Aun Mas de La Paz

My second full day in Bolivia, I was feeling a lot better, so I headed out during the afternoon to visit some more attractions in La Paz with Ceci and Lu.  We took a trufi to the center of town.  I should explain about trufis.  They´re the most popular form of public transportation around here.  Basically they are shared taxi vans.  They pull up alongside the curbs and while the driver idles along, a second worker shouts out the names of places the taxi plans to go.  The route is also posted on the front of the van.  If you see one going your direction, you wave your hand and they´ll stop for a second to let you on.  There doesn´t seem to be a passenger limit other than however many people can fit inside, even if they´re not really sitting.  When you want to get off, you shout "¡Me voy a bajar en la esquina!" (I´m going to get off at the corner!) and the driver will stop and let you pay and get off.  It´s kind of chaotic, but it seems to work fairly well because it means you don´t have to wait nearly as long for public transportation as you do with a regular bus system.

First, Ceci and I visited one of La Paz´s art museums.  It was sunny while we were in the trufi, but seconds after we arrived there was a huge downpour.  The weather is crazy here.  Inside the museum, we were treated to lots of works from the 1600s to the 1800s, mostly by Bolivian artists.  Most of them were traditional Catholic religious paintings, but several had an interesting twist or two.  There were lots of symbols incorporated from indigenous religions, such as frogs, plants, feathers and demon-looking monsters.  There was also a whole set of barroque angels with guns!  I wish I could have taken a picture for my Tapico bros, they would have loved them.

After leaving the museum, we met up with Lu and wandered around the city for a while.  We saw some cool street art and went shopping in a few markets.  We went back to the witch´s market (El mercado de la hechiceria), which was much more interesting up close.  There, they sell a variety of traditional handicrafts, along with some more... specialized items, including love potions, curses, incense, and the oddest of all, llama fetuses.  Apparently, if you bury a llama fetus under your house as an offering to the Pachamama, she will keep you and your house safe.

I bought a cute little purse made of a traditional woven fabric, and then we walked over to El Prado, the main avenue in downtown La Paz.  There were quite a few skyscrapers, but also a lot of green space in the middle of the road.  We passed by the permanent encampment of human rights protesters who are demanding information about mass disappearances that took place during the 1980s, when Bolivia was under the control of a military dictatorship.  They have been there for over a year now; no answers yet.

Lu and Ceci were freezing, so we stopped at a cafe and grabbed a bite to eat.  I tried an empanada de charque, which is something like a hot pocket filled with pork jerky, and became an instant fan.  We spent the next several hours chatting until it was time to go home.  There was one more treat in store for me, though.  Ceci had purchased a chirimoya, the fruit you see here.  Apparently in English they´re called custard apples, but I have never seen them before.  They´re sooooo good; they have the creamy texture of an avocado but they´re really sweet.  Yum...

Miami, La Paz and lots of airplanes

So, after much anticipation, I finally left for my trip bright and early Tuesday morning.  After giving hugs to Mom and Dad, I ran around the airport trying to find my flight, which I eventually did.  Flight #1 took me to Miami, where I was treated to an 8-hour layover.

If you ever need to have an 8-hour layover, I suggest Miami.  As we arrived, the plane flew over the Gulf of Mexico, the Everglades, and then swooped around the edge of the Atlantic.  Miami was perched on the ocean, and I was getting excited already.  From the airport, I took a quick bus ride to Miami Beach, changed into my swimsuit at the Best Western, and then headed out for a lovely few hours on the beach.

That ocean is so blue.  I can´t wait to post a picture; I couldn´t believe how blue it is.  I went swimming a couple of times, soaked up lots of sunshine, walked up and down the boardwalk and then headed back to the airport.  I want to go back for more than 4 hours next time!

On the way back to the airport I met a couple of interesting characters (it seems I always do).  The first was an old Jamaican man who spent the 20 minute wait at the bus stop explaining the value of coconuts to me.  I learned the process of making coconut oil (it involves drying, then soaking, squeezing and boiling) and how to survive a massive power outage (hint: eat the coconuts).  Then, on the bus, I sat next to an old woman who was delighted to hear about my travels abroad.  I was amazed to learn that she had gone all over the world, too.  Apparently, she traveled to Europe before air travel was readily available, so she packed up her stuff and sailed on the Queen Elizabeth as a teenager.  Aren´t people wonderful?

