Saturday - January 02, 2010
[63] Cochabamba, Coroico, La Paz
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Written by Karin-Marijke
Written by Coen
by Karin-Marijke on Suite101.com
With thanks to the Dutch who contributed the pictures for this website story.
Dutch fan club in Bolivia
Without any hiccups we drive the 400 kilometres from La Paz to Cochabamba and park in front of Hotel Portales – the hotel where Jaap arranged for accommodation for his Dutch guests that have come all the way to Bolivia to attend his wedding. It is a hotel far above our budget and even though Jaap en Carla offer rooms to all their guests, we are happy to sleep in our own house on wheels, which is possible in the parking lot of the hotel.
"The normal entrance is too low for your vehicle," the receptionist states and explains that we can drive around the block to come to the rear of the parking lot via an alley. His explanation is somewhat vague so he calls a cleaning boy to lead the way. This boy immediately states that the alley has become inaccessible, which in the hierarchy of hotel personnel means that the receptionist is now losing face, and an embarrassing silence follows. Coen and I pretend not to understand the discussion that follows. After a while the boy does accompany Coen but they are back within minutes.
"The alley is totally overgrown with vegetation, it hasn't been used for years," Coen tells me. 'Know your own hotel,' we think to ourselves with a smile. However, it appears that the regular entrance is higher than the receptionist thought it was, and we have soon found our home for the coming days.
Soon we meet Jaap's fan club – an impressive one. No fewer than 15 friends and family have flown in from Holland to attend his wedding. A large delegation of course, and in our own Dutch way we socialise and have wonderful days together. The last wedding clothes are bought and Jaap's parents take us out for dinner. Jaap and his friends have another bachelor party [the official one was last week, in La Paz] until the early hours.
Bolivian wedding in Cochabamba
The wedding is great. Relaxed, beautiful, emotional and all other adjectives used to describe a beautiful wedding. Carla, with her seven-month pregnant belly, had succeeded excellently in finding a wedding dress and looks radiant. Together with Jaap in his new ochre-coloured linen suit they are a handsome couple.
bachelor party in Hard Rock Café | bride, groom, parents and bridesmaids | party-time | Jaap and Carla
Jaap had ordered five taxis but, in accordance with the Bolivian way of doing things, only four arrive. Nobody is surprised. At five to twelve we are on our way – the church wedding starts at twelve. Nobody worries about that either because, after all, we are in Bolivia and here time works differently.
Panic threatens when we discover that, for whatever reason, the church officials have decided to start the service with Dutch punctuality. That this isn't normal is apparent from the fact that at the beginning of the service there are few guests other than the Dutch delegation. Carla is exactly on time, waiting to enter the church with her father. Exactly at twelve the music starts and everybody looks around where to go and where to sit – a kind of relaxed disorganisation. During the ceremony other Bolivian guests arrive and by the end of the service the church is quite packed.
The disorganised church wedding is quite a contrast with the professionally conducted civil wedding which is performed by an enthusiastic lady who marries Jaap and Carla in the garden where the wedding festivities are held. After the formalities, guests are invited to step forward to take the microphone for a speech or to congratulate the bridal couple. Four waiters, dressed to a T, parade briskly down the garden with serious faces as if they are on their way to a funeral – from their round service trays they serve champagne and the official toast can take place.
After more speeches and champagne it is serious party time: the four waiters march another round through the garden, this time their trays carry bottles of rum and whiskey which are placed on all tables. In Bolivia, weddings may be a serious reason to get drunk, I have been told, but if truth be told, this wedding didn't become a booze-up at all – it was a happy, joyful gathering.
Some aspects are different from weddings in Holland. As is common in the US, Jaap and Carla had a 'rehearsal' the previous day in the church. During this rehearsal the participants practise who has to stand / sit where and when. Well, that didn't quite work out, as described above. Another difference is that in Bolivia you can't have a family member as a witness. During the civil wedding I became confused when the padrina and madrina were called forward and only a Bolivian couple stood next to the bridal couple but Jaap's godmother Janine didn't. Apparently at a Bolivian wedding it is possible to have several padrinas and madrinas, which has nothing to do with godparents of a newborn baby. This particular padrina and madrina were “sponsors” of the ceremony, and this way there may be a padrina/madrina of the wedding cake, of the flower decorations or other specific elements of a wedding. A padrina/madrina organises this particular element of the wedding and pays for it as well.
