An Aerial View Of La Paz

Thursday 25 January

Opening the curtains this morning, the sun blazed in our room and no clouds could be seen anywhere, just blue sky. We were collected from the hotel just before 09.00 (we were all a little early) by Theo, a fried of Renan’s, who was going to show us around La Paz for the morning.

We first of all had to extricate ourselves from the busy morning rush hour – getting past the dust cart parked on the opposite side of the road to our hotel, but taking up most of the one-way street, was a feat in itself, but the driver squeezed us through and we wound our way along very narrow streets, making lots of sharp turns to avoid the jams. All the roads in La Paz appear to be one way and are made narrower by street traders taking up most of the pavement space so that pedestrians have to walk in the road. Street traders in La Paz account for a large percentage of the population, which is not surprising when you see them sitting (either on the ground or on small wooden stools) taking up every available bit of space outside the shops. The rent for these pitches is very cheap. All sorts of goods were on display – foods and clothes, tools and toys (often second hand, as toys are very expensive in Bolivia). Footballs were hanging in net bags from many stall frames – football is the number one sport in Bolivia, and it is supported with the frenzied passion associated with South American fans (we later saw a massive line of people queuing, and found out it was for tickets for a football match at the weekend). People were buying their breakfast on their way – from stalls with a large range of breads – flat, rolls, French sticks and baguettes were recognizable, but others looked strange and unfamiliar to us.

As we headed out of the city, the road climbed up the side of the bowl in a dual carriage way, around many sharp bends. We stopped at viewing points on the way – once a small grassed area with a domed folly and some stone seats, that had unfortunately been desecrated, - Theo thought by bored youngsters – where have we heard that before? But the view over the city was amazing – if only because the whole area looked to be covered in a sea of red brick and red tiles, and it was hard to see any roads, or spaces in between – the houses appeared to be built on top of each other. Directly beneath us was the military academy, where we could see fifty or more young men in combat uniform, practicing their drill – every male in Bolivia has to do one year’s military service. This is usually done at the end of either high school or university, but there is a new scheme that has just been introduced, that allows for the service to be undertaken in separate parts – during the holidays of the last year of school and university and every weekend for two years. But they need the card to say they have served their time before they can get a job.

We continued up to the top of the mountain, where, all around us we could see giant peaks in the distance, with the sun glistening off the snow in a dazzling shine. High up on one of the snowy mountains is the highest ski centre in the world, at around 6,000 metres (20,000 feet) above sea level – not quite sure how they get on in that altitude. We followed the road around the top of the mountain ridge and came to another ridge leading even higher over the city. Here we found condominiums of large detached houses, in small cul-de-sacs, such as we might see at home on a private estate. Further up still, there were even larger mansions. Here we were able to climb up to another viewing point, and looking down, we could see some beautifully manicured gardens with roses and geraniums around emerald green lawns behind these elite houses - probably have a gardener. Looking around from this view point, we could see a different aspect of the city, looking out over the centre with its huge white cathedral dominating the scene. We were able to distinguish clusters of older buildings at the heart, and appreciate the different styles of buildings a little more – the adobe houses built on the lower sides of the mountain on the opposite side of the city, that were always in danger of being washed away in heavy rains, areas of tall apartment blocks and high rise business buildings erected in the 1960’s to the south of the city, and more modern houses to the north, onwards and upwards over the other side of the dual carriageway, where many were still under construction, in an effort to find more land to expand La Paz still further. Turning around, we saw on the opposite side of this ridge, a deep valley, full of homes in an eclectic mix of styles – Moorish, Spanish, and European, with sun terraces, but only small gardens, clustered together randomly, with small lanes seeming to weave between. This was more very expensive housing. The mountains around were made up of craggy fissured rocks, where the earth had been pushed up in some previous life. The surface was shales that were loose and crumbly, and had presumably been removed to build the houses below. There is a law now to stop more of the mountainside being demolished. Up at the top, across the valley we could see a golf course, and Theo was very keen for us to see this. So we drove down some very bumpy and pot-holed roads, to find a bridge that was little more than planks of wood, joined together and suspended on a iron frame over a river that was another brown torrent, now only a few feet across in a wide stony course. Then we went up another very steep road to the Club House and greens. This course holds an international veterans championship every year which several well-known names attend and Theo certainly seemed very proud of it, even though not a golfer himself. Several people were enjoying their game in the warm sunshine.

