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8 - LaPaz, Bolivia
October
1, 2003
Hola Amigos y Amigas,
Last time I coresponded,
I was in the LaPaz airport about to go back to the jungle. Let's just say
that sometimes plans don't work out exactly like you had in mind, and you
have to be flexible. Never made it to Rurrenbaque, instead I spent the night
in the LaPaz airport and took a last minute plane down south to Sucre to check
out the Salur de Uyuni salt flats, but that is another story.
Back in Copacabana, I had booked a bus to LaPaz for 130pm so I had some time
to kill. Marcello, the Bolivian who worked the desk, said it was a smart thing
going on Sunday, bc there was going to be a nat't strike the following day.
Those words would ring in my head and haunt me the next few weeks. I ran into
another group of British, whom I had made their acquaintance back in Huaraz,
Peru. Man, the LaCupalla is popular! I went for one last delicious meal from
the LaCupalla restaurant. I tried the famous trout. It was as juicy and tender
and red as any salmon in the Pacific NW I must admit! I am not even that big
of a seafood person either. On the way to the bus, I noticed that all of the
cars were covered in flowers and other
festive garmets. They were all lined up to go by the church and recieve their
traditional Sunday blessing. Can't really blame them, with the way Bolivans
drive with one of the highest driving death rates in the world, they need
all the help they can get. The ride to LaPaz was about 4 hours long with an
interesting intermission. Everyone had to get off of the bus so they could
put the bus on a small flat single engine ferry. Me and this
Canadian guy thought it was going to sink in Titicaca for sure. The passangers
got onto a small boat and met the bus on the other side. As we were nearing
LaPaz, we passed thru El Alto, a huge sprawled out slum that
almost encircles the capital. El Alto (the Tall) is called such, bc the way
LaPaz sits inside a canyon, and the disturbing getto sits on the rim at the
highest point. There were tons of unfinished mudbrick buildings with rebar
sticking out of the tops as well as horrible traffic, trash, and just plain
chaos everywhere. As the bus started to descend, I got a really good glipse
of the highest capital city in the world @ 3650m. LaPaz is in the same league
as NY, Barcelona, and SF as far a as picturesque setting for a city. You just
can't imagine how anyone planned to build a city here. The largest city (1
million) in Bolivia is full of unsettling paradoxes. Unlike western cities,
the higher up you go on the canyon walls, the poorer the neighborhood. So
the lower and deeper you go, the more affluent you are. It is really a surreal
setting for a city with huge glaciated 6000m
mountains surrounding LaPaz (the Hole). As soon as the bus stopped, I tried
to walk towards the central tourist area to check into the Happy Days hotel.
I had made a reservation and planned on meeting Dave, the crazy Aussie there.
LaPaz was really difficult to navigate at 1st. I must have walked thru some
market, bc the streets were full of clutter and incredibly confusing. I could
not make out my map and where I was going. Anyone can tell you I normally
have a really great sense of direction, but LaPaz is notorious for its chaotic,
hustling streets. Finally, I ran into the main street, El Prado, that all
of the streets eventually flow into(similiar to
tributary rivers in the US, finally emptying their contents into the mighty
Mississippi. Checked into Happy Days and immediately walked around to try
to find a bar that shows American football. Had no such luck, but did find
the Burger King and proceeded to throw down the most delicious Whopper( con
queso no cebolas) I have ever had. As I was finishing up some things on the
internet, I heard an Aussie accent, it was my mate- Dave! He immediately filled
me in on all of the problems he had been having at the Happy Days and we decided
to go out for a drink. One drink turns into two, and before you knew it we
had befriended the entire bar. We had to go back to the hotel (it was only
12am) it was locked up tighter than Fort Knox. We rang the bell about 5 times
and about what seemed like an eternity later, the night watchman came to the
door. We told him that we were just going to be few minutes and go back out.
A few minutes later,we walk down to the door to discover about 5 locks on
it and no way out. THey had locked us in the hotel! When I checked in , I
asked if there was a curfew, to which the replied was no. We had to retrace
the buzzer´s wire to the right door to knock on. Then the lady comes
out screaming Spanish, saying she was going to call the police bc we broke
in! Not a good way to start of in the big city. It is amazing how when you
need be, you can be really profeciant in an foreign language in spite of the
few beers against you. She finally calmed down and let us out to meet up with
our new friends at the bar around the corner. Dave is a chatty guy and had
befriended a Peruvian, another Aussie, and this insane French guy. It was
a crazy night to remember.
After a hectic 1st
day in LaPaz, I needed some extra z's for sure. We decided to go ahead and
check out of the Happy Day hotel. The Fonz would have definately not given
his thumb up to that miserable place! This city
is definately not peaceful, but something about it felt somewhat comfortable.
Monday was in no way as exciting as Sunday. Dave knew of a place that had
real milkshakes- I indulged in a fabulous strawberry shake with real ice cream.
