Los Bolivianos: Bolivians from the
highlands come across as proud and aloof. They are happy to chat to you if you
initiate conversation but there’s rarely the hard-sell or clamour to get your
attention in the markets. I like that.
The Diminutive: Bolivian Spanish sounds
particularly cute and cuddly due to their love of the diminutive. A boliviano
becomes a bolivianito; pan, pancito; almuerzo almorcito. I also love that
everyone is either mamita or papi!
Resourcefulness: as in many poorer
countries, the throw-away mentality does not exist in Bolivia. Down the road
from our hostel is a small shop where an old man sits all day repairing soccer
balls. People make sandals out of old car tires. The kinds of televisions put
out on the nature strip for hard rubbish in Australia are brought to the
electrician here and lovingly repaired.
The Bad
Rubbish: fair enough, the country probably
has bigger things to worry about but waste disposal needs some serious work. As
if the city centre wasn’t bad enough, on the outskirts of every village and
town is a huge unchecked pile of rubbish, unceremoniously dumped by the
roadside. If you’re really unlucky you’ll find yourself in the middle of a
toxic cloud of smoke as plastic bags and bottles are set alight.
Driving: where do I start? Drivers in
Bolivia are spectacularly bad- they don’t signal, they run red lights (all the
while honking furiously to alert oncoming vehicles with right of way to get the
hell out of the way), they take corners at mind boggling speed with double the
regulation amount of passengers on board, they even rival Australians for
drink-driving culture.
Electric Showers: sort of for the tepid (at best) water they produce; mainly for the exposed wires and constant fear
of electrocution.
The
Ugly
The giant public urinal: nobody in Bolivia
has any qualms about dropping their pants and pissing (or worse) in the street.
And not just in some discreet side street, no, for a conservative country they
aren’t shy about public urination. The result is that great swathes of the city
stink like piss. Nasty.
Expectoration: it’s worrying when all public
buses have stickers asking people not to spit. Would they otherwise just
hock one up on the bus?? Probably. Listening to people hawk, hack and hock up
parts of their lungs is one of my least favourite aspects of Bolivian life.
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