I'm learning a lot more about Bolivian culture living with my family. They are very religious but also pretty political and I've had some very interesting conversations with Marcelo (the dad). The family lived in brazil for 8 years and he´s not very happy about the state of Bolivia.
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| Marcelo, Sofia, Marcelito, Lillian and Dani enjoying some icecream after a traditional sunday lunch |
In many ways Bolivian culture is very traditional and conservative. I always have breakfast and lunch with my family and for lunch we go to Lillian's mum's house everyday for a three course meal. There's usually at least 12 people there including uncles and cousins. In Bolivia lunch breaks are usually at least 2 hours long.
The school day is only 4 hours long so the kids then go home to study and we all go back to work.
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| Roco - one of our many friendly guard dogs |
Both Lillian and her mum have several cats and dogs. Pets are really popular here although they are not particularly sentimentalised and lots end up as street dogs. I remember staying with the indigenous family in Peru and the five year old being positively encouraged to kick the cat up the arse if it tried to come into the kitchen.
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| Rex - our other friendly guard dog |
Similarly, at one lunch with the family, the grandad, a very mild mannered taxi driver, noticed that the cat Figaro was begging for food next to me so he quietly picked it up by its neck and threw it out of the window!
The most famous street dog here is a very well fed Alsatian called choco who hangs out around the main square. He's called the gringo dog because he knows if you are foriegn and will follow gringos around all day. He also only responds to English commands! There are many theories as to why this is. He's a real living urban legend of sucre.
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| Choco the Gringo dog |
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| traditional bolivian chicharron - deep fried pork..... mmmmm heart attack. |
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