Trini

We can only keep you coming back if we take a break from bureaucracy to tell you a little more about what we've been up to when we're not waiting at the police station or making photocopies of documents. Last Saturday, we traveled from San Borja, the small town where we will be spending most of our time when we aren't in the Tsimane' communities, to Trinidad, the capital of the department of Beni (the department we'll be in here). The trip to Trinidad takes about five hours in a six passenger taxi during the dry season.

The road is unpaved, so it's very bumpy. There are also a lot of cattle that use the road - here's one traffic jam we encountered.

The road is also beautiful - the Beni is located in the Amazon, and we drove through wetlands on the way to Trinidad. Along with the cattle, horses, and dogs moving on the road, we saw lots of birds along the side of the road. The Amazon is beautiful. Partway through the journey, there is a river that you have to cross on boat. Fortunately, the taxis can just drive right onto the boat! Here we are on the boat with our taxi.

After five hours of being jostled about, we arrived in Trinidad with big headaches, but luckily we had a day and a half to recover before starting the residency process here. This also gave us some time to explore the city. Trinidad is much larger than San Borja - it has a population of about 130,000. This means there are more motos, cars, people, and markets (we even found a micromercado - something like a small supermarket). Like many of the other towns in this part of Bolivia, Trinidad was started in the 1700s as a mission by Jesuits. Much like San Borja, it has a large plaza in the center of town with a church.

Our hotel, Santa Anita Hostal, is really nice and has wifi, coffee, water, and refrigerator included in the price ($20/night for a queen sized bed with private bath). However, it did come with 80 mosquitoes as well, which we promptly killed in the first 2 days - Asher went on an aristeia (a word Kelly learned in her freshman seminar) to remove every single mosquito from the room. We're a good team, Kelly spots, Asher kills. Also the room has a great hammock.

On Tuesday, there was a citywide strike to support indigenous leaders in opposition of a planned road that would run through indigenous land - TIPNIS. The strike shut the entire city down. Fortunately, some people informed us of the strike in advance, so we stocked up on some food for Tuesday. We went out to explore the city on Tuesday to see what it was like with very little going on - the markets were closed, every store was shuttered, and few people were out, except a couple juice ladies - who charge you 5 bolivianos (75 cents) for 2 glasses of fresh squeezed OJ made with 6-8 oranges.

There were even roadblocks on the streets to keep motos and cars off the roads. Local teenagers seemed to be having a great time taking over the streets - these guys were thrilled to pose for us while sitting on a bench in the middle of the road. The kids wanted us to tag them on facebook, but unfortunately we didn't get their names.

At the same time, a sur - a winter storm from the Antarctic - came in. We were in the markets when we felt the weather change. It was a fairly warm day (we're not too far from the equator after all), and all of a sudden there was a breeze that felt as though someone had opened a freezer door. The temperature has been in the 40s, 50s, and low 60s since - cold enough to make Kelly want to find somewhere warmer than the Amazon. 

Thankfully (particularly for the people here whose houses are not built for cold weather), temperatures will be in the high 80s again this weekend and into the 90s very soon. 

We've met several other researchers in Trinidad - a couple of whom we met in San Borja and ran into here - so we're having a good time. We're also finding the atmosphere very conducive to getting some work done in between exploring the city and doing residency requirements. We're enjoying Trinidad while we're here. Tonight, we even bought a nice Bolivian malbec wine (paired with some cheese crackers and cookies) to enjoy. 

Thanks for all of your messages and emails - we love hearing from you while we're gone. Keep them coming!! 

Residency Visa: Part 1 - San Borja

When I got into anthropology, it was to try to understand the unique human condition, to try to figure out why people behave the way they do when many times those behaviors result in negative health outcomes. What did not occur to me at the time, which most of my anthropology colleagues can also attest to, was that in order to answer these important questions and to get to those canoes and chicha, you must first undergo a long, tedious and sometimes frustrating process of bureaucracy in both the US and abroad. This process, while seemingly cumbersome, is ultimately important for the protection of both the applicants and the countries involved.

