We took care of business in La Paz, shopping till we dropped at our base in the Wild Rover hostel which was absolutely filled with gap years who had just been freed from high school and parents. If ever you want a 24 hour party in Bolivia - go to Wild Rover! The only thing crazier than this university dorm was the city of La Paz itself.
The first glimpse of La Paz took my breath away. It is the highest capital city in the world and literally had us gasping for air while staring in awe at the astounding vertical layout. Most people approach the city on this motorway from the airport from 'El Alto'. This is the highest and poorest city almost of it's own. Then there is the lowest point, the rich 'zona sur', expat neighborhood, seperated by a full 1000 meters with a completely different culture. In the middle of this 180 degree shift from rich to poor is the main city of central La Paz.
Apparently La Paz has just 70000 vehicles on its roads but they have 14000 accidents every year. We held on for dear life in taxis (seatbelts havn't been around since Argentina). Our drivers often would do a hail mary motion as they set off. This photo shows one taxi where the steering wheel has been moved to the passenger seat. Of course the speedometer and guages were no longer working. I told the driver it probably wasn't important, and he chuckled in agreement.
In spite of its name, the City of Our Lady of Peace has seen a good deal of violence. Since Bolivian independence in 1825, the republic has endured 192 changes of leadership (yes, more than one a year). As we walked past the bullet-riddled presidential palace on the way to our party hostel we could see the bullett holes in some the buildings from when the army and police last had a shoot out in the year 2000. There has been an abnormally high mortality rateaccompanied with the highest office here in Bolivia's administrative capital. In fact the presidential palace on the plaza is now known as the Palacio Quemado (Burned Palace) owing to its repeated gutting by fire. As recently as 1946, then-president Gualberto Villarroel was publicly hanged in Plaza Murillo. Some fancy guards still stand outside evo's office, hard at work no doubt.
Streetside metal shacks are everwhere. They may open up into a soup stand or a DVD shop.
Away from this official square, the rest of La Paz is essentially one huge street market. The chaos escalates the farther you go up to the mercado negro from the main intersection (a hectic riot in itself). There is no real designated place for shops and stalls. They seem to just crowd the sidewalks and overflow into the street traffic.
Peach-infused juice drinks are the street drink of choice, always covered with a metal cap.
One can see Mount Illimani towering over the city from just about anywhere, serving as la Paz's guardian. There's also the Huaya Potosi which is the easiest 6000 m climb in the world. Which begs the question - can a mountain as tall as everest be an easy climb? Needless to say we didn't find out. Apparently the top attractions include some sort of Bolivian women in arena catfights and the infamous San Pedro prison. Apparently this is an 'upper class' facility very popular among South American druglords. Their apartments usually include TVs, cell phones and almost every amenity so they can continue to conduct their business. Getting inside San Pedro is sometimes allowed while access is tricky. Those travellers who have dared to enter have told us that some other tourists in their group actually did cocaine with the prisoners - insane.
With only a few weeks left till the end of the trip we did quite a lot of shopping at the witches market, not for lama fetusus or strange remedies, but Steph found a leather satchel that she absolutely fell in love with.
Anyaway - we had shopping missions to complete that did not involve any hairy situations. Our first stop was La Paz's famous witches market. This is where you can find aphrodisiac formulas and tonics for all your medicinal and spiritual needs.
Chicharrón Stall- a gristly, heart-punishing dose of fried pork bits erved with boiled corn and potatoes (big surprise there). The toilet paper roll napkin system that hung from the ceiling was quite ingenious.
We even ventured up to the Sunday El Alto and the mother of all markets, much to Steph's reservations. It was a push-and-shove fight to the top. Then we breathlessly perused the bedsheets with all forms of auto mechanical items before finding the brass bands with dancers and the food areas. We had heard that the El Alto market was THE place to be the subject of a south american pickpocketing scam - be it the spitting, the smashed statue or the good old brush up. I can't count the amount of friendly people in south america who have warned us about these. But where were the actual thieves? In El Alto. A lovely Bolivian man thwarted a trio of women who were after me.
What could be more strange than this frenetic metropolis? Bolivia itself was an unusual treasure for us to discover.
Bolivia's andean culture was similar but completely different to Peru. I think the most iconic memory for the Andes was the old woman in the street. Their uniform is so unique. Yet it was the only constant from one mountain to the next: : black braided hair, multiple skirts and even more leggings, the brown bowler hat, and a colorful blanket sacks (that may bear potatoes or a child!). It must be said that women who are born here are destined to bear a heavy portion of the work load, as evidenced in the weight on their shoulders and the hardened leather-like skin on their faces. All this work and you will never see their black braided hair graying!
I would say that there is a certain innocence to Bolivia. You are a little more of a novelty as a traveller than in say Argentina. The andean people were as lovely as in Peru. But innoncence is probably the last word that came to mind when arriving in La Paz. All the travellers who told us we must visit Bolivia for it's beauty and bargonosity were all exactly right. We probably did more here in two weeks than in any other country thus far.
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