La Paz

I love this city.

It's dirty, loud, overpopulated, polluted, tiring, sprawling, rainy, cold and grey, but I actually do love it. Everywhere you go, the people are friendly. They stop to welcome you to their country on the street, sometimes they want to sell drugs, but that's only the ones who have come back from America.

To get here from Copacabana was an interesting journey. At one point, you have to get off the bus while it goes across Lake Titicaca on a ferry and you board a separate ferry where you wait for the bus on the other side.

View of my bus on it's ferry from my ferry

Arriving in La Paz from the tiny lake town of Copa is a huge shock. The city is absolutely massive. It just seems to go on and on and on. It is set in a valley in the Andes. It is flanked by a few mountains, one over 6000m tall! The city itself is at 4000m, which makes walking, talking, breathing, living, anything, that much harder.

It seems to be a city stuck in the past, but trying to move forward...slowly. The picture below shows some of the colonial architecture (foreground) that makes this city a UNESCO site. At the same, you can see on the left a 70's style apartment building and up on the hill the shantytowns that run all the way to the tops of the mountains. You can see the shantytowns better in the second picture.

In the picture above you can see a police barricade..."Why is there a police barricade?" you ask. Well, I'll tell you! The main labour union in Bolivia is calling for higher retirement pension incomes for everyone from miners to teachers to health care workers. There have been massive marches and demonstrations which have shut down major roads in and out of La Paz. The miners set off dynamite periodically and you can see thousands of people walking the streets. Every once in a while a minority will do something stupid and the police will have to launch tear gas and crowd control measures. I was sitting in my hostel when some tear gas wafted into the windows. I read later that some people had set dynamite at the doors of the Ministry of Labour building. CRAZY!

Don't be alarmed though, the protesters are protesting the government and they leave tourists out of their fight. In the picture below is Calle Jaen, this is the spookiest street in all of La Paz. There is even a sign at the base of the street saying that this street is famous for the ghosts, ghouls, paranormal activity and a list of other weird things that have happened here. I'm glad I went in the day time! At the top of the street is a bar that sells coca leaf beer. I had to try it, the tea helps so much with the altitude sickness that can happen. But the beer is not that great. It's the one on the right.

This is Plaza Murillo. Remember those police barricades? This is what they are protecting. The Presidential Palace and seat of government is here as well as the La Paz Cathedral. The police still allow tourists through without too much hassle. I got to take pictures of giant mutant pigeons! Just kidding, they're normal pigeons.

Cathedral

Palace

This was a cool shot of the Cathedral's dome with the sun peeking out from behind it. The front of the building is lovingly restored, but they've left the side to be damaged by the elements. Interesting to see the choices they made to keep this building healthy.

This is one of many, many, many colourful market stalls in La Paz. The textiles are endless and they are so beautiful. This is probably one of my most favourite things to do, just walking around and seeing the array of products they have to sell. Stacks of sweaters, scarves, toques, gloves and everything else just sit there waiting to be purchased by unsuspecting travellers. There's also a witches market here where they sell llama fetuses...supposedly for good luck. That will be another post.

This is the entrance to the witches market. It's not as grand as one would think. And there aren't as many fortune tellers or tarot card readers or anything like you would imagine. It's become highly commercialized and the most you will get is some random guy walking up to you with some broken stones in his hand asking you if you want your fortune read.

Finally, the Iglesia de San Francisco. It seems that every road I walk down always leads me back to this place. I don't really understand how they planned this city. Usually everything is centred around the main square. But this church was built well after the founding of the city. But it serves a central role. There was a Red Cross benefit concert in front of here the other day. They will need it since they kicked out USAID earlier this month. The picture on the bottom shows the tower of the church from the back. That's all for now from La Paz. Sorry I haven't been updating more regularly. I'm moving a bit slower now. I'll be heading into the jungle within the week to swim with pink dolphins! I can't wait. Time of my life!