October 2, 2006

Riding to San Miguel del Bala | Rurrenabaque, Bolivia

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Olympus OM-10 | Fuji Superia 400
The best part about Rurrenabaque was the boat rides. Long, quite obviously handmade canoes are outfitted with motors for transporting tourists from the town into the jungle.

Pachamama Museum | Torotoro, Bolivia

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Olympus Stylus Epic | Fuji Superia 800
Seriously, is this crazy?? The Pachamama Museum appeared to be run by a true paleontologist (or possible geologist?) because he was referred to as "doctor," but...I think he went a little nutty. He would show us rocks that were a million years old, and then add, "it also looks like a car!" He made mosaics of walking dinos out of rocks, coating his walls. Toy dinosaurs (and a stray Godzilla) were scattered throughout his collection of fossils. And here...we have the rubber heads.

View of the town | Torotoro, Bolivia

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Olympus OM-10 | Fuji Superia 800

Huellas | Torotoro, Bolivia

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Olympus OM-10 | Fuji Superia 400
Torotoro is famed (well, to the limited degree that people have heard of Torotoro) for its dinosaur tracks, which are plentiful and easily accessible from the village. Shifting plates caused tilting and reshaping of the ground, resulting in many tracks that seem to run uphill. Seated above the tracks is William, our adorable 14-year-old assistant guide...little monkeyboy.

Laundry | Torotoro, Bolivia

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Olympus OM-10 | Fuji Superia 400
At the time of our visit, Torotoro had only had electricity for 2 years and running water for 1 year. However, not everyone was blessed with such conveniences, which puzzled me. It seems if the goverment or a private body would come into such a rural location and set the community up with modern conveniences, they shouldn't be charging a utility bill, right? Why is it that some people didn't have running water?

Well, at least I got to see this family washing clothes in the river, which was entertaining because of the small child hiding periodically under the colorful blanket.

Shepherd boy | Torotoro, Bolivia

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Olympus OM-10 | Fuji Superia 800

Morning street | Torotoro, Bolivia

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Olympus OM-10 | Fuji Superia 800

Morning street | Torotoro, Bolivia

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Olympus OM-10 | Fuji Superia 800

Morning street | Torotoro, Bolivia

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Olympus OM-10 | Fuji Superia 400
Morning in our lovely rural town.

Walking toward Umajalanta | Torotoro, Bolivia

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Olympus OM-10 | Fuji Superia 800

Campesinos | On the way to Torotoro

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Olympus OM-10 | Fuji Superia 800

Beast of burden | On the way to Torotoro

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Olympus OM-10 | Fuji Superia 800

Burros | On the way to Torotoro

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Olympus OM-10 | Fuji Superia 800
We stopped at this roadside stand on the way to Torotoro, for last-minute bathroom use and snack-buying. We were quickly distracted by the adorable donkeys across the street, especially the shorter shaggy one.

Our trusty vehicle | On the way to Torotoro

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Olympus OM-10 | Fuji Superia 800

Pottery | Huayculi, Bolivia

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Olympus OM-10 | Fuji Superia 800
Huayculi is apparently the pottery center of Bolivia, although we didn't receive much information about it. The most popular items seemed to be various vulgarly-shaped vessels for drinking chicha. For me the most interesting part was that the home of this pottery-making family was overtaken by the products.

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