We made our way back down into the city and visited a museum, which displayed miniatures of aspects of life in La Paz, which were created every year for the carnival (coming in February). There were tiny hats which represented all parts of Bolivia, clowns, a school with children at their desks, the devil, and many more They are supposed to represent the wishes of people for the coming year, and there appeared to be at least one for every year for the past twenty years or so. The craftsmanship in producing these sculptures was obviously highly valued. Upstairs there was a display of garish masks used in the carnival parades – again lots of devils with horns and fangs, animals such as pumas, lions and monkeys, and negroes – of all different classes – from the poor to the king. Negroes had been brought over by the Spanish as slaves, but they did not survive the climatic conditions – altitude and cold weather were alien to them. But they did survive in the lowlands, or jungle and after independence, decided to stay on. There is still a large negro settlement there today. Behind the masks were displays of colonial life in La Paz – models of large palatial houses holding balls, people in the streets and bars, local people carrying goods on donkeys, the tram and train stations both of which stopped working just a few years ago, being too costly for the people to use. (The railway station here in La Paz was designed by Gustav Eiffel of Paris tower fame, and is now used as a bus station.) The final displays were recreations of battle scenes, from wars mainly lost by Bolivia, when some of their land was forfeited – very bloody scenes with lots of people dead or dying – every schoolboy’s image of 19th battles.

Theo then took us to a street with more souvenir shops selling lots of knitted and woven goods, bags of superstitious offerings like we had seen the Shahman burn on Sun Island, and a leather shop with lovely llama and alpaca skin bags, belts and shoes. We tried to explain that we had no room in our cases for any more souvenirs, but he didn’t seem convinced. Eventually he got the message and we returned to the hotel, much later than anticipated, as we had spent lots of time gazing at the landscape. The tour had certainly given us an insight into La Paz – previously we had only seen the main boulevard, the markets and run down areas in desperate need of rebuilding. We know now that, as with most other cities in the world, very rich people live in La Paz in very nice houses, even if these are only a small percentage of the population. But it didn’t persuade us that we would want to live here.

Back at the hotel, it was time for a late lunch, so we decided to try the restaurant in the hotel. The food here was good – we both had soups, followed by spaghetti bolognaise for Colin and a chefs salad and chips for me. The salad included hearts of palm, which I had first eaten in Arequippa, and are very refreshing yellow strips that must have been boiled or cooked in some way, as they are firm, but not crunchy. There was also chicken and ham, cheese and tomatoes, lettuce and asparagus. It was really delicious.

We decided to walk our lunch off by an expedition back to the main boulevard to buy postcards, stamps and a book for me. It turned out to be a bit of a disasterous trip – no books in English in the bookshop, no sign of a postcard – we had seen lots at the shops with Theo but hadn’t bothered to purchase any this morning – and when we got to the post office they only accepted Bolivianos, not US$, so we only had enough money for five stamps - still they would enable me to send the post cards I had already written to our three grandchildren.

We returned to the hotel and I blogged for a while. We were not feeling very hungry after our large, late lunch, so Colin decided to get just a burger from room service – and some tea – and spent the rest of the evening complaining that the room smelt of burger and chips!!!. The hotel technician had been able to input the code for us to connect to the internet on the hotel LAN line, so we spent some time reading and returning emails. It was then time to pack our backpacks for our trip to Sucre tomorrow. We have definitely learnt not to take too much with us now – just a couple of changes of clothes, cameras and wires, and, of course, the computer. Traveling light is so much easier at the airports – just hand luggage to worry about.