Journey to a New World

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Driving in Bolivia

Hola mis amigos y familia!
So this is my first La Paz entry. But before starting with that just a quick overview of how I am. Well quite simply not so great because I´m sick. Now there may be several reasons for that. It could be that spending 5 days in a dusty apartment is probably not all too good for you health. Also it could be that jetting around the world and not staying in a certain time zone ´might upset the natural rythm of your body. In addition to that, having ridiculous friends who have ridiculoous parties which cause you to have rediculous bedtimes doesn´t help. When you do just about everything that´s bad for your body besides that you shouldn´t really wonder.
Of course it could also be that the Air Conditioning in the plane is responsible or that maybe I just caught something of someone.
By now, being the hypochondriac I tend to be when fixated on my own unwellbeing, I have suspected myself of just about everything, starting with swine flu, a simple sore throat, Mono and a Cold.
I´m pretty sure I´m just freaking myself out and its probably no more than a Cold but just to be on the safe side I started taking Tamiflu yesterday and will for the next 4 days. Fortunaltely my smart mother decided that it may be important and here we are. Thank you Mum.
When I arrived yesterday in the early hours of day I was exhausted. I hadn´t eaten in 18 hours and slept only 5 hours the day before. When told what the temperature outside was by the Captain of the plane I didn´t really want to believe my ears. -1 C !!! That´s certainly not what I expected. I´d always had this super sunny image of South America but evidently I was wrong.
So, after having changed some dollars for Bolivianos, Nicholle (my step cousin) picked me up and we took a Taxi to her house. 40 Bolivianos for half an hour of driving... that´s about 7 Dollars. We had some breakfast and I decided that I needed more sleep. So I napped for a good 5 hours and woke up just in time for lunch. I met Nicholles siblings and bozfriend who are all really nice. Unfortunately their english is as good as my spanish and our conversation was broken. But I think that with hands and feet and some interpretation on both parts we managed pretty well.
After lunch I went back to sleep, waking up occasionally being shaken by shivers and feeling sorry for myself. By 5 a´clock in the afternoon I decided that maybe I had slept enough and walking around may be a good choice. So Nicholle and Jose (her boyfriend) showed me the "witch street". It´s a street with old women who offer things to sacrifice to the Gods. Dried up Baby Lamas, frogs, other small animals, flowers, sweets, etc. A little strange. Other than that there are shops with the most wonderful silver jewellary and gems, traditional cloth that keeps you super warm because it´s made of wool from the :" llama alpaca" and tonnes of guitar shops (which surprisingly weren´t cheaper than anywhere else).
If I tried to sum up my impression of La Paz into one sentence I´d say: "The life here is like a massive Jazz piece that everyone knows the score to apart from me." To anyone who looks at it as an outsider it seems like a gigantic ball of chaos with every person doing what they wish. But when you keep looking you realise that there´s a basic structure that the people dance around to keep it going.
Essentially La Paz so far in some ways is exactly what I expected it to be and in some ways is nothing like I expected it to be. I expected it to be a little firlthy in places, be as chaotic as it seems and seem completelz out of context with anything I´ve ever experienced and it is. However it is much less hostile than I´d thought and the living standards, although they may be different to ours are not at all bad.
Although I´ve spent mor etime in bed than outside, I´ve had more impressions thrown at me than I thought possible.
Maybe I´ll get another post done here before I leave. If not Auckland will be next.
Keeping you posted

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Photos

My master discipline
Showed those Bolivianos where the hammer hangs

Holler Mask
You see the Holler influences even in Bolivia

Landscape
On our trip to Cocacabana

The Crossing
Crossing to Cocacabana

More Landscape
Wonderful Plataus everywhere. Made me thinnk of 7 years in Tibet

the City
Who would build a city like this? In some random place in some random mountain without a natural stream or anything...