We've heard many stories about other PhD students' experiences with bureaucracy in Bolivia that we prepared ourselves for the worst. The one thing they all stressed was to have patience and be persistent. Some examples of what we've heard (although almost all of the bad experiences happened in Trinidad): talking to the person at immigration who is in charge and asking what was required for the year visa, being told one requisite at a time, then when you bring it back, she says ok now you need requisite two, and proceeds to do this for a week.

Another example with the same immigration person was when a student from Spain went to her and said here are all of the documents, I need the one-year visa and the person responded: Where did you hear of these requirements, they're wrong ... I don't even know you, you expect me to give you a visa.

A third and most humorous example involved another Spanish student who was applying for the visa and when he gave pictures with his application (you have to give tons of little 4 by 4 cm pictures with a red background with every application) he had a beard, which he had since shaved it off. So the person says, "you have a beard in these photos, we can't process it since you don't have a beard now". The student responded "what do you want me to do, I can't just grow a new beard on the spot". So the person says, "ok with a beard, that'll be an extra 15 boliviano fee". (Note: 1 US dollar is ~7 Bolivianos)

Our quest: a one-year temporary residence visa. The requirements numerous, the requirements for the requirements even more numerous. To even apply for this visa, we had to first get a special purpose visa in the US which was a long and complicated process, which actually now seems like a cake walk.

The first two requisites for the one-year visa we had to obtain in San Borja: a local background check and a residency verification. For these, we needed a host of documents, including a signed certificate from the owner of the home where we live, photocopies of two witness IDs, a copy of the title of the house, a copy of the blueprints, photocopies of our visa, pictures of us, and a formal memorial from a lawyer requesting these documents. The one police officer who deals with these requests was a patronizing cop, who was both by-the-book and reluctant to do anything. When we first came to him, he said we were short four of these requirements. The next day, he said we needed separate applications for both Asher and Kelly. When we gave him those, he said come back Monday.

On Monday, he was not at work. On Tuesday, he said he needed to call the police in Trinidad, but to call them he needed us to buy a prepaid card for his cell-phone (all cell phones in Bolivia are pre-paid and can be "recharged" at local stores). After he called, he said we needed to go to Trinidad, the capital of the department of beni, to do the local background check. So we asked if we could do the local residency verification without it, and he said to be at our house at 4 pm.

We waited outside our house for an hour and a half and the cop never showed up. On Wednesday morning, we went to the police office again and he followed us to our house and verified our residency. We then spent 3 hours while he typed up the documents. We got the documents and then talked to the police captain. The local police captain was an interesting, slightly chubby/stocky, mid 40's man with thinning hair and bottom braces who was very nice, but ultimately corrupt. We noticed he has a calendar on the wall with a topless female police officer on it. Asher actually snapped a picture of this, it's just not something we see every day (but we'd rather not post that picture, but it is available upon request). However, it is ridiculous that it's on his wall as it's very misogynistic.

He said that while they couldn't do the local background check normally, he may be able to call someone and do it for a fee of 140 bolivianos for each of us. So we paid it. We came back Thursday, hopeful to finish the process, yet again the first officer said they couldn't do the local background check. We asked to speak to the captain and he said to come back that afternoon. We later explained to him, again, that all we needed was a local background check, he said "oh, a local background check, ok. Come back Friday".

We came back Friday morning ready to go and were fingerprinted 20 times, but were told to come back again Friday afternoon at 5. We came back and after an hour, the by-the-book cop finished the local background check and took it to the captain. We went into his office one last time, thinking he was going to give the documents to us, pat us on the back, and wish us well. But ... instead he said that each document cost an extra 200 bolivianos to "process". We tried to say that we already paid, but he made up a story about how that was for the residency requirements. Having only 600 bolivianos on us at the time and needing 300 to get to Trinidad and for food, I asked if it was possible to only pay 300 total, and he said "well for you two, OK".

In the end, we paid two "fees" for 580 bolivianos including one 25% discount, but hey at least we're done with the local police, where we spent 15 hours over 9 visits in a week and a half. In the end it's all a game, you can't get too frustrated, you just have to play the game and be patient and persistent. If graduate school teaches you one thing it's that, patience and persistence.

