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Bolivia: Tentación

We left Chulumani early in the morning, looking for Hernán Justo. He's the newly-elected president of the Departmental Association of Coca Producers or ADEPCOCA, an increasingly powerful organization that represents the rights of cocaleros to sell their coca in the legal market. People around town had told us that Justo was a young and charismatic farmer-turned-union leader -- just the man to talk to us about the commercialization of coca and how it's faring so far.

But when we arrived at his house in the small village of Pasto Pata, his wife emerged looking quite serious and unapologetic, and said that Justo, like everyone else in town, was nursing a hangover or "chasqui". So we decided to wait until he'd wake up. After all, we'd gone out to see him during Tentación, the last day of Carnaval when heavy drinking is more common than eating lunch or going out to tend the fields.

Untitled_13_4 Half a block from Hernán's house, a party was just getting started. Beer and chicha flowed across two benches facing each other -- the men sat on one side, the women, on the other. It was only 9 a.m. One middle-aged woman sitting across from us handed us each a small plastic cup and asked us to down our drinks, then quickly refilled them again and passed them to the people next to us. A band of locals was starting to play loudly, and as if on cue, everyone around us stood up, half drunk already, and began to do a little line dance down the street. The music kept the villagers dancing up and down the street for almost an hour; it was clear that if this noise didn't wake Hernán Justo up from his "chasqui", nothing else would.

We left Pasto Pata by mid-morning without our interview, but not too disappointed after all.

Then we set out to find Ángel Clavijo, whom we'd heard was the man around town, a former coca union leader or "dirigente" from Chicaloma. We found him around lunch-time at his home, just as he was getting back from the field. Ángel, like many others in Chicaloma, is half Aymara, half black; with striking features and a very friendly demeanor. He's a renaissance man-of-sorts -- a passionate soccer player, a farmer and local political leader, and an aspiring eco-tourism entrepreneur. Ángel told us that years ago he had the vision of turning Chicaloma into a tourist destination, by opening the first hotel in town. The idea was to use the town's coca culture and lush mountain landscape as a draw for a new kind of sustainable and educational tourism.

"Me and a group of other coca farmers from around here bought an old house close to the river and decided we would remodel it to welcome guests," he said. "We wanted to have tourists come and see how we live in Chicaloma, how we farm coca and why we do it". But after four years of planning and networking with local authorities, the old house is still unfinished and without guests. Ángel blames it on the lack of interest by the local and national governments, and the fact that they haven't been yet been able to get logistical help to finish their project. "They say they want a 'revalorización', a new appreciation of legal coca and its uses, but they don't support efforts from people like us throughout Los Yungas".

Back in Bolivia's capital, La Paz, there are a number of resources that are meant to represent the interests of legal coca farmers. There's the Vice-Ministry of Coca, and ADEPCOCA. There's also the Ministry of Commerce and Small Industry which is supposed to give farmers grants that are coming straight from Venezuela's Chávez. And most importantly, there's Evo Morales, the first cocalero president in Bolivia's history.

But despite this unique set of circumstances, Ángel says that when it comes to coca, Chicaloma residents have yet to receive any help from Venezuela, the ministries or the federal government. "There are good intentions and a lot of promises, but until today, we still haven't received any help," says Ángel.

Untitled_10_2 Ángel excuses himself and heads back inside to eat his lunch. Outside his house, people are starting to celebrate the last day of Carnaval Chicaloma-style -- with clown costumes, Saya music, confetti, water balloons, and lots to drink. Tentación is the last chance for villagers to party before the holiday ends and their inevitable return to farm work. A group of young men chewing coca and drinking beer on the street start jamming with their instruments -- one of them is Freddy, an eighteen year-old who makes a living as a day laborer here. He flashes us a huge smile and looks visibly drunk. "Will you come back tomorrow?" he asks. "I'll be harvesting coca early in the morning and you can come and take pictures". But judging by how much partying he still has ahead of him, it's hard to imagine that Freddy won't be nursing his "chasqui" all day.