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Published: June 16th 2009
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Bolivian women
The streets of La paz Copacabana is not the place Barry Manilow was singing about I celebrated our last night in Peru by treating myself to my last ever Peruvian pisco sour in Puno before heading of to the ‘Rock & Reggae’ bar for a few games of jenga and cuba libres with the rest of the group. What with cheap drinks and not much else to do, it was no wonder that the night disintegrated after one too many strong cuba libres. Giant teddy bears, bean bags and many hands became the theme of what was left of that night! 😱
The next day we were heading across to Bolivia, staying in our first Bolivian town of Copacabana for the night. A place that hardly rates a mention other than to refer to it as the town that Barry Manilow did NOT sing about. Nothing to see, Nothing to do and terrible food - The town was not the best introduction to Bolivia, so thankfully we were not there long enough to suffer any real damage.
La Paz I had four glorious days of relaxation. I didn’t have to go anywhere. I didn’t have to ride a bus.
I didn’t have to pack my backpack. I could do nothing - and it was great. We were staying in the central part of La Paz, along the tourist strip of Calle Sagarnaga, filled with street markets, silver shops, bars & restaurants, so it was easy enough to walk out the door and go exploring around the area.
Our first visit was to the local Witches Market on a cross street a few minutes walk from our hotel. The Bolivian people, although Catholic as a result of the Spanish Conquest, still have a deep rooted belief in their traditional religions and the ‘Witches Market’ is symbolic of this. People come here to purchase anything from a blessing to ‘Patchamama’ (Mother Earth) to ensure a safe crop; or to find a cure for a wayward boyfriend/husband. As I walked around the market, I could smell different types of incense and other herbs being burned. Various shops had bundles of llama foetuses hanging outside together with stuffed baby llamas and the shells of various animals in baskets, whose uses varied; depending on what was being cured or treated. Shops had miniature versions of money, food & other things stuck together in
one massive concoction of paper, which would later be burned as part of a blessing. We could, if we wanted to, purchase a small carving of any blessing, ranging from fertility to safe travels - but I chose to wing it on a prayer instead, so we shall see how that works out for me.
I loved La Paz. It’s very hilly streets were filled with people selling the usual assortments of nick-naks and tourist crap. It was grungy. It was grey. The city buildings were ornate and dilapidated at the same time and the city carried the smell of pollution and millions of people. What more could you ask for in a city! After being surrounded by green hills, Amazon jungles and blue sky - I was missing the hustle & bustle of a city and wanted to be somewhere that I could have access to 'things' whatever that might be....
It had been a long time since I had savoured a good cup of coffee; a good slice of pizza and something other than Latin American cuisine. I was told that La Paz was going to be able to service my needs on the food front,
so I was off on the hunt. ‘Alexander Coffee’ a chain of about three around La Paz, served my needs. Iced coffee-mochachino’s with vanilla ice-cream and a steak sandwich.......aarrgghhh what more did I need? I went there every day of my four days to sample something new. Sensational! ‘Sol y Luna’ bar became the next gastronomical feast, filled with foods from around the world (even something from the Philippines - hah, I couldn't believe it!). The wine was Argentinean, the cocktails were cheap and the food wonderous. Perfect again! Lastly came the ‘Olivers Travels’ bar. Handmade linconshire sausages, mashed potatoes and onion gravy, c’mon! I was in heaven.
In actual fact, thinking back, I did nothing but eat my way through La Paz. My days were filled with sleeping in, followed by walks around the city before heading back to find a nice place to eat my lunch or dinner. It was nice to just laze around, doing nothing after being on the go for so long. I had no desire to climb any mountain (although the altitude played a role in this thought process); no desire to wander around a museum or inside a church. I was happy
just to walk up and down the streets, picking my way through the local ‘black’ market in search of some useful knock-offs that had no place in my backpack and assessing the quality of locally made silver goods (which as it turned out, wasn't as good as I had hoped and left me walking away empty-handed. At least my wallet was happy with me).
I spent my nights out at dinner with a good bottle of wine, followed up by one farewell ‘outing’ with Claire, my group leader and the rest of the group in the downtown, miraflores area with the rest of La Paz’s posh people, downing $5 margaritas and dancing to some unknown Latin Artists, whilst watching the guys getting beer poured down their throats by the Bolivia cow-girl beer promoters.
My last day in La Paz was spent doing a bus tour of the city. I walked through the sand formations known as 'Valle de la Luna' on the outskirts of the city, over-looking the city’s golf course, the highest course in the world (perhaps?). Surrounded by canyons & pinnacles made of sand & stone, the Valle is supposedly like a lunar landscape (but I
Views of the Oriental Andres
On top of 'Killi-Killi' lookout. Views of La Paz & the Oriental Andes in the background will have to take their word for it on this one at the moment!), despite the fact that you are able to see La Paz's most expensive suburbs in the distance. I caught a glimpse of the Oriental Andres, the closest Andres range to La Paz from a lookout point called ‘Killi Killi’ and spent some time trying to get some artistic photos done, without exerting too much energy, thereby winding myself due to lack of oxygen.
After 37 days of travelling together, it was time to say adios to new friends, as part of my tour group split to head directly towards Brazil. After much reminising about everything we had done together during the course of our travels it was time to part both for us as a group and for La Paz as well.......
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