La Paz, Bolivia

  La Paz, Bolivia
Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Hillside of La Paz, Bolivia

In La Paz, you start at the top of a giant valley and work your way down.  We departed the bus station and took a cab to our hotel, Hotel Rosario ( http://www.hotelrosario.com/la_paz_eng/index.html), at the bottom of the valley.  Every inch of hillside was covered with buildings and houses, some right next to severe erosion.  La Paz does not have modern sewage system.  We drove past a red-brown river, then saw a purple river join the red-brown river.  Then there's the smog issue in La Paz.  The valley holds in all of the delightful black exhaust from the thousands of minivans.  The town is very crowded, with lots of cars/minivans and people walking everywhere.

Today was clumsy day for me.  At the bus station, I fell down the last 2 steps and bruised my forearm.  On the streets, I fell over my own foot not once but twice.  And then later stumbled on cobblestone.

Hotel Rosario In La Paz

Courtyard of the Hotel Rosario

We were able to check in early to our hotel room, thank goodness.  We ended up with a terrific room with 3 beds, parquet wood floors, but 3 floors up at 12,300 elevation.  I took a hot shower, my first shower in 60 hours!

I took a bag of dusty clothes down to the hotel lobby for laundry service.  Almost 8 pounds of clothes for $4 and it was ready for us at 7pm that same day.

Once refreshed, we took to the streets.  The hotel was close to everything we wanted, so walking we did, up and down the hillside streets, with some huffing and puffing.  We were comforted by seeing many, many tourist police throughout the city.  Some of the cops were chewing coca leaves.

Crowded Street In La Paz

The shops in the central portion seemed to be zoned according to specialty.  I mean, why were there 8 barber shops on one block?  And 8 party stores on one block?  These party stores are for serious celebrations:  giant Styrofoam displays (3 foot tall Barbie doll Happy Birthday displays, plus big displays for weddings, etc.) and giant 50-gallon barrels of every color of confetti you can imagine.  And there were 5 sports (soccer) shirt stores all next to each other.  I guess it's one-stop shopping.

Witches' Market

Witches' Market Shop

We went to the Witches' Market (Mercado de Hechiceriato) check out the herbs and other interesting things for sale.  You can buy a bag of coca leaves for 25 cents.  They also have llama fetuses (or is that feti?) for sale.  Legend has it that you buy a llama fetus for good luck and health with home construction.  You bury the llama fetus with the house.  Unfortunately, we also saw leopard skins, dead baby llamas, dead bats, dead frogs, and a dead fox.  And about a million types of herbs and other things, like frankincense.

Iglesia de San Francisco

We went to the Iglesia de San Francisco, a giant cathedral filled with dozens of statues of saints with the most garish and gaudy decorations.  My tennis shoes squeaked loudly on the tile floor; I was a little embarrassed as people were praying inside.  As we left the cathedral, a man missing both of his hands asked us for money.

Lots of dogs on the streets.  We've been in Bolivia for a week now and have seen many many dogs, but only one cat.  And that was in Santa Cruz at the hotel on our first day.  Where are the cats?  Chased off by all of the dogs?

Typical Electric Wiring

We also checked out the artisan's alley; store after store of artwork and wool crafts (sweaters, blankets, belts, hats, etc., etc.).  Then we went to the Museo de Coca (the cocaine museum; $1; 10am-7pm), which was very interesting.  Learned a lot.  Cocaine has been around for 2000 years.  The Catholic church finally banned it in South America in 1500s, but reversed their decision when they found out the locals weren't working as hard without chewing on coca leaves.  Coca Cola company still imports tens of thousands of tons of coca leaves every year (even in 2006) to make Coke; the coca leaves are harmless, just used for flavoring.  Coke used to have cocaine traces until 1914 or so.

Items For Sale In a Magic Shop

During rush hour, the streets were clogged.  Lots of horn honking.  And as the sun set, the locals set up their portable stands on the sidewalks and streets to sell their wares.  We walked around this and were amazing at all of the stands and all of the stuff, plus all of the people that came out to buy stuff; every stand had a customer.  Illegal dvds, Tampico soda, toiletries, bras, jackets, socks, candy, breads, fresh cooked food, etc.

At night we went to the Vienna Restaurant, run by an older Austrian man who is friends with the Minuteman Pizza owner from Uyuni.  We were treated very well at the Vienna Restaurant.  It would be a shirt-and-tie restaurant in Phoenix.  We ate like kings for a whopping $19 total!
Our taxi ride to the restaurant took us through incredible traffic; maybe took 20-30 minutes one way; our taxi fare was only $2 going and only $1 back to the hotel!!