Introducing Yamandu Ploskonka
in Las Carreras, La Paz, Bolivia

Until recently I lived in Uruguay.

Right here in Las Carreras, La Paz, it's not as cold as in La Paz itself, and yes, it's been a bit cool for a summer. The Bolivian Highlands have a very definite rain season, and it coincides with summer, so you expect a shower daily, up to a day-long storm. Being in the middle of mountain valleys this poses real dangers of flash floods, and every year some loss of property, or even life, happens. Summer is from December to March.

It's quite a change. If there is any sort of a rain season in Uruguay, it happens during the winter - June to August. I don't really know what to prefer. Rainy winter makes for very miserable weather but then it is over and you can pretty much enjoy the rest. Here you get like now several days that are quite a problem if you want to keep your carpets clean, but then little real summer.

Up here sunscreen is really needed, I try to be careful and use it often. It's amazing how fast you can get a sunburn, and I don't want to push my luck when it comes to my skin. I still want to enjoy lying in the sand in some Pacific island one day.

Encarta says we are at
16* 39'South
68* 2' West
(near Tapichullo and Mecapaca)

Here it's Las Carreras, La Paz Department, Republic of Bolivia, South America. We are at about 8.000 feet (2.400m)of altitude, in a valley downriver of La Paz city. It is a rural community, about 500 people in the village. Mainly flower and vegetables producers. I work in a carpentry shop.

Aymara is spoken by most of the people as their mother tongue. Th official language is Spanish, and most people can use it well enough. Aymara is a native language spoken by some 2 million people in the Bolivian and Peruvian highlands.
I am trying to learn it, it's not that easy !
Kahmeesahkee (how are you ?) Waleekee (OK !)

It's raining right now, as it does most every day in Summer ( December - March, as this summer in the southern hemisphere) Autumn and Spring are mild and dry, Winter is coldish and dry. We had some sleet today too.

In schools, the classes go from 20 to 50 students, the latter rather too common in the state schools. A school is very large here when it has 300 students. Our school in Las Carreras has only one class for preschool to 2nd grade (all in the same classroom, with only one teacher), and there are 25 children. Older ones go to another school in Valencia, about 3 Km from here.

The most common sport is soccer. Very little else. Girls and women practice almost no sports (there's no law against them, but that's just the way things happen here).

Most "campesinos" (farmers) build with adobe (mud blocks, left to dry in the sun, then used as bricks with more mud as mortar). Richer people use bricks. Cement blocks are very seldom used. Windows tend to be small, since people keep the traditions of living in the mountains, where it's very cold.

Written by Yama.

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This page was last modified on 30th April, 1999