Hurray, I have eventually caught up on my travels and I am so excited to tell you all about La Paz! I was not expecting much, I knew it was super super high with an altitude of 3660m, I had also read that travellers had to be aware as they are targeted by scams, what else? Mmm, there’s the witches market and a baroque church; also a pal said she really did not like it here… Different horses for different courses, that’s what I say. The city is unlike anywhere else I have been and has totally blown my mind, hey in the best way possible!
Given, I was not expecting all that much here, I decided that this was the place I was going to blow my accommodation budget, if the city was not for me I was confident that I was going to have a lovely place to stay and close my door.
I arrived from Sucre at 7am, check in was not until 2pm. Luckily I met a fellow Brit as I disembarked from the coach (yeh, the one that had no loos!). We killed an hour having coffee and cake; he went off to find a hostel and I had another coffee and people watched outside the terminal until I thought it was a reasonable time to turn up at casa fusion and ask if I could leave my bags until check in. I arrived just after 9am, after a 10 boliviano (£1) taxi journey – I think, please don’t trust my currency abilities! In the typical English manner I apologised for arriving early, asking if I could leave my bags… The lovely lady on reception was phenomenal; she told me as I was lucky, my room was ready and progressed to get me a lovely cup of coca tea. Sometimes I wish I believed in god so I could thank him! She also said there was a lunch being served at 12! Hooray! A wee recce, A bite of lunch, a sleep, up at 5pm, found the supermarket, vino, cheese, meat and olives; I was ready and excited for my morning tour!
I decided to stay in the suburbs, apparently sopocachi is the upmarket commercial and residential zone – I had heard the centre is a bit like a travellers ghetto, not what I fancied. As such, my tour was out of the zone and I had to make my way down to the centre to meet my guide. Mmm, not a happy bunny, it meant half an hour walk and getting up at 7am… As it transpired it was more a
Iike an hours walk. Obviously I was late and I was convinced the tour would have started without me. No! I had a one on one guide who, despite me being 15 mins late was waiting and ready.
First stop the witches market, where he described the contradiction of the Bolivian psyche; the faith of Catholicism combined with traditional beliefs – hedging their bets I’d surmise, why not? Again, I was nervous of taking pix, thinking my camera would be ripped out of my hand! Sometimes you can spoil the moment by believing everything you read!
Next stop, San francisco church – bling central! You can’t take pix inside, but the outside was cool. It took 40 years to build and again it was a mixture of the old and new, the Spanish folks homage to the indigenous population.
Back in the day, there was a river that ran in front of it which divided the Spanish settlers with the natives (can I use the word natives?). We headed to the Spanish quarter, colonial heaven and the central plaza – plaza Murillo (named after a successful rebellious leader). You’ll be pleased to know i got my camera mojo back! The square is lovely, cathedral, administration buildings and parliament (so I believe).
We the went down some proper narrow streets and headed to the music museum. Think this deserves a separate post 🙂
House of Wendy travels... 