26 CultureShock! Bolivia
period was 110 indigenous protesters with 23 killed in one
three hour massacre at the impoverished Villa Ingenio in El
Alto. The acrid smell of tear gas was relegated to the status
of a nostalgic memory.Wilderness Challengers
How to best coexist with Bolivia’s natural setting has been
dutifully explained. But many travellers don’t give a hoot about
peaceful coexistence with Bolivia’s awesome topography and
would prefer to challenge the setting by climbing the plus
6,000 m (20,000 ft) peaks of the Andes or descending into the
depths of the lowlands to mingle with sloths, tapirs, peccaries,
crocodiles and other exotic creatures (none of which are
nearly as dangerous as the wicked insects.) In later pages,
you will have the chance to meet ordinary people who have
become extraordinary heroes by venturing where humans are
not welcome.
For many visitors, Bolivia’s setting, even before the
characters are introduced, provides a magnifi cent adventure.
But this country is also the scene of stimulating and
contradictory interaction between cultures of European and
Amerindian origins, born in the colonial past. In a period
of history when ‘ethnic cleansing’ and religious intolerance
are headline stories, Bolivia’s awkward experiment in uniting
diverse cultures within a context of economic scarcity may
one day become a model for other parts of the world.Coca and Other Confl icts
Is Coca Cocaine?
Fidel Flores suspects that the plane sitting on the tarmac
at El Alto International Airport is carrying a large shipment
of cocaine. It is his job to care for the drug sniffi ng dogs, to
take them into customs rooms, in airport corridors, in cargo
holds, to detect cocaine. For this, Flores earns approximately
US$ 60 per month, not enough to support a family, for sure,
but it’s a job he desperately needs.
He lives with his wife and children in the migrant city of El
Alto, above La Paz, grown anarchistically into a ramshackle
city approaching a million people. Like Fidel, most Alteños