I was looking at my 10-year plan, and I couldn’t help but notice that right about the time of my 35th birthday, I’m supposed to be doing a lot of monotonous school and work and I’m not usually very good at that. I’m used to trauma, and bouncing from crisis to crisis. So instead of a crisis, why not go on my dream vacation instead? I’ve got literally years to save for it, and it’s better to dream of something that doesn’t pan out than to never dream at all (I think Shakespeare would agree).
I’ve always wanted to know more about Indigenous peoples of South America. So why not go exploring?
I got this android app…
…and made this itinerary:
We start at the Jorge Chávez International Airport in Lima, Peru. Why? Because that’s the only way I’m going to make it to the beach at all in this trip! The beaches where I live kinda suck. They’re beautiful, but the water never warms up even in the summer. Secondly, it’s the biggest airport in the country and instead of taking a connecting flight, I thought it might be nice to actually see the country! So I imagine myself spending a few days on the beach before heading off in search of real adventure!
For the real adventure we have to get to Cusco, so I have the Rome2Rio app and it says this should be no problemo:
This gets us to the site that inspired this whole thing!
Quispe, Ninfa. (n.d.). Quechua Experience: Live true tradition. Quechua Experience. Retrieved April 3, 2022 from https://quechuaexperience.github.io/index.html
I’m going to probably take a day or two to stay in a hotel or hostel and recover from that very long bus ride, and then it’s off to go learn to live like an Inca! The site doesn’t say exactly how long this lasts, but I figure at least a couple of days and maybe a week.
Then back to Cusco to prepare for the next leg of the trip:
Of course I would go to Machu Picchu! A lot could be said but a lot has already been said so I’ll move on.
There’s probably a lot that could still be explored in Peru but my plan is to head on to Bolivia, using this map for inspiration:
First stop is Tiahuanaco!
Looks awesome, right? I’m sure I could spend a few days there! But it’s a bit “touristy”… so next I’d go meet the Aymara:
The aymara culture is a pre-inca culture which gave birth to the Tihuanacota empire which extended over the altiplano from the 5th century BC to the 12th century AD, before being invaded by the Incas and then Spanish.
Aymara Culture – Bolivia. (n.d.). Caserita.Info. Retrieved April 3, 2022 from https://info.handicraft-bolivia.com/Aymara-Culture-a205
In spite of these invasions an aymara identity, with traditions, language and religion, survived and constitutes even today a strong identity of the inhabitants of the altiplano; particularly of the departments of La Paz and Oruro.
We were invited by Javier and his family in his childhood village, Tambillo, not far from La Paz on the road towards Tiahuanaku. They showed us some features of their culture; sheep farming, wool spinning, weaving, the aptapi and, finally, a ceremony for the new year.
I haven’t found too much in the way of Aymara tourism yet but I will 🙂
Then we go to the most remote part of this whole trip: La Brecha, a village so small that it doesn’t technically appear on Rome2Rio. I read about it here:
I traveled to Tupi territory in extreme Southeastern Bolivia in April of 2009. My trip began with a long 12-hour bus ride from Santa Cruz to Charagua, then on to Isiporenda where I spent the night with a Tupi family. The next day we traveled by road to the heart of their territory stopping at each small town we passed along the way to learn about their culture.
The Guarani people are warm and inviting and hospitable and very friendly. At each town they showed us their small businesses such as beekeeping, small coffee and cocoa production facilities, their small farms and fields, irrigation systems, unions of women weavers, and more. We visited their homes and school until at nightfall we reached La Brecha, the largest and central town of the Guarani. Here we spent the night. There is no electricity here after dusk and meals are prepared over open fires or in clay or brick ovens outside. Outhouses consist of holes in the ground and the night air was filled with the bleating of hundreds of goats who gathered in the central plaza as soon as the sun went down.Early the next morning we visited the homes of some of the local women who weave. They’ve formed a small cooperative and share both expenses and profits (about $130 divided between all of them for an entire year’s work). They showed us how they spin wool into yarn, dye it, and set up their looms. It takes 3-4 months, many hours a day to weave ONE hammock which typically sells for about $50 or $60 dollars in the city.