Food prepared underground and a thermal bath
With the Dutch delegation and Carla's family we go out for a farewell lunch the next day. Bolivians enjoy going out for lunch [it is their main meal, not dinner] and Sunday is a typical family day during which families go out to a restaurant and spend the afternoon socialising and eating. Carla's family suggests an outdoor restaurant which is equipped with a playground for children. The speciality of this restaurant is meat cooked underground – or so we are told. A fire is ignited and when the wood has become coals, the meat is put on top and covered to be cooked. When we ask if we can see where this is done we are shown around the premises more or less from one corner to the other. We end up in a far corner where an old oven is partly covered in rubbish but we never get to see the 'meat kitchen', so to speak. We wonder if the technique is no longer used, but to avoid losing-face-scenarios we don't ask.
Dutch traditions of songs and decorations| Mexican tradition of mariachis | first dance | departure from Cochabamba
No matter how the meat is prepared, it is extraordinarily tasty and tender. The quantities served are huge, I could live on my serving for three days, but according to Carla's family these are normal portions. With heavy stomachs we say farewell and all go our separate ways: the Dutch take a plane to La Paz, Carla and her family stay in Cochabamba and Carla's brother Gustavo makes a telephone call to arrange a place for us for the night. This way we end up at Hotel de la Torre with the hospitable owner Carlos who welcomes us to his place and insists we enjoy ourselves by making use of the hotel's thermal baths. This natural water source provides hot water of 40 degrees Celsius, which is cooled down to 32. It is Sunday afternoon and we search for a quiet corner in a swimming pool that is filled with playing, diving and jumping kids – a wonderful children's paradise while mothers sit in the water in small groups, chatting.
Together on honeymoon
When we wake up it is raining, the world is shrouded in clouds. Boring and grey. No joy to drive those 400 kilometres back to La Paz. Despite the bad weather the return trip goes fast and we decide to continue to Coroico, where Jaap and some Dutchies are staying. It takes more than an hour just to cross El Alto and La Paz. Unfamiliar with the traffic situation in overcrowded El Alto we end up in the wrong lane of the five-lane highway. On all sides we are cornered by taxi-buses. The ones in front wait until they have enough passengers before driving off. One of the drivers tells us it'll take at least another hour. With lots of effort and angry stares, because the drivers are unwilling to move an inch, we push our way through the waiting lines to the farthest lane on the left – the only one where traffic continues to flow.
From traffic-infested El Alto we struggle through traffic jams in La Paz and are finally on our way. A tollbooth. Normally these are passed quickly but here is a trafficjam. We suspect a deal between the tollbooth employees and the street vendors that have lined up their food stalls along the road. Both sides of the road consist of blue plastic roofs over frying pans, where chicken and French fries are prepared. As soon as the bus in front of us halts, the vendors run to it in large numbers. They are not allowed to enter the bus and all sales take place through the high windows. Bananas, meals in plastic bags, bottles of coke are thrown up through the open windows and money is thrown down by the clients – by looking at the accuracy with which the exchange takes place we can see that this is a common way of doing business. Considering the quantities that are bought it also looks as if the bus passengers expect this stop to be able to stock up on food and drinks.
Dutch songs | farewell lunch in Cochabamba | cycling on the 'Death Road' | discussions in Coroico
Finally we are through. We quickly ascend from 4000 metres to the 4600 metres' high pass and subsequently descend to 1500 metres. From the bare, grey altiplano we enter green forests where temperatures become more pleasant. The rainy season has started and the first downpours have created landslides: parts of the road have been destroyed and at times we have to wait because stones and rocks roll down the slopes. We are pleasantly surprised to see that the fallen rocks and stones are cleared immediately to keep the lanes free – a job not without some risk.
Coroico is a hill station with lovely views of the forest-clad mountain slopes. It is a good region for hiking – although preferably in the dry season – and has a lively downtown plaza and market. With the Dutch we stay a bit longer in Bolivia and spend some relaxed days together as well as the Christmas holidays.
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