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Published: January 1st 2015
When Neil Armstrong visited La Paz in 1966, as part of an eleven country goodwill tour of South America, together with other famous US astronauts, armed troops lined the route from the airport to the city centre. They take security very seriously in Bolivia! As part of his trip he visited the Valley of the Moon, just 10 km south of the city and is said to have named it thus, because it looked like the moon’s surface, as seen in photographs, studied as part of his training, in preparation for the moon landing to follow. The Valley of the Moon, or La Valle de la Luna, in Spanish, is a fascinating landscape of eroded rock and clay; wind and rain, over centuries, have sculpted this landscape of gullies, stacks and ridges, forming exotic shapes of varied colour, depending on the mineral content within the rock, from pale cream to red. We boarded a “hop on hop off” bus in the Plaza Isabela la Catolica, and after a winding journey through the southern suburbs, arrived at the valley within forty minutes. Our journey took us across the Rio Aranjuez, the lowest point in La Paz, at an altitude of
3,200 metres. The highest parts of the city stand at 4,100 metres. The visit to the Valley of the Moon was a really good trip!
There wasn’t much happening in La Paz on New Year’s Eve after all. We thought there would have been. The street stalls were busy earlier, selling huge and rather hideous polystyrene display items, like bottles of champagne, and hats and streamers, even cardboard men’s ties with 2015 written on with glitter. These were all, however, for people’s celebrations in their homes. A few hotels had parties for their own guests only, otherwise there wasn’t anything planned. There were no public firework displays, and unlike in Spain, people do not go out on the streets to party after midnight. So, we found somewhere to eat, then went back to our hostel and watched some of the world celebrations on the TV in reception, Sydney, Moscow, London, and had a quiet night. We were disappointed that we were not going to party in the street, or see a fireworks display, as expected, however, the tragic news that thirty five people died in a crush in Shanghai, during their New Year celebrations, put everything into
perspective. We have both developed head colds so it was probably just as well to stay indoors, since it was very cold outside. Actually, it wasn’t much warmer inside! Bolivians don’t seem to go in for heating much. Hotels, restaurants, shops, all are cold most of the time. People sit in restaurants eating with their coats on, and we have been going to bed wearing fleeces! Still, tomorrow we are flying to Arica in Chile, on the Pacific coast, where the sun is shining.
To sum up our Andean experience, throughout Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, it has been a great experience and very educational; the culture of the Andes is quite different to anything we have experienced before. The downsides: well, the loos are often quite disgusting. One loo that we had to use was just a large square storeroom with two dirty loos and one urinal, with no water supply to it, along one wall. Presumably that was so that three mates could all pee together! This was in quite a nice looking restaurant! The street food, mentioned in an earlier blog from Quito, is something else; it makes the street food in the seediest parts
of Indonesia look like cordon bleu cuisine! However, despite these little details, which one just has to cope with, along with the altitude sickness, the scenery is stunning, the people are hospitable and we wouldn’t have missed this experience for the world. We have met some really nice people, fellow travellers as well as locals; we have addresses in Argentina and Brazil, met a really nice English teacher, Meg, who is working in Ecuador and was in Bolivia for Christmas, and Christmas Eve was rescued by a lovely group of young people who we shared a table with: a Turkish lad who lives in Germany, an Italian who lives in Switzerland and two French Canadian girls. Sadly, nobody rescued New Year´s Eve!
Here in La Paz, it is a rainy start to the New Year. The streets are fairly quiet. We walked down to the Basilica this morning, where we stood at the back of the New Year Service. It was full, every seat taken and people standing as well. Outside, about a dozen armed police were riding around Heroes’ Square on motor bikes, wearing balaclavas; don´t know why, don´t ask! On the way back we passed
through the Witches´ Market, where all the stalls were simply covered up, against the rain, until tomorrow when they will open again for business. We were rather impressed by this. In many countries, these stalls, with all their wares, would have been vandalised. This reflects the simplicity of life in Bolivia, although one cannot be complacent. The crime rate, with tourists as the main victims, is very high. Our last photo shows Santa still trying to climb one of the smart new downtown buildings, amongst the swathes of electric cables that adorn every street; La Paz is a city of contrasts.
Since we flew to Cusco from Quito some weeks ago, we have done a lot of travelling by bus and by boat. Altogether, including the trip to Baños as well, the bus journeys have totalled 1,068 km. So, for a change, and as a little New Year’s present to ourselves, yesterday we booked a flight to Arica instead of a bus. It is only a one hour flight, but saves a long journey over the mountains and also saves another lengthy border crossing; it is so much easier to enter countries at airports than overland!
We have loved being in the Andes, but it will be nice to get back down to sea level and enjoy some warm sunshine. We then have until 17
th January to get down to Valparaiso, a distance of over 2,000 km, to board our cruise ship which will take us around Cape Horn to Buenos Aires; we cannot hang about!
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