My second flight was the long on, taking me from Miami to Lima, Peru, but it wasn´t bad.  They served us a fancy dinner (on actual plates, with wine and chocolate cake. what?) and we got to watch movies (Silver Linings Playbook is just as good as they said on the Oscars).  After a couple of hours of turbulence, we arrived in Lima, where I had a quick (and also turbulent) connection to La Paz.

I arrived in La Paz around 3:30 AM, completely discombobulated.  The ground approaches so fast at 13,000 feet!  The captain was like, "flight attendants, prepare the cabin" and in like 45 seconds we touched down.  Crazy!

Customs wasn´t too awful, although I was surprised to learn that they don´t provide pens for filling out forms and no one speaks any English.  I was okay, but I ended up helping a bunch of people because not everyone in the world speaks Spanish and carries a pen.

Ceci picked me up at the airport and we took a cab to her house.  On the way, I got my first view of La Paz.  The area by the airport is kind of rough, because it is at the highest elevations.  Apparently, when your city is at 12,000 feet, no one wants to live any higher, so that is where the poorest people live.  In this case, that means Aymara and Quechua peoples, who live in El Alto, the higher suburb of La Paz.  Their traditional clothing was beautiful, but I can´t say they looked particularly happy.  There were also large packs of stray dogs, which Ceci informed me is a major problem around here.

When we arrived at Ceci´s house, all I really wanted to do was nap.  Her house is really nice, and I´m staying in her sister´s room, so I had a bed and I was very happy about it.

In the afternoon, we had lunch and Ceci took me to the city center, where I was deposited on a tourist bus while she and her mom went to work.  The bus was kind of fun because we got a glimpse of all sorts of different places around town, so now I have a better idea of what I would like to see.  I also got a good look at La Paz´s CRAZY traffic.  No one drives in lanes here!  They just weave randomly back and forth and zoom forward into open spots.  It sounds scary, but it really wasn´t because no one can go fast at all, so they pretty much avoid accidents even when people are driving the wrong way down the road (I saw this several times).  Unfortunately, it means it´s very inefficient to go anywhere.

El mercado de Hechiceria

I saw the witch´s market, several churches, and the major government buildings, all of which I plan to visit for longer.  I also saw a really neat park where the Boy Scout center is, so now I want to go there, too.  :-)

After the bus ride, Ceci´s mom Zenaida took me to la Iglesia de San Francisco, where cloistered Franciscan monks live.  It was my favorite part of the day.  We saw where the monks used to make wine and Pisco, the main cloister, the chapel, and several hallways full of religious art.  I was glad I had taken that Spanish art class, because I could really see a lot of influence in the paintings.  Several were in the Barroco style (flat, decorated backgrounds, gold leaf) and the Flamenco style (scenic backgrounds, Mona Lisa faces, thanks Carlos!), but the most interesting thing was the mixture of Spanish art and religion with indigenous influences.  For example, several of the Virgin Mary paintings depicted her as a mixture of the traditional Virgen (blue cape, lilies, crescent moon) with the indigenous Pachamama (Mother Earth).  She was triangular, like a mountain, and she and baby Jesus wore crowns not of gold, but of feathers!  So neat!  As we left the art hall, a gigantic rainbow appeared over the cupola in the cloister.

El Claustro principal de San Francisco

Finally, the tour guide took us to see the two best treasures of the Iglesia: a reliquary with a bone fragment of Saint Francis and the rooftop.  From the roof, we could see all of La Paz, the giant church bells, and the roof tiles, which were fascinating.  Apparently, indigenous people were made to build the church, and they created the roof tiles by stretching clay over their thighs.  As a result, each of the half-cylinder tiles is unique.

After our visit to the church, we were supposed to go to a traditional music show, but the altitude was just too much for me.  Soroche is not fun.  So, Zenaida took me home and gave me coca tea and I took another nap.  Afterwards, I felt a lot better, but it was too late to go to the show, so Ceci and her boyfriend, Juan, came over and we chatted for a while.  It was fun; he´s as nice as Ceci is.  :-)  All in all, a great day.

I'm almost ready to leave on my trip!  My bag is packed, I have been adequately vaccinated, and I have a pretty good idea of my travel plans.  So, first a visit home to Texas, and then I'll leave on March 26 on a 24-hour flight (including layovers) to La Paz, Bolivia!