We are now in Trinidad, where so far the experience has been much easier. We've seen many anti-corruption posters in the police station here, which give us hope for the direction Bolivia is heading.

We'll next do a blog post on Trinidad with pictures (not many exciting pictures to take while sitting in offices), including a description of the strike going on today to protest a national road project that would go through indigenous lands.

Buen provecho!

In Bolivia, and especially in San Borja, people eat out for most meals.

Breakfast consists of some empanadas with a little bit of cheese on the inside, some other flavored bread, maybe some fruit, like little bananas, and some coffee, chocolate drink, or tea.

Actually, in the market, most of the little stalls that serve breakfast serve meat as a main part of the meal, but that's a little too heavy for us.

For lunch, meals start with soup - usually vegetables with some meat, noodles, or quinoa. Restaurants cook all of the food at once, so you usually have two or three options. We've been eating a lot of baked chicken (pollo al horno) and breaded and fried beef or chicken (milanesa). Everything is served with rice. Lately, we've been drinking Coke with lunch - I think we've had more Coke this week than we had all of last year. It's made with real sugar and is served cold, so it's very refreshing on hot days with a hot meal. Lunch is early - if you go too late (12:30), the food might be gone.

They also always bring you some yucca to put in your soup.

Dinner is late, usually at 8pm, so we've been picking up some fruit, bread, and yogurt for an afternoon snack. Kelly is a big fan of bread and has already found a few favorites.

For dinner, there are usually a lot more options (almost all with beef or chicken and always with rice and a few french fries).

There have been a few other researchers here in San Borja working with Tsimane': my advisor, Dr. Susan Tanner, some psychologists and linguists from MIT, UC-San Diego, and a university in England, which has been nice because we've gone out to eat with them a few times (and they've very generously picked up the bill every time).  One of the nights, my advisor wanted to take us to get anticucho - which is beef on a stick but also some intestines.

Dr. Susan Tanner showing off the anticucho.

For one of the dinners we had with that crew, we went to La Costa Azul and had really awesome roasted duck.

Kelly and Dr. Susan Tanner with roasted duck.

However, Susan and the MIT crew all left on Monday. Best wishes to them as they travel back to the US. We'll miss Susan - she was a huge help getting us started on the year long process.

We've also found that dinner goes best with a cold Pacena - a Bolivian beer (a Paceno is someone from La Paz). Yesterday was La Paz day, a big festival in La Paz, so we had good reason to celebrate even from a distance.

One of the funnier things we've seen in town is that San Borja now has a wannabe fast food burger place, called Good Burger. 

One of the restaurants we really like, Bibosi, has really good kebobs and filet mignon (although it's not quite the same as in the States, but for $3.50 it's worth the price!)

Dinner is also best when followed by a coconut or papaya icepop. Helado, or ice cream, is everywhere here: from little kids pushing little carts and squeaking a horn to heladerias where they serve you ice cream pops or actual ice cream and other tasty treats.

Our next post will invariably be about the grueling bureaucratic process of getting our residency visas (preview: local police standing us up and then asking for money or other things), although other top contenders include the stray animals of San Borja.

San Borja

Hello from Bolivia! We made it to La Paz late Tuesday night with only one smoking infraction on the plane (not us).

It’s winter here, so La Paz can be chilly at night. Fortunately for Kelly, who gets cold in 70-degree weather, we didn’t stay long. Our flight to Rurrenabaque, home of a huge national park, was Wednesday morning at 10 am. The airplane held 19 passengers.

Amazingly, there were no delays along the way. The flight went over the Andes mountains and then the mountains disappear and the plane is over the jungle.  It's quite a sight to behold. Kelly was in awe of the white peaks just outside the plane and snapped this shot.

After a quick lunch in Rurre (for the Ochs family, who I’m sure is holding out for more food details, we’ll have a post soon about food), we took a 3.5-hour taxi ride to San Borja, the town we’ll spend most of our time in when we’re not in the villages. The road was pretty funny in that it had short stretches of paved road followed by dirt patches and detours that were pretty bumpy - good for speed control, but not an upset stomach, which luckily neither of us have gotten yet.

