Dejame en Paz

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arrgh, La Paz. What can I say about this place?
Well, not a whole lot of good, actually. Most countries make landfills out of valleys, but Bolivia sticks it´s unoficial capital in one. But maybe that´s the best way to describe La Paz - a landfill.

It´s really a collection of houses perched on the sides of the valley, which are bland unfinished brick, crammed together, exactly like the favalas in Rio, surrounding a city centre from hell, which is full of smelly taxi vans, beggers, a heap of people, and terminates at an open sewer. So, if you´re in the city centre and are feeling costrophopic from the crush of people and the tall ugly 70s and 80s skyscrapers, and you look to the horrizon of some air or light, you´re drowned by the bland wave of brick houses, and your corpse wouldn´t be cold before it´s picked clean by the crooks and the beggers.

Christian reckons I´m the hardest person he´s met. But I just call a spade a spade.

But things didn´t start very well either. On my way here some chumps tried to relieve me of my passport, with that old "I´m a policeman, I´m looking for drugs, show me your passport" scam. It would have been mildly ammusing if it hadn´t been 2am.
Then every sod on the street pested me for money all the way to the hotel, and they continue pestering me for money every time I go anywhere. So you´re not exactly impressing me La Paz.

It does improve a little once you get out of the city centre, and up the sides of valley. I don´t think the beggers care to walk this far, and the drunks can´t find the co-ordination to make it up the hills. The country side around La Paz is spectcular and has many excellent hikes and trips around here, but I can´t afford any of them, so that´s just what I´ve been told.

Two things I did which I found interesting was the San Franisco church tour, which I streached out to 3.5 hours by pestering our guide with all sorts of pointless babble. I´m a little starved for conversation, and she was interesting enough, so away I went for 3.5 hours. The only other person on the tour was an Austrailan and he didn´t seem to mind.
The church is one of the few original things from the early days of La Paz, and has been well restored.

The other thing was the contemporay art mueso. It has a very interest display of bolivian art.

So after three days in La Paz I´m fleeing to Copacabana.

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Photos

Che
in the modern art mueso en La Paz

Comtemporary art 1
here´s a nice piece of work to settle you back down after seeing that previous photo of La Paz.

In this room monks
would whip themselves. It has a sloping floor to allow the blodd to drain away. Bunch of numb nuts!

Roof of the San Fransicion
church in La Paz