The Food of Cochabamba

On June 1, 2016 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Recipes, South America6 Comments

We didn’t have any preconceptions about the food of Bolivia or, in this case, specifically of Cochabamba. We had heard about Pique Macho, but didn’t know exactly what it was. What we discovered is that meals in Cochabamba were larger than we expected. Not just the Pique Macho, which is known to be a huge plate of food, but every meal that we were served were huge portions. The other thing we found was that every meal was served with an extremely spicy salsa, which is eaten on garlic bread as well as over top of the meal itself.

We ordered a half order of the Pique Macho to share and still weren’t able to eat the whole meal. Almost every meal included potatoes, usually cooked as French fries, and sometimes it would include both potatoes and rice. We like to share meals anyway, but we found that we couldn’t finish almost any meal while we were in Cochabamba. Later, when we went to La Paz, we found that the size of the meals and the quantity of food eaten in Cochabamba was larger than in other parts of the country. They are extremely proud that all of the food is locally grown and Cochabamba is considered the gastronomical center of Bolivia. Unlike Peru where fusion food is everywhere, Bolivia seemed to just beginning to embrace fusion food to raise the bar of traditional Bolivian food.

We also found that Bolivia produced pretty good local beer and wine. We always want to enjoy as much of local and traditional food and we definitely ate some interesting meals. We did a ton of walking while we were in Bolivia, which probably was good since the meals were so heavy. At some point we’re going to try and make our own version of Pique Macho here at home, but clearly not as large of a portion. It is basically a pretty simple dish of beef, hot dogs (sausages), tomatoes, peppers, onions, potatoes, and in some cases boiled eggs. Despite the fact that it is considered a traditional Bolivian dish, we saw it prepared differently at various restaurants, so it seems that it is more of style than a very specific dish.

Unexpected Discoveries

On May 31, 2016 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn South America7 Comments

We had planned on seeing quite a bit while we were in Bolivia, but on the day that we went to Incallajta, our guide treated us to a couple of unexpected treats. As we drove from Cochabamba into the surrounding mountains, we stopped at a tiny village. This was the first time that our guide had taken this route and he was excited to find a little Spanish church that he’d never seen before. Then, after we visited the ruins, our guide took us to what he called a “ghost village” where almost all of the inhabitants had moved away. Neither of these stops were on our agenda for the day, but they made for some of the most interesting memories of the trip.

As we drove through the countryside filled with farms where the people worked the land as they have for hundreds of years, we stopped to talk to a couple of villagers. Well, we didn’t talk to them because they only spoke Quechua, but our guide and driver spoke to them. The person who had the keys to the church wasn’t there, but we peeked in through a tiny window to see the altar. This tiny little church probably hasn’t had foreign visitors in all of its history, but we were excited to see the unexpected treasure.

Visiting the town of Chimboata left us emotionally drained. Our guide, Remy, took us to the Spanish colonial village for us to see a traditional Bolivian village. He told us about an old man that he used to visit whenever he would take people to the town, but he had recently passed away. As we walked through the empty streets we came upon a woman laying in the doorway of an abandoned building. He spoke to her in Quechua and she sat up and showed us the yarn that she was spinning. Remy told us that she had seen our camera and had said that it was okay for us to take her photo. She was literally just waiting for her time to come and it was extremely heart-wrenching to see. As we waited by our van, Remy and our driver looked around to see if there was anyone around to take care of the woman. Eventually they found a man who told them that she was being taken care of, but sitting in an abandoned building did not seem like being taken care of to us.

As we drove out of town, we came upon a group of children on their way home from school. One of them was a five year old girl named Bellina who had a three mile walk ahead of her to her house. So, we offered her a ride and took her the rest of the way. She smiled bashfully and spoke quietly as we drove her to her home. Her youthful smile was such a contradiction to seeing the old woman in the village. These people live without electricity and their only concerns are growing food and taking care of family. The thought of politics, world conflict, or anything that doesn’t have to do with their day-to-day living doesn’t ever cross their minds. Our visit to their village or farms was probably quickly forgotten by them, but will be remembered by us forever.

It is often the case that the unexpected parts of a trip are sometimes the most interesting. We are extremely thankful for our guide, whose enthusiasm for sharing Bolivia with us took us to see things we might not have otherwise seen. Despite all of the historical and beautiful sites that we saw, it is the people that are most fascinating. The thought of that poor woman laying on the floor will remain entrenched in our memories as will the smile on the little girl who we gave a ride.

Lessons Learned

On May 26, 2016 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Photo Challenge, South America6 Comments

Every trip brings with it a series of experiences, mostly good, but not always. And with those experiences come opportunities to learn. To learn new things about a culture, about history, the people, and sometimes even yourself. This week’s Discover Challenge is about learning and so we figured it would be a timely opportunity to consider what we learned from our travels within Bolivia. We certainly learned a great deal about the Incan culture between our visits to Incallajta, Tiwanaku, and the islands of Lake Titicaca. We also found that our grasp of the Spanish language was not nearly sufficient for a country where people who spoke English were few and far between, but we also learned that push come to shove, we were able to communicate effectively enough. Whether spending the night in jungle, zip-lining in the canopy, riding cable cars above the city, or going into caves filled with bats, we discovered that we even more adventurous than we previously believed that we were.

Temple on Sun Island with Moon Island in the Distance

There is a saying that you learned everything that you needed to learn in life in your first years of school. In many ways we believe that this is true. You learn how to interact with other people, follow rules of society, and most importantly learn how to learn. Once you learn how to learn, learning becomes second nature and you’ll spend the rest of your life looking forward to learning new things. We were so fascinated by the history of Bolivia, and specifically the Incas, that we’re looking to buy a couple of books and delve even deeper into those subjects. We usually do a lot of reading in advance of heading to someplace that we haven’t visited before, but we didn’t do as much preparation for this trip. In some ways that made each discovery during our adventure that much more enjoyable as we literally learned something new every day.

With every trip that we take, we come home feeling more enriched than when we left. We feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn from many different people during our travels. If you have the opportunity to work with guides while travelling within a country, you will often get to learn even more than if you just explore a country on your own. We like to do a combination of the two, exploring on our own and working with guides, trying to get the best of both worlds. Life is a constant learning experience and if we ever stop learning we will stop growing and travelling.