Ciao!

First day in Cochabamba

My first day in Cochamba's ending rather well. Since I'm here alone, I'm distracting myself w/ frequent, quick online bursts. It's been a cloudy, overcast day (w/ light rain on & off), so I haven't done much sight-seeing. Plus, I spend most of the afternoon at CEDIB, looking over their archives, marking what I want photocopied.

The CEDIB trip was great. They had 1993 & 2002 materials already sorted; I just had to pick out which pages I wanted (almost all of them). The 1997 materials are all on disk, so they're going to make me a copy (hopefully on CD). Materials for 1985 & 1989 elections will have to be gone through by hand. And they're willing to do that for me! I've to pay, of course, but it's not staggering. Monday I go pick up what's ready for me; the rest they offered to mail to my PO Box in La Paz. This trip is definitely worth my time, since it's saving me months of archive work I'd have to do instead.

Eduardo, a frequent reader/commenter, recommended some places to eat. And so lunch was Brazilian buffet. Nothing fancy, but great food. After my CEDIB visit, I walked to the monument of the Heroinas de la Coronilla, perhaps my favorite monument in the country. Took some pictures of the site, as well as the city as seen from the hill.

I then walked the Avenida Ballivian (which closely resembles Avenida Monseñor Rivero in Santa Cruz). I found a nice cochabambino restaurant — La Kantuta — and enjoyed pollo dorado (they were out of rabbit) & Taquiña (a local beer). Then back towards the city center, looking for an open café.

Tomorrow, I want to hit some museums around town, then a quick lunch, then off to Quillacollo (a village just outside the city). Not sure what else I'll have time for, but there's always Sunday. Saturday night, I hope to get back to Cocha to see a show at La Pimienta. We'll see how that goes.

Monday, it's back at CEDIB, a visit to CESU — the post-graduate program for Universidad Mayor de San Simón (UMSS) — w/ hopes of lining up some interviews for a future trip. Then. Back to La Paz.

Posted by Miguel at 10:48 PM

Comments