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South American Politics and Fair Trade

It is facinating watching things unfold down here after being in the States and having little information about current affairs in other parts of the world for so long. When I was in Venezuela back in 1996, Chavez was just beginning to campaign and it was difficult to tell what would happen. He seemed extreme, but that seemed like a good thing. Venezuela needed help desperately. Of course now we know much more about his politics and there is a lot I don´t agree with, but there are many things I think are great.

Among the things I like are his efforts to get South American countries to work together against free trade with the rest of the world. The more time I spend down here, the more I appreciate the discussions on this topic that he has started. I was most excited in Bolivia, where Evo Morales is now president. An indigenous guy with a background in coca farming, he has been working closely with Chavez and recently nationalized Bolivia´s gas industry. This was a huge deal for Bolivians, many of whom have fought for this for years. Evo has also lowered his own salary, which forced down the salaries of many other government employees (because nobody can make more than the president). It is amazing to see a politician down here keeping some of their campaign promises, although it seems like this is much more of a possibility in Bolivia where the public will hold you accountable. I don´t think I have any been anywhere so politicized.

My experience in Bolivia contrasts with my experience in Peru, which had its presidential election on June 4th. Like most elections down here recently, one candidate was united with Chavez and the other with Bush (more or less). In the Peruvian case, these two sides represented really different political ideas. Ollanta, the candidate alligned with Chavez, spoke against the TLC (Peru´s free trade agreement with the US) and talked about decreasing the prevalence of foreign-owned businesses in Peru. Garcia, who has now won the presidency, has already served one presidential term during which there was unprecedented corruption and has a relatively status quo platform, maintaining that Peru needs to cooperate with the US. However, he sucessfully painted Ollanta as a militant extremist. Regardless, the race was really close- roughly 45% Ollanta to 52% Garcia- and that is with mandatory elections. People down here might be realizing slowly that free trade with the US is a new form of colonization.

However, I´m not sure how many farmers are figuring this out. Of course this isn´t that surprsing given how disempowered they usually are. I spent my last week in Peru in Montero, a small town in Piura state, staying on an organic coffee and sugar farm that is part of an Equal Exchange cooperative. It was a beautiful spot and the family that I stayed with was incredible. It was great learning about how their co-op works, but a little surprising too. I had always assumed that fair trade means a higher profit for farmers, but in this case it just means that farmers are given a stable price- one that doesn´t go up and down with the international market. That is something- but just not as great as I thought. I also expected these farmers to be interacting with the Peruvian market at least a little, but no. They are focused entirely on exporting.

I´ve now been in Ecuador about a week and it has been great- amazing weather and beautiful green hills everywhere. The most astonishing ag-related observation is the number of greenhouses- they are everywhere and some are located in super unlikely places such as extremely steep hillsides. I´ve been told that the majority are cut-flowers for exportation. I´ve also heard some very sad stories of lukemia deaths linked to pesticide run-off from flower and tomato farms. Hopefully the fair trade and organic movements can continue growing and influence farming practices down here.

I am convinced that we (affluent folks in the US and Canada) are the best situated to make this change occur by voting with our dollar every time with shop.

A Tale of Two Perus

I have had an extremely varied experience here in Peru. Meeting Dutch in Cuzco was incredible- the month apart had been difficult for both of us and Cuzco is an incredible city. After Dutch got used to the altitude we headed to Machu Picchu, which was much more impressive than I expected but also much more expensive. The prices continually surprised me, having come from Bolivia where they don't seem to take advantage of their tourism industry.

After spending time at ruins around Cuzco we headed South to Copacabana, Bolivia, just over the Peruvian border on Lake Titicaca and decided to spend a night on Isla del Sol- the infamous Incan birthplace of the sun. I have never seen such stunning views. On the way back to Cuzco, we stopped at Puno and saw the reed islands of Los Uros, a group of indigenous people who actually built themselves (and continue building) islands to live on. I had been told that the islands were pretty tourist infested and not necessarily worth stopping for but I am really glad we did, as there are definitely lessons to be learned from spending time with a group of tourists from around the world.

