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Published: March 11th 2009
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It's taken me a while to get round to writing this, I don't really know why because I have a lot of free time and I spend several hours a day in internet cafes! So... Bolivia. I took a flight from Buenos Aires to Santa Cruz in Bolivia, arriving mid-morning on a Wednesday. The heat in Santa Cruz was unbearable, around 35 degrees with incredible humidity. The night bus to La Paz which I was planning to take wasn't due to leave until that evening so I went and checked myself in to a hostel to shower and leave my luggage, leaving me with just 1 day to see Santa Cruz. I can't really say I saw much of the city in just 1 day but I did wander around the city center and saw the main square. The heat and humidity meant that it wasn't very pleasant to walk about. It was so humid that when having a cigarette the smoke just hung in the thick air.
A week before I arrived in Bolivia there had been a referendum on a new constitution. Santa Cruz department voted no, the end result was a yes. In Santa Cruz the people
are very anti-Evo Morales and want independence, or at least autonomy, from the rest of Bolivia. I often saw the green and white flag of the Santa Cruz department and a lot of graffiti slating Evo Morales. Both taxi journeys that I took in Santa Cruz I ended up discussing my plans for studying in La Paz with the taxi drivers. On both occasions the drivers told me that Santa Cruz is a much better city and that La Paz is an ugly place and the people are there are rude. I'd heard a lot of talk about the difference between Santa Cruz and La Paz before arriving in Bolivia. Apparantly Santa Cruz is a wealthier region with more mixed-race or white people rather than indigenous but all around Santa Cruz I saw many people of indigenous decent, probably more so than mestizos or whites. There were many chola women in traditional dress with bowler hats. At the bus station some of the women were walking around with parrots on their shoulders which I found amusing, African Greys to be precise. After a 17 hour bus journey I finally arrived in La Paz.
The first thing I noticed when
arriving in La Paz was the complete change of attitude towards Evo Morales. Instead of graffiti saying 'Evo Dictador' and 'ConstituciĆ³n NO' I was seeing graffiti declaring 'Evo = nuestro hermano' and 'ConstituciĆ³n SI'. Of course the second thing I noticed was the change of climate. Because of La Paz being at such a high altitude (it's the highest city in the world) it is a lot cooler than Santa Cruz and at night it can get quite chilly. La Paz is quite a strange city because of it's geographical location. The first place you arrive at whether by bus or by plane is El Alto. El Alto, obviously, is the highest part of La Paz at an altitude of around 4050m. It's the poorest part of the city, the coldest due to the altitude and also the most dangerous neighbourhood. From El Alto, vehicles take the Autopista down to La Paz itself and when I say down, I mean down! The city center area is at 3660m so there's a considerable difference in altitude between there and El Alto. The view when coming down the Autopista is just incredible. You can see the whole of La Paz situated down
in the valley. La Paz is kind of in a big basin surrounded by mountains. Whether you arrive by day or night the view is spectacular. At the bus terminal I was met by Sonia, the mother of the family I was going to be staying with, then we took a taxi to the house that was to be my home for the next 5 months.
I'm staying in an area of La Paz called Obrajes. To explain (in a nutshell) the geography of La Paz, first, you have El Alto, next comes El centro (the basin area), then after that comes Zona Sur of which Obrajes is the first neighbourhood. The whole of La Paz is set in a Valley and it's pretty hard to get lost because wherever you are in the city, you either go up or down. Obrajes is at a lower altitude than other parts of La Paz which means it's slightly warmer than other areas. My home here is really nice and I've settled in well. I live in an apartment building with Sonia, her daughter Marisa and another guy from Bolivia called Mauri who studies and works here in La Paz. I
have my own room and share a bathroom with Marisa. My accommodation was organised by the University here where I study, I pay around 250 US Dollars a month and for that I also get 3 meals a day and my laundry done for me. The food that I eat here is really good, very healthy, very filling and very Bolivian! Sonia is a great cook, every week I eat things that I have never even heard of before such as various types of maize and fruit. Every lunch time she makes delicious soups, or as she says 'sopitas!'. Sonia, Marisa and Mauri are all really friendly, Marisa is 22 and Mauri is 24 so we get on pretty well. I've been out a few times with Marisa and her friends which is nice.
During my first week here every time I needed to go out to get anything or travel to a certain place, Sonia or Marisa would accompany me so that I wouldn't get lost. The transport system of minibuses can be a little confusing if you're new to the city. They have these minibuses everywhere that can fit over 20 people inside. The minibuses have signs on the front saying which barrios they're going to and how much it is. Usually it's 1.50 Bolivianos (10p) for a trip but obviously if you go further it's more expensive. You can wave them down just about anywhere and when you want to get off just call out 'Voy a bajar!'.
I had the weekend to get settled before my classes started the following week. On Sunday I went down to visit the University and met the exchange students supervisor Paola so that she could explain how I can choose my subjects and show me around the University. For anyone that is reading this who doesn't know me, I've come to La Paz to study for 1 semester at the Universidad Catolica as part of my degree back in England. I'm doing a degree in languages and am just here to improve my Spanish, which means that I am free to choose whatever subjects I like - great! I was given a huge booklet full of different subjects and told that I had a 2 week period in order to try out different ones and see what I like. No Spanish classes are offered here because there are so few foreign students, which is pretty great for me because I would rather study actually subjects with other Bolivian students rather than take a Spanish class with other foreigners. Monday came along pretty quickly and I found myself back again at my first day of University, just this time in La Paz.
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