Off to Brazil!

Tonight we´ll take a night bus to Santa Cruz, a city to the east of here, and from there we´ll take a 24-hour train ride through the jungle to Brazil! We are headed for Brasilia, the capital, where we will attend a four-day copper anniversary party hosted by my UWC friends Christian (from Denmark) and Camila (from Brazil). On the way we will visit the Pantanal, a region known for its wildlife. I´m hoping to see a capybara, the world´s largest rodent. And I´m curious to see how it will be to travel in a country where I speak nothing of the language. I can understand some Portuguese, but I can´t speak it at all, except for a few attempts to put "ao" on the end of Spanish words.

We almost didn´t get to go to Brazil, as we were denied visas. Unlike most of our European counterparts, Americans must have visas to go to Brazil. This is a reciprocal visa, that Brazil requires of us because we require it of them. The visa requirements for Americans are especially stringent. We must pay $130 each, submit photos (which are used for nothing), and answer several questions about whether we have ever been communists, nazis, or whether we plan to engage in polygamy or genocide. These requirements are all reciprocal, and I recognize the questions word for word from U.S. immigration applications. We were denied visas because we could not produce return plane tickets to the U.S. (Gary and I bought one way tickets to South America, not knowing how long we would stay). We visited the Brazilian consulate and asked and asked, but the denial was final.

Luckily, my friend Camila, whose anniversary party we will attend, works for the Brazilian Foreign Service, and she was able to put in a good word for us. Our case was reconsidered and after a wait we were granted visas yesterday.

The harsher requirements for U.S. citizens is not unique to Brazil. Since the U.S. is extremely harsh on most would-be visitors from the world, and the U.S. refuses to give visitor visas to most citizens of Bolivia, Chile, Brazil or most any other country in Latin America, many of these countries impose reciprocal requirements on U.S. citizens, requirements that they do not impose on Canadians and most Europeans. Chile imposes a $100 entry fee on U.S. citizens who enter by air. Bolivia requires visas for us, at $100 each. Paraguay and Brazil require visas of U.S. citizens but not of most others. The U.S. is not the only developed country that imposes harsh visa requirements on people from undeveloped countries, but the U.S. is a bully on a world scale, and that is why these requirements are imposed upon us while our British house mates travel freeley through the same countries with no need for visas.

In any case, with a little help from a friend we are off to Brazil tomorrow! Afterwards, we will return to Bolivia.

In other news:

I have learned that I can exchange English conversation practice for almost anything ... such as therapeutic massage, and meals at an Iranian restaurant. Gary and I went to the Iranian restaurant last week and watched a belly dancing performance, special for Bolivian fathers´ day. The owner is from Iran but has lived in Bolivia for 23 years.

We´ve been enjoying fresh figs! They are so much better than dried figs. I even found a fig tree where I can pick them sometimes!

Last week was Semana Santa, or holy week. The tradition here is that people visit twelve churches, and also give up meat for a few days (no doubt a big sacrifice for folks used to the diet here!) There are processions, and people hike up the huge hill near our house to the statue of Jesus on the top. (El Cristo). I hiked up to the Cristo early Friday morning, and enjoyed the view of Cochabamba and the surrounding mountains, and hiking with hundreds of other people.

Not part of Holy Week, Gary went to an all night sweat lodge, the Mexican-style temascal, on Thursday. It was a special lodge for the equinox. Gary goes to a temascal every other week in Cochabamba. The lodge is run by a man from Mexico, but Gary recognizes many of the traditions from Lakota-style lodges that he used to attend in the U.S. The temascal group even sings a song that Gary knows, in Lakota.



Over Easter weekend, Gary and I had an opportunity to stay in a beautiful house in the country, between the villages of Tiquipaya and Apote, about thirty minutes from here. The house was rented by someone in our program, who left early, and so we took the opportunity to spend a couple of beautiful days there. It´s hard to describe how beautiful the house and garden (complete with a family who takes care of the garden) are, so I´ll include a few pictures. More are on our flickr site, http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimigary. Our friends from Cochabamba came out Saturday evening for a barbecue, and we had an Easter egg hunt for chocolate eggs!



The country house is owned by a well-known doctor in Cochabamba, whose family is Palestinian. On a visit to Palestine many years ago, the doctor met Yassar Arafat, who gave him a tiny cactus which grew into the one pictured here.