One thing I've noticed again and again during this trip is how kind folks from the U.S. are. At least when traveling we seem to say hello, excuse me, thank you and smile. I can't say the same of the majority of Europeans, Aussies, Kiwis, and Israelis I have met during this trip. Not that I have been a saint this whole trip, but when Americans have been present I have really enjoyed their company. I have also heard the same compliment from many of the South American people I have met. Politeness counts and I maintain that it gets me cheaper prices ;)

Back to the two Perus...I decided to fly to Lima with Dutch, not being able to stomach another 25 hour bus ride and wanting to spend as much time together as possible. Thanks to my friend Hector, the traditional Peruvian tourist track ended for me when I left the Lima airport. I met Hector, a Peruvian, at last year's Washington Tilth Producer's conference. At the time he was about to return to Peru, having completed an internship on one of the farms I worked with at WSU Extension. I had mentioned my trip to him and we decided to stay in touch, as he said he could help me visit Peruvian farms during my trip.

When I got to Lima it turned out that Hector had organized a whole schedule for me, which I am still in the process of completing. It has been incredible. I spent the last week (and my 26th birthday) with Hector's family in Chosica, a beautiful town in the mountains about 1 hour outside of Lima. They have a little farm on ancient Incan terraces, which is incredibly picturesque but seems extremely hard to farm. Getting to the location where they acutally harvest involves a 30 minute walk straight up hill. Of course this means that you also have quite a steep walk down with the things you have harvested.

Currently they are harvesting avocados and chirimoya (a crazy green lump with big black seeds inside- related to guanabana) but they also grow alfalfa for their animals, apples, and various other things. The majority of the money they make comes from the sale of guinea pigs, which are grown to eat. I enjoyed my first guinea pig meal on my birthday and it was delicious, the only mildly alarming part being a little foot with toenails sticking out. Highlights of the week included a traditional dance show at a local high school and going to the chirimoya festival in a neighboring town which included a contest where the largest and highest quality chirimoyas were chosen.

However, I probably learnt the most when I went early one morning to sell avocados with Hector's mom. Whenever she has fruit to sell, she gets up at 4:30am to head to a particular street corner where all of the people who sell vegetables at the market come to buy the things they sell at their stands. This allows her to sell her produce and still farm during the bulk of the day. Of course it also means that she makes much less for her produce. As she sold the avocados for pennies I sat there trying to figure out ways for her to make more money, which she got a kick out of. Every time I came up with something she would laugh and say "No, no, asi son las cosas." As always, it is difficult watching farmers scrape by.

I am now in a little town on the coast called Chincha visiting an organic nursery and from here I'll head north to the jungle in Piura to visit a coffee farm and hopefully chocolate too! After that I make my way into Ecuador and then finally to Venezuela. I find myself thinking about arriving in Venezuela more and more- I can't wait to get there. More from me soon- I have a lot ot say of Peruvian politics, which will probably be even more relevant after their presidential ellections on Sunday.

Loving La Paz

Despite transportation strikes, altitude sickness, and not very good food, I love Bolivia. The weeks I have spent here have easily been the best of my trip so far. The irony is that like many extremely poor countries, Bolivia is chock full of stunning natural beauty and is home to an incredible number of natural resources. Of course the country shoulders a long history of colonization and corruption.

I began my time here in Samaipata, a beautiful little touristy town in the mountains near Santa Cruz. After a few days of incredible hikes I headed to Cochabamba to visit my dear friends Sharon and Mike who have been living there and doing volunteer work for about 8 months. I never thought I would say this, but it was great to hang out with Americans again- in addition to having an awesome place to crash.

It turned out that Sharon and Mike were headed to El Alto, a rapidly growing city above La Paz, for a meeting of the Bolvia Solidarity Network (http://www.boliviasolidarity.org/) and let me tag along. The network is made up of foriegners living in Bolivia who are interested in helping support Bolivian social movements and the meeting was held mainly to strategize ways to complete the large body of work they have set for themselves. I had an amazing time learning about Bolivian politics and culture. I plan to write about this more in the future so stay tuned!

From El Alto I headed to Uyuni to visit Bolvia´s infamous salt flats. I spent three full days in a jeep with some crazy folks from England, Australia, and Germany viewing incredible scenery. I hope to post some pictures from that trip here soon. I then came to La Paz, where I am now. I was not looking forward to being in another city, but I have to say that this is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been in (second only to Napoli). Tomorrow morning I head to Cuzco to meet up with Dutch, who is joining me for 10 days in Peru. I am so excited! More news soon...

Laughing At Myself

A big thank you to Ken, whose comment on my last Blog entry brought me right back down to earth. For those of you reading this, I´d just like to acknowledge publicly that although this trip sounds super romantic and fun it had often been quite difficult. Anyone who has traveled for a long period of time knows that there are good days and bad days.