Other women in nearby towns are beekeepers and still others grind, roast and package both coffee and cocoa made from a local bean-like plant that has a rather chocolaty flavor. Nearly all families have a small rice field which is for their own consumption. The men leave early in the morning to go hunting (usually for wild pigs or other local fauna) while the women leave to hand-pick rice, which is then dried on a burlap sack in the sun for the family’s daily meal.
Older children and grandmothers watch toddlers and babies while parents work in the fields. At night the men go fishing in the river in the pitch dark. Sometimes, if they’re lucky, there is fish for breakfast. Fruit and vegetables are not a big part of the diet here, although there were tangerines and lemons, as well as chirimoya in some parts. This area of Bolivia is arid and hot and only gets substantial amounts of rainfall during the rainy season when roads become a mass of thick reddish clay and mud and transportation between this area and major cities is extremely difficult.
We were given the chance to visit with the Gran Capitán of the Guarani who welcomed us into his meager home and promptly brought out a 40-year old photo of himself and a past Bolivian president. Most of the conversation centered on how the Guarani have struggled to be included in the national political process. This area of Bolivia has traditionally been all but forgotten for the past 400 years, the Guarani not being as numerous or important as the Aymara and therefore politically, all but ignored although they are the third largest ethnic group in Bolivia.
Throughout the area the extreme poverty was evident in everything from the almost complete absence of vehicles (with the exception of ours and 2 buses that run through the area 3 times a week) to the lack of water and latrines, to the lack of fruit and vegetables, to the condition of the homes and schools. It is evident this area has not been visit by many authorities although the Guarani did mention that occasionally a tourist or NGO worker will spend a few days there. The La Brecha hospital serves all nearby villages and the Isiporenda Clinic, several hours away, serves another few local villages. Neither hospital has electricity at night and must use generators. Emergency services don’t truly exist. There are no ambulances or vehicles of any kind for transport either.
Despite this, the Guarani are always smiling! They are among the most hospitable people I have met anywhere in Bolivia. The children were bright and playful and cheerful. The men and women opened their homes to us (there are no tourist facilities here) and shared meals, conversation, candles and anything else we needed. Their abundant hospitality is also evident in the relationships they have with the very large nearby Mennonite colonies.
…
We returned to Charagua to take the long bus ride back to Santa Cruz after four days in the dust and heat in one of the most remote areas of Bolivia. I left promising to meet with Guarani leaders, at their request, to show them my photos and help them put together on a proposal for the national government. They want to open their territory to tourism and need the government to fund facilities, roads, water mains and electricity. They know that opening the area to tourism will mean the government will finally have to develop this area and fund the basic services they need and that this may be the only way to achieve this. Their territory, which borders on, and includes part of Kaa Iya National Park, has yet to be developed and this part of Bolivia is rarely included in the national budget.
Webmaster. (n.d.). The Tupi Guarani Culture of Bolivia. Bolivia Bella. Retrieved April 3, 2022 from https://www.boliviabella.com/guarani.html
At this point, I will PROBABLY definitely be ready to return to a more urban area, so off we go to Bolivia’s largest city, which just happens to be home to the airport that will eventually bring us back to the USA.
I’ve always wanted to visit Santa Cruz de la Sierra, so I’ll definitely want to spend a few days to a week here before heading back to North America.
I do think that all of this would be more fun with a travel companion. There are pros and cons. First, I’d have to actually find someone who wanted to come. Second, if I did that, I would have to relinquish some control over the itinerary. However, it would probably be good for me to learn to not be so independent-minded all the time and it would definitely be good for me to not just be a blonde female taking the bus through the jungle all by myself. So if you’re interested in The Apostate Turtle’s Dream Vacation and spending 96 hours and 19 minutes on a bus (yes, I did the math. For context, that’s just a bit more than four 24-hour days.), hmu and maybe in a few years we can make it happen!
