Oh linda La Paz

"Oh pretty La Paz": at least that´s what they say around here. Now you can say a lot of things about this city and it certainly has been a lot more interesting than i expected but pretty?

Anyway, before anything else, i must say the last 2 weeks have been good. From Lima to Cusco, Machu Pichu, Lake Titicaca and now La Paz, many emotions and impressions have grown. Certainly the 5 day walk has been a highlight: the views, the changing scenery, the challenge of climbing that damn mountain and, funnily enough, a game of football played between gringos and latinos AFTER a day of walking, barefoot on a sloping pitch, followed by a river bath!

A surprise has been that this entire area is so arid, dry, dusty (and poor of course) despite regular rainfall. Literally from Lima all the way to San Pedro. I did not expect it to be this desolate everywhere. As you can see from the pictures, the overall landscape is yellow and barren. The towns we pass are mainly a collection of self-built mud brick houses. As and when people have money, they build another floor. Funnily enough there seem to be a lot of houses for the amount of people we see on the roads and in the towns. Where is everybody?? Not really in the towns which seem underpopulated. Though wherever you drive, in the middle of nowhere, you´ll meet 1 or 2 people walking towards a field, some cows or lamas parked for grazing, etc. But nobody seems to do anything else at all. With difficulty you can find some metal workshops in the towns or a building materials shop. Other than that everybody farms and sells all basic necessities (including coca-cola and all possible candy) to each other. No factories, no garages, no real shops to speak of, no government employment. Pardon yes, lots of police and military. And boy do they look mean! Every museum and ruin has a military guard. I guess that's one way of solving unemployment.

The weather is odd too: despite starting off very near the equator, evenings are cool to cold and days are pleasant at best. Today´s 25 degrees in La PAZ would have been the hottest day I guess. Obviously the altitude does play. We´ve now been around 4000 meters for 2 weeks. I seem to cope ok (no big side effects) though I do notice the difference when walking uphill but Irene suffers the most.

Peruanos seemed a bit more cold and distant; friendly enough but they don´t open easily. For example the free "concerts" we witnessed in the Lima market: no one moved with the music, applause was scarce. In fact music overall was scarce.

Here in La Paz it´s different: CHAOS! MADNESS!! CROWDS! The whole town is a market. Everywhere people sit on the roads and spread their wares for sale. They organise a table and an umbrella and sell everything under the sun. Yes it´s completely chaotic but they do sell everything: from food and cosmetics to clothes, tools and electronics (DVD´s galore, MP3 players, you name it). Luckily we spent 3 days here which gave us a good idea of the city. La Paz was founded in a valley in 1548. The old center seems like a charming old provincial town square - few colonial buildings remain. There are some high rises in the financial centre but mainly it´s a huge sprawling city: all surrounding hillsides are taken up by houses (again self built, brick, 2 or 3 stories). It's worth a visit if you're in the area but really more for the atmosphere and the impressions than for the buildings or culture. With one exception: the COCA museum! very interesting. No free samples though.

Enough talk: people to see, places to go!

BRUNO

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