The Land of Bikes and Sun Hats... Sombreros and Bicis

Abra Pampa, Argentina

We rolled into town in the early evning, and the very first thing that struck us were the large quantities of sombreros (sun hats in traditional indigenous style) and bicycles. We giggled in excitement, as we always do when we stumble across towns or cities with a large number of cyclists. Here in Abra Pampa you see all types of folks, women, men, children, biking, and many of them are sporting thier traditional dress and the majority of them are sporting a sombrero.

Abra Pampa is a small city in the middle of the paramo surrounded by mountians and llamas. It is a lovely town with a lovely carnaval (we spent half of our carnaval there!), and is unfortunately highly contaminated with lead. The foriegn owned (no surprise) lead-processing factory entered the town about 50 years ago, and left 10 years ago leaving behind giant mountains of lead which, via wind and water, has contaminated every inch of Abra Pampa and a 15km radius around it. Children are born with high levels of lead in their blood passed on from their mothers and then the blood level increases with age as they drink and breath lead everyday of thier lives. Because of the lead some people are hyper active, others are larthargic, and all have memory problems. It´s a huge problem, and the family Baldarama, with whom we stayed, wants to leave and move to La Quiaca to escape the environmental poison, even as they continue to struggle in thier campaign to get the government to clean up the poison. It´s a very sad situation, because the company left without cleaning up thier mess, and the government doesn´t want anything to do with it, and the folks in the town don´t have the money or resources to clean it up. So what happens? The people of Abra Pampa continue to live in a sea of lead poisoning...

One very positive aspect of Abra Pampa is the alternative library there, run by volunteers, including the family Baldarama with whom we stayed (because they are friends of Mamondes-Baldarama, the family with whom we stayed in Amaiche de Valle). The library has books on social movements in Latin America, Indigenous movements, Indigenous culture, South American literature, etc... all subjects to help raise consciousness about human rights and environmentalism, and to help strengthen the indigenous movement. It´s a very positive place where they also perform ceromonies and give offerings to the Pacha Mama, in which we were lucky enough to participate. In Abra Pampa we learned a lot about the Indigenous movement, and la lucha para la vida (the struggle for life) that exists in Argentina and in all the area of South America that used to be the Incan empire (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina). The movement has spirit, and we wish our friends in Abra Pampa, Quilmes, Amaiche de Valle, etc... the best of luck in thier struggle.

As for the bike movement, we learned a lot from our friend Padre Quique, the pastor in the church in Abra Pampa who rides his bici everyday. You can hear his take on bike culture in Abra Pampa in the interview we had with him... just visit our google group http://groups.google.com/group/movementporuncambio Here is Padre Quique with his best friend/bicycle

Ironically the Mamonde-Baldarama family from Amaiche was there visiting at the same time as us! We had a marvelous time with them, the Baldarama family from Abra Pampa, and friends from the alternative library (like Luis, one of the only anarchists we´ve met on the trip). I also was very sick while in Abra Pampa, and Edmoundo (from the Abra Pampa family) helped to cure me by doing a cleansing (they believed that I was so sick because perhaps I climbed a mountain without asking permision from the Pacha Mama-mother earth, and so I needed to be cleansed and forgiven. They told us from now on we should ask permission to climb mountains, enter rivers or to camp, and we have done so.) The day we left they invited us to an asado (BB-Q... yes I´ve been eating meat during the trip...you have to be flexible in this type of thing) and a ceromony thanking the pacha mama for the cosecha (harvest) and for the tools that allow us to live our lives. The family blessed thier house and helped us to bless our bikes, which are our main tools in life right now--they are our mobility and our houses, and our happiness. We left covered in confetti and flour which they poured on our heads to represent the happiness they hoped for in our lives. We left Abra Pampa in happiness ...