La Paz - city of smog
Trip Start
Dec 30, 2007
1
29
50
Trip End
Jun 22, 2008
La Paz,
Bolivia
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
La Paz is a marathon haul from Samaipata and our luck held true to recent form.
The trip
Bolivia has been wonderful so far, but not much has gone right for us since the toe incident in San Pedro. The trip to Samaipata was an ordeal (see earlier log for gory details). But we thought this trip might be better - neither of us was sick and there were no babies immediately around us. Excellent, we thought, until the woman behind us with bloodshot eyes started industrial level sniffing. Sniffing is really too mild a term. I've heard of breaking the morale of prisoners/ kidnappers by blasting rock music at them. She was in the same league. And she was a tease. Just when I thought she had died she would start up again, 'snargggrr'. She stopped or got off the bus at some point, but was replaced with an aggressive snorer
La Paz, view of Illampu
. We hadn't gone far when the bus stopped to change a tire. Most people got off, but I didn't bother. Nothing happened for a long time, except the bus jolting forward a bit. I later realised that this must have been from trying to undo the wheel without access to a jack. After more than half an hour I got curious enough to have a look and I witnessed the ingenious solution. The bus had double wheels, so they laid a plank behind the inside wheel and reversed on to it, which took the weight off the flat tire. Soon we were moving again. Until we got to the roadworks, which required another wait of over 30 mins.
In all, we arrived in Cochabamba 3 hrs late. But that didn't matter because the scheduled arrival time was 2.30am, and the bus lets you sit on until it gets light, deeming it too dangerous to wander around any earlier. No one got off when we arrived so I assume the threat is real. Once it was safe, we walked to the terminal. It was further than we thought, and it rained. But we arrived just as a bus was leaving, with enough time to get on (and, for the first time anywhere, have our bags weighed) but not to put on dry things. It is the first time we have got wet since Mexico. This was a high class bus, because it showed a movie: The good, the bad and the ugly'
Looking across La Paz
. Twice. The city
La Paz surprises when you finally get there. After rolling along a plain for a very long time, you hit some buildings and then discover that you are way above (400m) the city proper. This is El Alto, the poorest part of La Paz and home to 1 million people. The view over the city to the plain on the other side is wonderful, with eroded mud cliffs and rock faces providing the only spaces not covered by houses that crawl from the valley bottom up the cliffs. An earthquake would be a major disaster here.
We spent that evening wandering around, including through the witches' market which is far less interesting than you would think, apart from the dried llama fetuses. Apparently they bring luck. We caught a glimpse of a beautiful snowy mountain in the last yellow rays of the sun.
Next morning we went to a mirador - a strange kind of children's playground which had good views of the city, and spent most of the afternoon trying to organise a tour to the Amazon with an hour or so at the coca museum.
The cathedral of 1548
Coca
The museum claimed that the legend of the origin of coca was that it was provided to enable the people to bear hardships but that it would cause the white people only misery. Sounds post facto to me.
They can trace coca use back 4500 years in Andean cultures, and it seems to have been prevalent throughout that time, across numerous cultures. But by 1551 the Church decided it was a problem and an obstacle to conversion. It was prohibited and the inquisition put in charge of eradication. It didn't work (sound familiar?) and by 1573 the Spanish crown intervened because of the role coca played in getting miners through the day (which apparently meant a 48 hr shift). Coca was back. And how. It was the key ingredient in many popular products, and is still used in coca-cola. The museum notes that since education about the dangers of cocaine began in Bolivia use has increased five-fold.
If there was one theme to the museum it would be that coca is a useful crop, containing many nutrients and thriving in poor soils. It is a good thing in the Andes and only a problem in the west, as a result of pre-cursor substances produced there as well.
Gold
A local university runs four little museums. We were most interested in the precious metals, but had a browse through the rest as well.
There was one to fashion which featured outlandish carnaval masks without much explanation, and showed 19th fashion said to be an amalgam of Spanish and Parisian styles. With the peculiar little hats and fluffed out skirts, it is clear that Bolivian fashion has not moved on much.
Bolivia still actively mourns the Pacific War that it and Peru lost to Chile (1879-83) and which left Bolivia landlocked. Negotiations continue and I saw one headline to the effect of '120 years of talk without result'. The museum provided scant coverage of this conflict and is most memorable for the brass lettering on the wall 'Bolivia never has and never will give up its right to the sea' (or to that effect). It was yet another war triggered by taxes (imposed by Bolivia on Chilean companies in Bolivia).
The main draw here is the 'Museum of Pre-Columbian Precious Metals' ie a collection of gold artifacts from Tiwanaku and Inca times. What interested me most was a 'libation bowl' (wood not gold) with a very long neck in a diamond pattern, just like the channels at el Fuerte.
Tiwanaku was into sheets of gold, very thin and now generally battered. The most common item in the museum being diadems - gold plate centrepiece with lapis lazuli facial features and four rays of gold from the top and the sides. Also discs with llama scratched on. the Incas did the diadems as well but without the faces and seemed to prefer detailed models such as of llamas and Pachamama (earth goddess).
We then left for Sorata. There is a hike to 5300m that we wanted to do and we thought it was best to tackle it while we were acclimatised.
I enjoyed La Paz. It is much loss squalid than I expected, although the river smells like raw sewage, and has lots of energy (and about the standard Bolivian ratio of beggars, which is not that high). I even managed to find someone to fix my camera. On the first day some union was protesting about something. On the second there was a very large demonstration urging on the proletarian revolution, which the marchers felt that Evo Morales wasn't moving on with fast enough. It is curious to see such terms used in real life.
The traffic pollution here is dramatic, a result of smoking vehicles standing still a lot. And downtown La Paz has many sinister youths wearing balaclavas and often camo gear. They are after your money, but only in exchange for a shoe shining.
