Passing through La Paz
Passing through La Paz
#OliviaInBolivia
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| In my country |
Hear Ye, Hear Ye, thine Queen hath spoketh.
We went to visit my people, although they spelt Olivia
wrong, what’s with the B? We landed in El Alto, a City on the outskirts of La
Paz, at the top of the mountains before we descended into the City Centre (a
mere 3,600m above sea level). Whereupon we met our host who chuckled at the
name Olivia, before declaring it to be a beautiful name.
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| La Montana and the Market starting to clear |
The high altitude and 3rd floor apartment with
huge windows gave beautiful views of the mountains and their stunning sunrises
(for Andrew) and sunsets (for both of us). The scenery around La Paz and
Bolivia in general is truly breath-taking.
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| First steps on the moon |
Our apartment was right in the heart of the city and on the
weekends the normal street market exploded into a grand bazaar of a street
market. With various vegetables sold, fruit, raw fish and meat (unrefrigerated
and with blood slopping into a bucket and spines being pulled out before our
eyes...) toys, Coca tea and briny cheese laid upon mats on the ground (The
Sanitary department would have a field day…) It was awash with colours and
smells, the women wore their native dress. These beautiful woven cloth Ponchos and
bowler type hats. On their backs they carry around massive woven cloth made
into packs that are about the same size as the women, their shoulders must be
very strong.
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| View of La Paz |
On our first day we struggled a little with altitude
sickness, as soon as the plane doors opened we both felt slightly breathless
and this soon developed into headaches. Luckily they keep a lot of coca tea
around (for medicinal purposes of course). Coca is a derivative of the plant that
you get cocaine from, but is totally legal and lightly encouraged. You can get
it in everything, beer, chocolate, leaves, tea, anything you want really. But
remember it’s there to help with the sickness… (A disclaimer, it’s not actually
that strong, I don’t think you could get high from it. We tried… for scientific
purposes of course…)
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| Look who was part of the exhibition |
On our second day we went to the National Art Museum in La
Paz. Where as foreigners we had to pay four times the local price, this seems a
common thing in every place but the UK. Within the museum we encountered the
local culture’s interactions between good and evil. Initially they believed in
three separate entities that ruled the world and influenced their lives. One being
was an evil being that lived under the ground and then a good character above
as the Sun God and then the mother earth as well. As Christianity started to
develop within the culture, bought over by the Spanish missionaries, they began
to embrace the theme of good versus evil theme. The Devil became synonymous
with the underground character that they paid tribute in order to ward of the evil
(and his enlarged manhood, we saw statues that cannot be unseen). The tribute
was generally cigarettes, beer, string, food, coca leaves and llama foetuses. They
embraced this idea of good triumphing over evil, this led to a series of
paintings focusing on the fight between Michael and Lucifer. They even do
colourful and noisy festivals focused on Angels and Devils and the triumph of
Good over Evil.
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| Awesome Architecture |
Near this museum there were many impressive government and
religious buildings. Most had a Baroque/Romance/Classical feel to them that had
been brought over by the French Designers and the Spanish Conquistadors. Hanging
outside of them was a multi-coloured flag that looked a bit like Elmer the
Patchwork Elephant from the children’s stories. If I had created a people, they
would be as colourful as the Bolivians.
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| Lovely Husband |
We briefly popped into a Cloth Museum about Bolivian weavings
and textiles. This museum showed all the
various micro-cultures that inhabit Bolivia and their different woven outfits
and patterns. They also taught us about the spiritual significance of what was woven
into the cloth and then wrapped around the wearer. Often the Iconography
focused on protection and praise of Mother Earth for the land. The best part
was the gift shop which was filled with cloth woven by local artisans in all
manners of colours. We were also told the interesting fact that the garden
around the museum contained a plant from the local area of each of the ‘tribes’
that had woven for the collection found in the museum.
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| Mother's Hat moonscape |
Our final day in La Paz we took a local bus (a little bit
like a minivan) to the moon. Whereupon we saw a massive Star Wars dog (I’m told
it is not a dog). We looked around the rocks that resembled a lunar landscape, giving
it the name of the Lunar Valley. Whilst we were here Andrew became a somewhat
local celebrity appearing on a TV interview about tourism in Bolivia (As part
of their name sake I am not allowed to show allegiance to any particular
channels, hence forcing me to decline the interview). So if you see him on any Bolivian
TV you can tell him off for not saying hi Mum. On the way back we took a rather
treacherous bus on the way home. The bus was packed to the brim and they still
let us on. They didn’t shut the doors as it was still fairly warm. We were
however stood in the entrance as it was driving, nearly dangling precariously
out the door. As chance would have it halfway home some people cleared off so
we got to move down the bus where Andrew could stick his head out of the
emergency hatch, he keeps saying everyone is extremely short here.
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| The giant space dog |
We made it and survived the trip home before setting off on
a thankfully larger bus towards Uyuni. We’ll talk about that soon and in the
meantime enjoy our pictures.
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| La Valle De La Luna |
See some other posts
- Overview
- European Ecstasy
- Adventures in Asia
- Pacific Paradise
- Southern South American Splendour
- Central Celestial Scenes
Have a look at our Instagram. We're in the driest place in the world.
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