Mud and Dogs

Mud and Dogs

Reyes is a beautiful city, surrounded by mud. During the rainy season, the unpaved road from Rurrenabaque to Reyes is, as our friend called it, mantequillado — like warm butter.

This is the only picture I have of a muddy road. Imagine this about 6 times wider with large trucks driving all day on it.

I watched the side of the road as we drove. It was just like the countryside anywhere: modest houses, cattle ranches, and clotheslines. And then my vision blurred, but it wasn’t a problem with my eyes. It took awhile to realize that the mud I had been staring at had become a thin body of water, the exact same color as the mud. Plants growing in the canal-shaped pond obscured the boundary between land and water. And the thing that made my mind go fuzzy and my eyes turn inside out was the reflection. I could not grasp that water the color of mud could reflect the plants and the sky. Yet it does.

This picture also doesn't match what I was writing about. You'll notice the light does indeed reflect off of it.)

Surprisingly, the streets of Reyes are clear of mud. They are paved, well-maintained, clean streets. The town square is manicured with flowering plants. The houses are in good repair. 

Reyes is so civilized, in fact, that dogs can sleep undisturbed in the middle of the street during rush hour. Not until the bumper of our pickup truck was literally on top of a dog did it acknowledge our presence and move out of the way.

You may be noticing a theme with the pictures by now. This dog is obviously not in the street. This is also not the city of Reyes. The dog, however, is lazy.

In contrast, people in the street are an entirely different matter. For example, signs that mark pedestrian crossings in the United States show a person walking, or two people standing by a crosswalk and waiting. In Bolivia the pedestrians on the signs appear to be running for their lives! Which is what actually happens when you try to cross the street.

One solution to the pedestrian “problem” is called teleférico. In La Paz, a series of tracks that resemble telephone lines are suspended above the city, carrying small “bubbles” filled with people. It might be a slower form of transportation, but no one has to run for their lives, and the dogs can sleep in peace.

Enlarge and zoom in on the trees in the center-ish of the shot. The bubble looking things are people transporters