Voting ends today for Lake Titicaca as one of “New Seven Natural Wonders of the World.”

The campaign to have Lake Titicaca listed as one of the New Seven Natural Wonders of the World is coming to a close.  I’ve written about this here before.  The Bolivian government is taking this campaign very seriously.  Various Bolivian officials (including the Prefect of the Department of La Paz and the Viceminister of Tourism) [...]

Bicentennial Symbols

The other predominant big event(s) (aside from swine flu) in La Paz right now center on bicentennial festivities.
This summer/winter is the bicentennial of cry for independence. La Paz is festooned with banners commemorating this anniversary and there are on-going cultural events to celebrate. There have been extensive building and clean up projects in the [...]

A New Spy Scandal: Bond. James Bond.

There’s been a lot of attention recently to the faux pas of the new James Bond film, which filmed Bolivian scenes in Chile with Chilean actors and even Chilean monuments (ironically, marking the victory of Chile over Bolivia in the War of the Pacific). Reporting on it are The Mirror (London), the Telegraph (London), Reuters [...]

Used Clothes, Fake Braids

When I was starting my fieldwork, a woman asked me if I washed my clothes. I admitted I paid someone to do it. But what about in the United States? she pressed. Of course, I answered, there I wash my clothes myself. She then told me that many Bolivians believe that [...]