My first visit to Bolivia, March
1997
| Osvaldo had
told me that he grew up in a favela, but I didn't really believe him until I saw the house
where he spent the first 25 years of his life. To me it looked like someone just began to
build it, but it had looked like that for 30 years. It was quite big and has electricity
and a tap with cold water outside the bathroom. It didn't have any heating, though, so I
was constantly freezing. |
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Here is Osvaldo
preparing breakfast for me in the kitchen. It did have an ancient gas stove, but it
required some practice to be able to cook a meal in there. Osvaldo took very good care of
me because I was three months pregnant and the altitude (4000 meters) and cool climate
didn't make it more pleasant. In addition he wanted to give me a good impression of
Bolivia, since this is where we are going to live in the long run. There is quite big
inequality in Bolivia. We visited several of Osvaldo's friends from the University, and
some of them lived in brand new, extravagant penthouse apartments, that could easily make
me envious. |
| For Osvaldo's Birthday
party, we borrowed the house and kitchen of one of Osvaldo's best friends. Here is
Federico and Osvaldo with the appetizers. |
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| Federico and his wife
also took us for a nice trip to Titicaca Lake. It is amazing that such a big lake can stay
up there in the mountains at 4000 meters altitude without running down. Here is Osvaldo
and two llamas on a small island in the lake. |
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| Osvaldo's family has a
road side restaurant in a small village at the Altiplano. Here is Osvaldo's father and his
new wife preparing a traditional Tiahua dinner cooked by hot stones buried in the ground. First,
some flat stones were heated thoroughly in a fire on the ground. Then the stones were
removed, and meat, potatoes, corn cakes, bananas, peas, etc. were mixed with the hot
stones and piled up at the fire place.
Then everything was covered with leaves and sand and let to cook in the ground for
about an hour.
Here is Osvaldo's half brother, nephew, and father making sure that it is properly
covered so that the heat doesn't escape.
After an hour, everything was dug up and ready to eat. It tasted absolutely
deliciously, and had it not been so cold, we would have eaten the food right from the fire
place. Instead we quickly collected everything and brought it inside. |
 
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