It is always fun to walk into a place functioning so utterly under its own power that you are looked over as merely a curious and perhaps uninvited stranger. No one really notices you. The taxi people are not constantly calling over to you, the ladies on their piles of goods aren't yelling “papito, caserito, que vas a llevar!?” Caranavi is exactly that place. If however, the foreign visitor is an unnecessary addition to their society, the economy is not wholly divorced from the foreigner's world. Coffee, cacao and coca make up this town and region's most formidable and tasty products. They of course export most of these goods, in one way or another, remember of course that the USA consumes most of the world's cocaine, a sizable portion of it's coffee, and I don't think I need to even mention chocolate, thus we play a large part in making this place work. Other than these cash crops, the fertile Yungas region produces all sorts of tropical fruits and vegetables for the large La Paz market. Yet all this agricultural activity is apparently eclipsed in the town of Caranavi by the hegemony of the fried (broaster as they say here) and roasted (al spiedo) chicken joint. Each shop seems to do so inexplicable well, that none feel the need for variation well. By some unknown fascination for this, the most common of all foods, Caranavi is able to support hundreds if not thousands of chicken restaurants, and yet boasts not a single pizza parlor, or even an egg burger stand (not so uncommon in the rest of Bolivia)! The imagination does not stray far here in the beautiful semi-tropics. The discovery of the revolutionary grilled chicken, it must be stated for the sake of honesty, has resulted in the popping up of a few shops dedicated that particular chicken formula. And if you should want something other than french fries and rice under that piece of chicken, you are in luck in the Yungas, Plantains grow rampantly, and fried pieces of the platano may be an allowable substitute for fries. What more could you ask for? That night we ate fried egg on a pile of rice. Yum.
We arrived with the intention of visiting an acquaintance's farm plot not too far outside of town. He grows high quality coffee for export and consumption in his shop in La Paz. Having placed fifth I believe at the “cup of excellence” for all of Bolivia, I take it his coffee is good (Caitlin corroborates). Sadly we have such a limited time here that when transportation fell through, there was no way to guarantee the visit. We left. Wanting to stop in on Coroico, the destination of the “deadly road in America” and a tourist haven on the way back to La Paz (for the last time). You could not imagine a place more different from Caranavi. In short, no fried chicken. We are currently staying at an idyllic set of cabañas located above town called Sol y Luna. I imagine that this is close to paradise without, but with bugs. We splurged; I hope that slpurge doesn't result in malaria.
