The Chapare: Quite the Jungle

Last Friday, I traveled with a group of Maryknoll students and volunteers to the Chapare, a region in the department of Cochabamba. The Chapare is much different than the city of Cochabamba! It is very jungly, hot and humid, and the people who reside there live much differently. As we bused east towards the Chapare, it was crazy to me that we were so close to the city I am currently living in, but literally worlds away. The houses in the Chapare are made of banana leaves, small wood slats, adode, or bricks. Most homes had no doors and windows, and many have no running water or electricity. And, the towns there are very small and quaint. The roads are dirt and rocks. So, coming from the city of Cochabamba was an experience!

Saturday morning we went to visit Don Vicente and his land. Don Vicente was born in the most southern part of Bolivia, near the border with Argentina. When Vicente was a teenager, his family moved to the Chapare in search of a better life. When they arrived in the Chapare, they purchased a piece of land to cultivate and make a living from. They government told the family they could grown anything on their land, but coca. Coca, which has such an important cultural, social, and medicinal purpose to the indigenous of Bolivia, could not be grown. But, over the years, laws were changed, and coca can now be grown in the Chapare. Don Vicente is a very humble, hard-working man. He cultivates and grows coca, rubber trees, heart of palm, and cacoa. The process of cultivating his crops is hard work, and he only makes enough to get by. He lives in a small house made of adobe with his family, which is quite a distance from his land. He told us all about the attempted eradication of coca in the Chapare by corrupt presidents with help from the United States, and the constant battle with the coca leaf. Don Vicente explained that some coca farmers do divert some of their crop to cocaine production, but he does not because of the sacredness of the leaf and the strict laws against the production of the drug. President Evo Morales has recently made the laws against cocaine much more strict!

Next, we visited UMOFAR, the police unit that fights cocaine production and transportation. The officer touring us around, explained that unlike Colombia, cocaine production in Bolivia is done by families, not cartels. So, cocaine is produced on a much smaller scale, usually, and it is harder to catch shut down the labs and catch people transporting the drug. The production of cocaine has spread to poor communities in Santa Cruz and El Alto above La Paz. For many families, the production of cocaine is their only source of income. The Bolivian government is working to stop the production of cocaine, and put more focus on the organic growing of coca.

On Sunday we went to Parque Nacional Carrasco, a protected portion of the jungle! It was one of my favorite activities of the weekend! In the city, we are constantly surrounded by cars and buses, buildings and chaos, but in the middle of the jungle there is serenity and peacefulness. We went on a three hour hike covering only a small portion of the Parque. We say so many different trees and plants, birds, and even bats!

Overall, my weekend in the Chapare was absolutely amazing! I could have done without the millions of bugs and horrible humidity, but it was all part of the experience! A huge cockroach scurried down the bathroom wall one night and I found a frog in the shower. So, I was definitely in touch with nature!

Work is going so well! I have really gotten to know the kids and the tias I work with well! I cannot even think about leaving in December! These kids have been such an important part of my life for the last three months. But, there is still so much more to come and so much to look forward to!