a monthly rent in a paradise is 30 euro!!! a huge part of me just wants to stay in tocana village, picking up bananas and oranges from the trees, talking to the locals and soaking up the greenness of the hills. tocana is a little village near coroico where most of the people are of african descent. it´s so amazing to see the african-looking people wearing traditional bolivian clothes and women with curly hair woven into short plaits. they were brought here by the colonizers to work on the coca plantations and in the mines. somehow they have not mixed much but they adopted to the indiginious culture. sadly they dont know whereabouts in africa they are from and their native culture has been preserved mosty in forms of music and dancing. its only been 60 years since slavery was banned in bolivia! scarly enough some of them still work for the rich, looking after the laters´ houses and gardens rather then for themselves. but there ia a strong revilval spirit and more and more young tocanans go to study in la paz with an intention to come back and work for the community and cultivate the traditions.
we are unable to find a bus that goes there from coroico so we find a lady taxi driver who takes us there. we know she is giving us a very touristy price, but we want to see the village so much we decide to pay. the lady is asolutelty hilarious, knows everyone in the neighbourhood and stops every now and then for a chat with someone.we spend some time chilling with a family sitting in front of one the houses and the grama says she is 100 years old.
in the evenings we swim in the pool and stare into the stary sky. i truly dont need anything else...
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