The week to come

02.09.2004

I'm travelling to Cochabamba Thursday night, to be at CEDIB Friday. If things go well, I hope to pick up a large chunk of archival data all nice & packaged for me. Or, at least, to reiterate instructions. I'll stay over the weekend, see the sights, do the tourist thing. Then head back to La Paz Monday evening.

Of course, tomorrow there's a 48 hour transit strike scheduled. So we'll see how that goes. The syndicato de transportistas is opposed to Mesa's decesion to de-regulate gasoline prices. I'm wondering how much the strike will effect the city, which seems fed up w/ protests in general.

Now I'm in the process of lining up interviews w/ "public intellectuals" — which is harder than you'd think. Paceņos are notoriously lax about scheduling, not like Americans (not even like cambas). So you're told to call one day, only to be told to call back the next day (or next week). You quickly learn to take anything most paceņos tell you w/ a grain of salt. Cambas are just more direct, and if they can't meet w/ you, they just tell you.

I'm planning on taking the extra time I have (trusting on CEDIB) to hit some libraries & devour some literature I've not had a chance to look at yet. Especially on the 1952 Revolution. But just general political literature of the last 20 years or so.

Oh, and tonight I'm finally going to see Tarantino's Kill Bill. That should be fun.

Posted by Miguel at 05:52 PM

Comments

Kill Bill is a fun film, esp. for Tarintino aficianados.

Note: the garden scene towards the end b/w O-Ren Ishii and Uma Thurman's character, "the bride."

Posted by: tom at February 9, 2004 06:08 PM

Of course the transit strike had to be day I fly into La Paz. Luckly I'm going to fly on to Santa Cruz (rather than be stuck in El Alto) and then swing back around to La Paz in about a week when (hopefully) the transit situation has blown over. Regardless, I'm super excited to finally see Bolivia, I doubt I'll get much sleep tonight.

Posted by: Grant at February 9, 2004 07:04 PM