The simple things in life, huh. When you travel and have not had anything
familiar, it´s creature comforts like that can save your sanity. We
met up with Dave's friends that he had been traveling with- Chris and Rachael.
I got a badly needed shave and a haircut. Later in the afternoon, I researched
around a few tourist agencies on Sagarnaga, to figure out which trek I was
going to do later in the week. The Aussies wanted to go to a steak restarurant
that their friends highly reccommended-the Argentine El Gaucho. I got fillet
mignon, but it wasn't nearly as tasty as in Cop. I swear, all there is to
eat in this country is steak or chicken. We checked out a weird bar, the Diesel,
that was built of airplane parts and had really cool banos with stainless
steel. It was a fairly mellow evening.
Tues was the first
of many days where we had booked a tour to go back to Titicaca to see Tiahuanuco,
(an ancient 2000 year old ruins that predate the Inca and Aymara) only to
find out that the tour could not go bc of a
roadblock. Now this gets a little complicated so read carefully. Apparently,
Bolivia just discoverd a huge deposit of natural gas and was going to build
a pipeline thru Chile (Bolivians hate Chile bc they lost their only seaport
to them in the War of the Pacific) to sell it to the US. The Compansaros (a
group of mostly Aymara and Quechua Indians) wanted to protest this and out
of frustation with the currupt govt cheating the people out of their share
and decided to create road blockades throughout Bolivia. Basically, not allowing
tourist buses to pass with a system of rocks covering the roads. If a driver
is foulhardy enough to try to run it, they throw large stones at the bus.
Bolivia is definately a country that leans towards the left. They are notorious
for demonstrating and striking against almost any issue. Only a few weeks
prior, the Compansaros protested against the US (with Bolivian govt support)
attack on Coca tree farmers. But this strike would be different and much more
effective in shutting down the country and hurting tourism. So the only thing
left to do was to take a break and get some western culture. We checked out
Charlie's Angels at the best cine in Bolivia. It's amazing how much better
it was than in Cusco. I must be getting desperate for a movie, but it was
entertaining. We also grabbed some burgers at Mango's Rock Bottom -yeah.
Wednesday, I went
directly to Andofo Andino trekking agency to book the Chorro trek for Thurs.
I figured it was time to hit the beautiful Cordillla Real mnts. Andolf spoke
great English and I was going by myself with a
guide and a porter for 4 days. Sargnarga calle is on a steep hill that rises
up past LaPaz´s most beautiful church, the Iglesia de San Fransisco.
The church's plaza is the focal point of the city. There is also an interesting
Indian sculpture with a huge Incan head, that tends to be the background for
many rallies and demonstration. I just happen to be lucky enough to unwillingly
walk right thru a huge one, but was not harrassed at all. I spent a ton of
time walking up and down the Prado, noticing the picuiliar ideosyncrenicities
that LaPaz offers. It is unlike any city I have ever seen. LaPaz just seemed
alot more managable and hip than Lima.
Alongside of all of the Indian women with their hats and multilayered intricate
dresses walked plenty of girls in short skirts and jeans. LaPaz has a large
middle class with cell phones, jeans, Nike shoes-the whole bit. There is also
an sizable skyline that contrasts the surrounding colonial buildings. Later
in the day, I finally made a visit to the Museo de Coca, a museum dedicated
to examining all of the issues of that are part of the coca leaf. It was one
of the best museums I have ever been to. It was really small, but well organized.
Kind of like a public awareness campaign, but not too preachy. Now don´t
get me wrong, I do not advocate the use of
cocaine. But I think it is also important to understand how the US´¨"War
on Drugs" has affected people in other counties. The US has only about
5% of the world's population, but consumes about 50% of the world´s
cocaine. Then we send millions of $ and troops to the Bolivian govt, not knowing
where all the $ (most of which the govt keeps) goes to eradicated coca plants,
that many of them are never used to manufacture cocaine. In fact, a Eruopean
invented the process to make the drug, not an Andean. Sigmond Freud was the
1st well known user and Coca Cola had cocaine in it for years(it still buys
a tremendous amount of coca from Bolivia). Chewing on the leaves actually
has some nutritional value. Once again, I am not saying cocaine isn't dangerous,
but this is one of the reasons other countries hate the US. Our foriegn policy
affects millions of people around the world that have no say, and most of
us have no clue. I heard from some Dutch at the
museum that the roadblocks were getting worse and more violent. They said
that some tourists actually got pulled out of their bus and had stones thrown
at them. I went by Andolfos to double check and to my surprise,
there was an Aussie couple booking for the Choro hike with me. Andolfo´s
wife said the blockade would not affect the trek, so I went back to the hostel
to crash. I will pick up in a few days with the Bolivia´s most polular
trek-the El Choro.
Adios!
Happy Trails, Talbot