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Published: December 7th 2006
La Paz Cityscape
This is not the La Paz that I was expecting before I arrived here. Hard to imagine that this is the poorest country in South America when you look at the what this city looks like.Well another week has gone by and the weekend is here again! However, something I ate while ate with Alejandro and Lisa on Saturday afternoon really did not agree with me. So early in the morning on Sunday, I woke up with what I think was food poisoning. What an awful experience! Luckily, I have made through life so far without having food poisoning. Maybe it was the llama steak that I ate, or it could have been any of the food I was snacking on while walking through the market... I guess I´ll never know!
I woke up close to lunch hour on Sunday to find out that it looked like an amazing day outside but I still felt like crap! Anyhow, I figured it would good to get outside and breath some fresh air. So I packed my bag up with enough water and food to get me through the afternoon, and headed out for what I thought would be an hour or two. So if you have been keeping track of my blog, you probably noticed that I have posted pictures of these interesting rock formations that can be seen from my apartment building. I decided to
No more paved roads
Only two blocks away from my place, the roads turn to stone and then to dirt. take a little excursion to this to see what they look like up close. This meant turning the other way on my street to see what was there, which is something I had not done in the few weeks that I have been here. Only a couple blocks past my place, the paved roads turn to dirt, an indicator that I live at the edge of the middle-class district. There seemed to be more stray dogs roaming around this part of town, however, if you have ever been to Latin America, you would know that stray dogs don´t even acknowledge your existence, so you don't have to worry about anything. Approaching the rock formations, I came upon the dirt soccer field that we are able to see from Alejandro's balcony. Unfortunately, the soccer field is not surrounding by a fence which means that one side is exposed to a nice steep hill. I would not want to be the person going to fetch the ball if it rolled down the hill. Unfortunately, there was no game going on to watch so I just trekked across the field to get to the base of the rocks. Climbing up into the rocks
The interesting rock formations
A two minute walk from my place and this is the view that you have. I realized that some people think that these rocks are a good place to throw away your garbage. Couldn't wait until garbage day? It's twice a week here in La Paz. Anyway, beside the piles of garbage here and there the rock formations were amazing to climb up into. Had to be careful as with the nice peaks that you can see in all the pictures, there are also very large crevices that I could plunge into as well. The view from where I got to was stunning, especially of Zona Sur (the south zone where the rich people live as the elevation is lower and the temperatures are warmer). I took a different way to climb back down the rocks and ended up in a neighbourhood that I had never seen before. Definitely not the middle-class district 😊
Well the climb really energized me and all that sick feeling I had from the night before was finally gone so I decided to venture more into the "unknown" regions of Sopocachi. Eventually, after descending quite a bit a ran into another soccer field but this one was in use, so I found a nice rock to sit on and
watched the game for a bit. These guys were good, or maybe they just seemed good compared to the soccer team that I played on a couple of summers ago (sorry guys, but it is true!). Of course, like the other soccer field, this field was composed of dirt as well. It meant you do not see as much slide tackling as you usually do when watching soccer games. This kept me occupied for quite some time as it was very interesting to watch. After the game finished, the teams cleared off the field (probably to find beer somewhere) and another two teams entered the field for another game. I probably could have stayed here all day, but I decided to venture around some more as the weather was perfect on this day.
From the soccer field, I ended up descending a bit more (which I later regretted) to notice all these other burrows of houses built around the landscape. I am not sure what area they belong to, but I could tell by the condition of the houses that it was a much poorer area than where I had lived. I don´t even know how this place is
Once again... Nevado Illimani
I can´t get enough of this mountain. Somedays you can see it and other days it is surrounded by clouds. accessed by road. So I continued heading down and down and finally I ended up at one of the roads that lead to Zona Sur. Coming all the way down to this point, I noticed that I could climb this other large hill to get a great picture of the city. On the road up to the top of the hill I noticed a sign for the Bolivian Navy School. Can´t really figure out why they need a navy if the country is landlocked 😊 So I climbed up to the top and started to approach a building when a military guy came over and asked me who I was looking for. I said I climbed the hill to take a picture because I figured there was an amazing view, which there was. Unfortunately, I was told to leave the premises and the guy follow me down the hill for quite a bit until another military guy came to talk to me. I explained was I there and he walked me to the top so I could get a great shot of the city. This military guy was much nicer than the last one. His name was Carlos and we
Only on a clear day can you see these
This snow-capped mountain chain can only be seen on the clearest of days. stood around and chatted (in Spanish of course) about everything, such as what I was doing in the country and why I am not married yet. He was even kind enough to give me half of his chocolate bar. So after about 45 minutes of chatting, I was off again, back down the hill only to climb another hill to arrive into the central part of Sopocachi. I decided to walk down on the main streets to find out this was the street were all the big embassies in town where. I found the American Embassy and right across the road from it is the only Subway restaurant in town. I found this kind of funny!
Back in the main part of town I noticed all kinds of people lined up along one of the main roads. I thought a parade or some political march must been going on. So I asked a military officer on the side of the road what was going on, and he said the road was blocked off because this was the final stretch of the Doble Copacabana. The Doble Copacabana is a five-day bike race here in Bolivia, similar to the Tour de
Illimani through the goal posts
This soccer field is all dirt and if you kick it too far, well, it may be a long way to run to get the ball. France. However the heck these people bike at this altitude is beyond me. So I got to see the front-runners coming in...I thought this was pretty exciting because I knew I would read about this in the paper the next day. After watching the bikers for a bit, I got bored but I could hear some music in the distance so I decided to check it out. In this small courtyard I found a band and about a hundred people dancing to them...pretty neat to watch but it was so hard to see everything from the little doorway I was watching from. I finally decided to head back home after an afternoon packed with stuff. I almost made it home and then I heard more traditional music so I decided to investigate once more. The locals were partying again in one of the plazas. Playing music, dancing, drinking and eating is what I am beginning to think these people do every weekend. Finally after watching them for a bit, and giving my mom a call so she could experience the sounds of Bolivia, I made it home. After being home for only a few minutes, I had already made plans
Barren Land
I climbed up into the rocks and the interesting landscape continues on and on. to go out in the evening to see a Carmina Burana show with my friend Karla. We showed up at the municipal theatre about 10 minutes before the show and there was the woman in front of us if line complaining that she has reserved seats in one of the private balconies. Finally when they straightened everything out, she told Karla and I to come along with her and her children, so we got in for free with seats in a private balcony. The show was really neat to watch but by the end of it, I was dying it as it had been such a long day. A long day full of lots of interesting stuff. Hopefully I will have more weekends like this!
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ilya goldstein
non-member comment
Re: naval school
Hi Patrick, Bolivia wasn't always landlocked. They used to have access to the Pacific, but they lost it to Chile during the War of the Pacific. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Pacific Shortly before you left, CBC ran (a very touching and humorous) documentary about the naval school. Bolivians hope to regain access to the ocean one day, thus they keep the naval school going. For them, it's a matter of national pride. Cheers, Ilya