I think February is a good time to plan vacations and forget winter. How about a trip to Bolivia? If you’re unsure, why not
read Ignore
the Pain? Besides being exciting this book gives you a chance to do
some armchair traveling to Bolivia.
Why would
Bolivia interest me?
What do you like
to do when you travel? See historical sites, shop for unusual items, learn
about a different culture, hike a bit, and be surprised.
Bolivia fits the
bill and Ignore the Pain gives you a realistic, but safe view of
Bolivia.
In Ignore the Pain, you get a guided
tour of attractions in Bolivia, like the Witches’ Market of La Paz. You’ll not
only see native women in black bowler hats and layers of brightly covers skirts
sell llama fetuses for offerings to the gods, but also smell the aromas of the
city. (Note: Not all are pleasant.) You’ll also travel across the austere,
almost Mars-like landscape of the Altiplano to see the exotic stone columns in
the Valley of the Moon and the shores of Lake
Poopó, long a summer nesting spot for flamingos and now polluted by mining
runoff.
Sara is your guide. Of course, her view of Iglesia
de San Francisco in La Paz might be a little different that that of the average
tourist. Someone determined to kill her is chasing her across the church’s
roof. The description of the roof is realistic – I’ve been there.
Why read Ignore the
Pain before you plan a trip to Bolivia?
There’s a reason Ignore the Pain is a thriller.
Bolivia is a poor country with severe problems. Sara gets into the midst of
these problems because of her past history and her current assignment as a
consultant on public health issues.
Bolivia is
the third largest producer of coca,
the raw material for cocaine, and coca is everywhere in Bolivia. If you don’t
believe me, look at tea bag cover I saved from my trip to Bolivia. Coca tea is
available in most restaurants.
But don’t jump to conclusions. the use of coca in Bolivia is
often logical. Thus in Ignore
the Pain, Sara learns laborers in the silver mines of Potosí carry
little food or water into the mines. In order to endure the pain caused by
thirst, hunger, and heavy exertion at a high altitude (13,000 feet), they chew
coca leaves. The active ingredients in coca leaves are stimulants, which help
users ignore pain. Those facts are also basis for the title of the novel.
Bolivia suffers from
grinding poverty. Over 6% of
the children born in Bolivia die before five years of age. Instead of reciting
statistics, I had Sara relate a story to her colleague Lew in Ignore
the Pain. Sara’s story is based on the explanation an artist in the La
Paz area gave me for a picture seen everywhere in Bolivia in 2006.
She
(Sara) pointed to a drawing of three Bolivian women in bowler hats with
pigtails down their backs…. “This picture was emblazoned on all sorts of items
in the markets of La Paz during my previous trip to Bolivia. When I visited a
studio by the Valley of the Moon, an artist claimed he knew the story behind
this drawing.”
Lew
stopped shuffling papers and cocked his head. Sara continued. “He said when
poor women in rural areas have twins, they give the smaller infant to the
mountain gods. Supposedly this picture depicts the sad scene of a mother and
her female relatives walking up the mountain to make their sacrifice.”
“Wouldn’t
happen. Bolivia is a Catholic country.”
“That’s
what I said. The artist laughed at me and claimed the women in the rural
villages knew from experience they couldn’t produce enough milk for two
children. And one healthy child was better than two dead ones.” Sara paused,
“Don’t know if the story is true, but it would be interesting to collect data
on perinatal mortality and the incidence of multiple births. We might be
surprised by the results.”
I hope you’ve decided to blast out of
your winter doldrums by reading Ignore
the Pain. Then you
can decide if you want to visit Bolivia.