There have been moments where I feel like I am having the perfect trip- I picture a movie camera panning out as I stare out of a bus window or hike through the picturesque Andes. How romantico. But there are also plenty of moments where I feel frustrated and miss home because people don´t understand me, or I can´t change money for whatever reason, or I´ve gotten stuck in a crappy hostel with heaps of annoying foreigners...

Overall, things are wonderful and I am learning a lot which I will try and continue to record here. The challenge is not expecting too much and keeping it real :)

Navigating Paraguay

Looking at the map back home, it seemed like going through Asuncion, Paraguay to get to Bolivia made a lot of sense. However, when I got to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina and began talking to travellers it turned out that virtually nobody heading to Bolivia was going that way. I decided to head to Asuncion anyway, as I had already paid for a visa and I had a special little mission to complete. Amy, one of my co-workers at WSU Extension, lived about 3 hours from Asuncion when she was in the Peace Corps about 10 years ago. She had given me directions and presents to give to her host family, so I set out to find them.

It was actually a facinating little trip. Rural Paraguay is really beautiful, very green with kind of rolling hills and Amy´s host family was really wonderful and thrilled that Amy remembers them. They have just started farming fish to sell at a local market, and have carved out big pools for them, which are fed by a little stream. Apparently there have been quite a few Peace Corps volunteers in that part of Paraguay and everyone I met seemed to assume that I would be staying two years- which I can´t imagine!

The strange thing about traveling through Paraguay was being the only foreigner. Despite the supposedly high number of Peace Corps volunteers, people there are definitely not used to seeing a big backpack and dealing with someone with an accent. The craziest part of the Paraguay experience was taking a bus from Asuncion to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The journey is supposed to take 24 hours, but I´d heard rumors it can take up to 3 days during the rainy season. Once we got on the road, it was obvious why. The problem is that the road is just barely a road- dirt with incredible potholes- and winds though a completely deserted part of Paraguay´s Chaco region. Unfortunately, the bus was also not that reliable and broke down continually.

Despite those problems, it was great getting to know the local folks on the bus and getting the see the Chaco, which was striking- cactus, big thorny trees, tons of incredible looking birds (wish I coulds ID them) and cattle ranch after cattle ranch.

Lost My Rio Entry Somehow

So I´m new to this whole blogging thing and somehow I lost my entry from Rio. I´ll just comment on the city briefly here by talking about my two favorite experiences there. The first was a soccer game. It was incredible. I went with two English couples from my hostel and we tried to sit in the section with the most people. It is hard to describe how excited and emotional all of the Brazilians were, even though the teams playing were extremely minor and it wasn´t an important game. Each goal meant fireworks, flags, hugs, and kisses for everyone.

My second most favorite experience was a Samba gathering at Botafogo beach. A bunch of people from my hostel went and I wasn´t that excited about going until we got there. There were easily over 100 people crammed onto this dock surrounding these old Brazilian guys playing music and singing. They were amazing. Some people were dancing Samba but most people were just singing along. I was moving a little to the music and watching the feet of some of the dancers when this group of Brazilians saw me and decided to try and teach me how to Samba. I was hopeless, but it didn´t stop them from trying. We were at it for hours, but I´m afraid I am not any better.

Rio is an incredible city- expensive, but really beautiful and full of wonderful people.

Sunburnt In Argentina

People come to Puerto Iguazu to see these gigantic waterfalls, which are really incredible, although they are not what I will remember most vividly from this stop on my trip. On the way to my hostel in Puerto Iguazu I noticed signs indicating that tourists can visit the local indigenous community of Yarapu to buy art pieces. I tried asking the taxi driver and the people at the hostel about them and they all said that they didn´t know much about the community except that there are quite a few of them and that they are extremely poor. I was surprised that they knew so little, given that this community is situated right behind this huge row of hotels and hostels.

Luckily, I was with a wonderful woman from Ireland who was as intrigued as I was, so we ventured back there. It was a serious eye-opener. We didn´t have to walk very far from our hostel to find a corrugated metal structure that looked like it serves as a house for about 10 people. This very tiny old woman pulled out a bag of necklaces and little wooden animals that her and her children make as a bunch of little children with tattered clothing, big bellies, and glassy eyes looked on. We both spent as much money as we had on us and then left- it was a difficult thing to see. I can´t stop thinking about the fact that this community sits just feet away from this glitzy tourist area.

It has been a long time since I have had a good look at my own priviledge. I feel like I thought about it all the time as an undergrad studing International Development, but it´s been a couple of years since I´ve really thought about poverty and my position in the world. It is hard to stomach.