which just so happened to identically match the second slash in my bag.
I feel very lucky that #1 I wasn’t injured when ‘whom-ever’ slashed my jeans and #2 Nothing valuable was stolen.
Third Lesson Learned: Carry only what you HAVE to have and keep a watchful eye.
(As I reflect on the above incident; I have to wonder if the Mystery Man might have been a distractor and my bag slashed while he was giving his sound warnings…or am I just now suspicious of everyone?) Needless to say; Teresa and I are both re-evaulating what and where we are carrying our needed items when we go out next time.