We arrived in San Borja covered in dust from the road. All in all though, the trip from North Carolina to San Borja took us 32 hours without any delays or problems, a record according to Asher. We're now in San Borja, one of the closest towns to Tsimane' villages and is mostly a cattle ranching town. And there is a statue of a ganadero, cattle rancher, that we came upon.

Actually, there is a National Geographic documentary about the trip truck drivers take on the Yungas road, commonly referred to as the Death Road, from La Paz to San Borja to pick up cattle. Asher spent two weeks here last summer, so he’s been showing Kelly around. We have been exploring a bit and walked by the San Borja hospital, where we saw both a horse and a cow grazing in the yard. It is a really good hospital and also efficient. They treated Asher really quickly four summers ago when he got Salmonella. Hopefully we won't need to use it, but it's nice to have it here.

More soon, but so far all is well. We love getting emails from friends and family, so keep them coming!

Go!

Departure day is here and we are really excited to get this adventure underway! Thanks so much to all of our family and friends for sending us off with lots of love and good memories.

We have a few stops on our way to San Borja, Bolivia (14.8583 º  S, 66.7475º W). We leave from Charlotte, NC, stop in Miami for a couple of hours and then head non-stop on a 6 and a half hour flight to El Alto, La Paz, Bolivia, the site of the world's highest elevation airport at approximately 4,061 meters, or 13,323 feet. Having made the flight 3 times before, it is quite the adjustment and a bit disorienting coming off the plane into that elevation.

We will land at 9 pm, go through customs, head to a hostal in La Paz, then turn around and head back to the airport in the morning for a 10 am 40 minute flight to Rurrenabaque, a small town on the edge of the Amazon. Rurre is the launching point for many nature adventure companies that take people on tours into Madidi National Park, one of the largest protected nature reserves in the world. The plane we'll take is a tiny 12 seater and due to the elevation of the airport in the Andes, you feel like you barely ascend, fly between some Andean peaks, and then the mountains drop out from beneath you and you are above the Amazon - quite a view to behold.

From Rurrenabaque, we will take a 5 hour taxi ride to San Borja, and we will be in our launching off point to the communities we will do research in. However, before we can start the research, we have 30 days to get our residency applications in, which we will do in Trinidad as the process there is a bit faster than in La Paz.

We'll post some pictures of all of these steps when we get settled in San Borja. Hopefully everything goes smoothly, and we have safe and fast travels.

Set!

The two weeks we've been in North Carolina have been flying by as we've spent much of the time with our parents and friends and making all the last minute preparations necessary. 

Kelly and I have been packing for our trip and like most things, we find that we keep thinking of more and more stuff we need to bring along. One example, which we need for our one-year temporary residency application in Bolivia, is passport photos. We need to bring four photos with us, which combined for both of us amounts to almost $50 if you go to a drug store to get it done. However, we found a site online, epassportphoto.com, which provides instructions on how to take a proper photo yourself and then then upload it and crop it on the site for free. You then download the picture back to your computer, put it on a thumb drive, take it to target or wherever you print your photos, and you can print as many passport photos as you please for relatively nothing. So next time you need passport photos, there you go.

Trying to minimize what we take with us, we got a kindle paperwhite with free 3g and are trying to load up on books. Recommendations are welcome for good books while we're away. Interestingly enough, I've heard from a colleague who has spent the last 2 years in the same field site doing research - (shout out to Alan Schultz, an awesome researcher and friend who has been giving us great advice as we have been preparing) that there is some 3g coverage in some of the Tsimane' communities in the Bolivian Amazon. We'll be testing that out with this 3g device and maybe we'll have sporadic access to the internet while we're in the communities. Globalization is quite the ever-growing phenomenon. 

We are really excited about the trip. We leave tomorrow and will post again later tonight with a description of the upcoming itinerary and stops along the way as we travel to San Borja, Bolivia.