After the most needed sleep of my entire life, I woke up on our first day in Cochabamba, Bolivia. We started the day early, climbing into our bus for the long ride through the outskirts of the city to make our way to a beautiful house museum, the “Villa Albina”.
It was absolutely stunning, with architectural and landscaping motifs imported from all around the world. The house was built as a country home for the Patiños: Simon, Albina, and their children in the beginning of the twentieth century. Simon Patiño was a very successful industrialist, the most notable one from South America, and this house (one of his many properties) absolutely reflected the wealth he was able to accrue in his business ventures.
Following the museum, we visited an architectural site that our professor, David Sr, had worked on, and he regaled us with all of the interesting history surrounding the maize huts we were seeing at the top of this mountain. The site is home to modern recreations of the woven “qollcas” that ancient Incan people used to dry out their corn harvest before it was ready to travel with. I learned on this trip that Bolivia is home to dozens of different varieties of corn, and it is one of the crops that the community has been reliant on throughout their entire history.
By the time we were done with that, it was time for lunch, which we enjoyed at a picnic by the Urkupina Religious Site, where a miracle is said to have taken place. Our sandwiches were tasty, and when we were no longer hungry, we made our way over to a lovely woman we were meeting, and she gave us a traditional Andean blessing. This included burning various symbols of luck and prosperity, and holding goals in our mind as we each poured small amounts of beer by the altar. She prayed to the christian God, as well as Pachamama, which is essentially the spiritual being of Mother Earth for our safety, happiness, and success in life. It was quite beautiful.
Newly replenished and blessed, we continued our sightseeing by driving up another mountain to take in the views of the sprawling city from the base of the Christo de la Concordia statue. Similar to the one in Rio de Janeiro, this enormous sculpture of Jesus can be seen from pretty much anywhere in the city. We enjoyed pointing him out throughout the rest of our trip, happily exclaiming “We were there!” whenever we noticed it on the horizon.
After taking some group pictures, we were free to go off to dinner, and following a delicious meal, we were off to bed.
The next day, I woke up with some food poisoning, but that didn’t stop me from having a wonderful time. We visited the San Simon Archaeological museum in downtown Cochabamba which featured several artifacts that our professor had discovered himself. After learning about the rich indigenous history at the museum, we headed to the Plaza Principal and the nearby marketplace. There we were able to feed the pigeons alongside the locals and buy ourselves plenty of souvenirs in the many stalls at the market. My favorite purchase was a beautiful silver ring showing off a piece of “Bolivianite”, which is a stunning stone that was discovered in Bolivia. It is also known as “Ametrine”, because it is a combination of amethyst and citrine, which gives it a very unique color patterning. It is unlike any other jewelry I’ve seen, with the stone displaying both yellow and purple in a single piece. I liked my ring so much I went back at the end of our trip to get my mom a pendant in the same stone!
The last thing we did that night was hear from our guest lecturers, the Cholita Skateboarders. These women showcased their indigenous heritage in their unique skateboarding attire. They prided themselves on subverting cultural expectations and encouraging people to take pride in their identity and engage in a physical activity that requires resilience and perseverance. After their inspiring presentation, they showed us some awesome tricks and even let us try out their skateboards ourselves. I had a marvelous time!
The next day, after our class with David Sr., we got to hear from another fantastic guest lecturer, the talented performance artist Alejandra Dorado. Alejandra is well known in Bolivia for her feminist art and activism. Her art told the stories of the violent feminicide that plagued Bolivia for a long time. She brought attention to the injustices that women in society face, bringing awareness to the issues that need voices. She told us all about her favorite projects from the past several years and answered all our questions about her inspirations and experience as an artist. She had a really moving presentation, and it impressed me and my friends so much it ended up being the guest lecture that my group focused on for our final project.
Before I knew it, we were halfway done with our program! We each finalized and submitted our first journal entry, eager to learn what else the city of Cochabamba had in store for us.
