In the village of Buen Pastor which is an arduous one-day march from the last track which can still somehow be navigated by a vehicle, the day begins – in typical Bolivian fashion – with drums. This is the wake-up call for the children who have their small school in the middle of the jungle.
The drum roll was repeated after about 15 and 30 minutes. The second alarm apparently signaled that it was time to leave the house, while the third alarm meant “you should already be at school by now”.
The teachers had more drums and a gong to indicate the breaks and the resumption of classes. On one of the evenings, I attended a village meeting, which had of course also been called by a drummer.
The conference was to take place on June 22, 1826, on the Isthmus of Panama […]. Bolívar had decided not to attend the proceedings so that it couldn’t be said that he had influenced its outcome. But it was precisely to influence the outcome that the Peruvian delegation arrived six months early, hoping to lay the groundwork for its point of view. As deliberations opened, the nations represented were Peru, Greater Colombia (which now consisted of Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador and New Granada), Mexico and the Federal Republic of Central America; that is to say, only four of the seven Latin American republics. The Argentines had declined outright, saying that they had “a horror of too early a union,” especially one advanced so unilaterally by Colombia. Chile had been too wrenched by internal conflagrations to participate; Bolivia had been willing, but its delegates arrived too late. The kingdom of Brazil, a monarchy with far stronger sympathies for Europe, had also refused, using its war with Argentina as an excuse.
Bolivia was not the only country to miss their flights to Panama.
The United States […] sent two delegates, but one died on the way, the second reached the meeting hall only after the congress was over.
Because the “Treaty of Union, League and perpetual Confederation” was ultimately only ratified by Greater Colombia, rendering Bolívar’s idea of a unified Latin America dead before it could get off the ground, Bolivia’s absence probably didn’t make much difference. But it’s interesting how such coincidences can shape politics and economics: Because Great Britain was present with observer status and the United States were not, Britain secured several trade deals with Latin American countries.
The real Bay of Pigs is not on Cuba, but on the eastern shore of Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. Here, the pigs have the beautiful beach to themselves.
And even when a human being passes by, it doesn’t bother the pigs. They keep enjoying the sun, the cool breeze and the view of the Cordilleras in the background.
When I came back home from a trip to the Bolivian jungle yesterday, I had already received dozens of e-mails from Britons along the lines of “my grandfather was from Germany, can I get a German passport?” As an expert in German citizenship law, I get these kind of questions all the time, but the increase in volume was significant after 23 June 2016. And never before have I gotten so many requests from Britain.
You can also see this in the statistics for my blog:
Clearly a significant spike after the result of the Brexit referendum was announced.
What did people look for? The top 3 posts all deal with German citizenship law.
And where do these questions come from? The overwhelming search volume was from the UK, and I bet that many visitors from Spain, France and the Netherlands were Britons who live there.
As a European, I am sad about Brexit. But for lawyers, these are going to be a few prosperous years.
Here are just a few samples of the questions I received in the days after the Brexit decision. You can enlarge them by clicking on the photos. Answers can be found on my FAQ page about German citizenship.
The more often you move, the more you find out what you like and what you don’t like. It has been emerging that I love mountains and grassland more than the sea or the tropics. Huge cities are impractical because you lose too much time in transit, but small villages become boring too easily. Mid-sized cities between a few hundred thousand a million people are perfect. If the climate is one of constant spring, one could almost want to stay forever. Like here in Cochabamba.
But because I am illegal in Bolivia since my visa expired in March and I am thus living under the constant threat of going to prison, it’s time to get moving again.
Looking for a city in South America with a similar quality of life, I have stumbled upon Arequipa in Peru, where I will move to in August 2016 and stay until the end of the year.
As you know, I am a great fan of natural disasters. It is therefore a further benefit that there are almost daily earthquakes in Arequipa and that I will have a view of volcanoes from my window.
The volcanoes Misti (5,822 meters) and Chachani (6,057 meters) are relatively easy to climb – when they are not erupting – and I will try to set new altitude records there.
Colca Valley also seems to be predestined for hiking.
But apart from that, I actually want to take a slow approach over the next six months. Less traveling, more sitting in the garden in the shadow of palm trees and finally putting the stories of the last few years to paper.
For my readers in Arequipa: I have rented a room for the first month of August, but I am still looking for an apartment for September-December 2016. Something furnished and quiet, so I can write there. Because of that, I am looking for an apartment of my own, nothing shared. Location almost not important. I hope to find something for less than 800 soles/month. Gracias!
Some people use their annual holiday for the Football World Cup. I only noticed that there even is a World Cup after planning my trip to Greece, Macedonia and Albania. I didn’t care, as long as it wouldn’t lead to trains being cancelled.
Thus, I was in the Albanian capital Tirana on 13 July 2014, the day of the final match between Germany and Argentina. The whole day I had seen people in Germany jerseys, German flags in front of restaurants and bars and on cars, and other black-red-golden markings. During a hike on Mount Dajti, I had met an Albanian who had pointed out that the parents of one of the German players, Shkodran Mustafi, actually came from Albania. But the enthusiasm for Germany seemed to be more general and independent of one player (who had to drop out due to an injury anyway). Already the day before, the lady who owned the pension where I stayed, had told me that she couldn’t wait for this World Cup to be over because she couldn’t bear the constant talk of “Germany, Germany” by her husband any longer.
The match was shown in every bar, ever restaurant, every garden. I could walk through all of Tirana without missing a second of the match. The largest congregation was in the center, where several huge screens had been put up, back to back, to that the viewers could watch from both sides. Each 50 or 100 meters there was another one of these sandwich screens, all the way through the pedestrian zone.
This is where I happened to pass by when the only goal of the match was scored:
And this was no neutral jubilation just because a goal had been scored. Even prior to that, the cheers had obviously been for the German team. I was however shocked to see that even in Albania, which had once been occupied by the Nazis, someone ran around with a “Deutschland über alles” placard. Lack of historical knowledge is a global phenomenon.
This boy couldn’t wait until the final whistle and started burning his flare prematurely:
When the match was finally over, the crowds were dancing as if Albania had become world champion:
Someone had brought along some fireworks (and I wonder if he would have used them for Argentina as well):
From the minaret of the nearby Et’hem Bey Mosque, the muezzin called “Allah u akbar”: God is great. That was really over the top, I thought.
Keep in mind: if you plan to escape the football frenzy during future European or World Cups, Albania is not a good destination. Apart from that, it is a very likeable country.
The Happy Hermit 