Stumbled on this N.Y. Times video this evening brought a bit of a flashback.  I visited that ski lodge on Chacaltaya at least three times while assigned to Bolivia from 1991-1993.  The world’s highest ski resort was a tourist attraction, and it was cool to take visitors on an easy trip up to the 17,ooo+ foot peak for bragging rights.  My little Ford Escort could easily drive from La Paz to the lodge, and the hike to the peak could be made in tennis shoes as long as you had the lung capacity to survive the walk.  Have admit that beer was a particularly cost-effective buzz at that altitude as well, as I learned on a hash with the local Hash House Harriers, at least as long as it didn’t completely foam away.

Sad to see the glacier’s gone.  I know there was also an astronomy site nearby.  Hopefully people can still get up to the lodge for a good time and a drinkee even without the glacier to ski on.

I’ve had a soft spot for Bolivia ever since I was posted there from 1991-93.  Beautiful country, wonderful people.  Certainly the best two years of my time with State.  When I was there though relations were excellent, at least to the extent that slovenly throwing cash around to your friends creates better friendships.  Ahh, *sigh* the Drug War.  The good ol’ days.

Sad to see how far the pendulum has swung the other way though.  Personally, I didn’t think it had to happen.  Sooner or later the pendulum had to swing back from craven dependency toward having some sense of national pride and self worth.  There were bound to be some rocky steps with the U.S. as those relationships changed.  Not sure how a reassertion of national pride could come about without some conflict with the former dominant power.  But expelling a U.S. ambassador?  Those were U.S. dollar investments that brought the country so far so fast in the 1990s, and I can’t see Cuban and Venezuelan companies and institutions stepping up to the plate.   

LA PAZ, Bolivia – Companies such as Coca-Cola Co. could be barred from using the word “coca” in their brand names under a measure endorsed by a panel that is helping rewrite the Bolivian constitution.The Coca Committee of the assembly that is overhauling the constitution has accepted a proposal by coca leaf farmers introducing language that bans foreign companies from “using the name of the sacred leaf in their products.”

The bid to recognize coca as something inherently Bolivian is similar to measures that restrict the use of names such as champagne, tequila, feta and parmesan outside of certain regions.

I wonder how much Pepsi gave in Bolivian campaign contributions.