Arrival in La Paz.

15-11-09

We left Miami at 11pm and arrived in La Paz at just before 7am. La Paz is at 3660m (~11,350 feet) and the airport is even higher. Breathing is going to be an issue. We all got through customs with no hassle and all our luggage made it, so we grabbed a taxi into the city. The drive down from the airport was instructional. I learned two things: even though everybody drives all over the place, they probably won't hit you, they will honk and shout, but the mostly won't run you down on purpose. The second thing I learned is that we are never renting a car in La Paz. A few people have suggested that we should rent a car to get around, but I don't think we'd survive.

The taxi dropped us off in front of the Hostel Cactus. I had picked it out of the guide book so knew nothing about it. It looked okay (not good, but okay). The office wasn't open yet, so we left our luggage in the store room and headed up to the cemetery It was early Sunday morning. All the street vendors were setting up their stalls and it looked like it was going to be very busy later. I also survived my first pickpocket attempt. Somebody threw dirt on me from behind and while I was cleaning myself off, they were going to take my wallet. Fortunately, I knew about this trick, so didn't start to clean myself off until I was sure nobody was going to try anything. I did see a sullen man slip off into the crowd. The good part is that I still own everything I did before, the bad part is that my shirt is now dirty.

The cemetery is huge. It is all crypts and mausoleums. Row upon row of shrines built into the walls, with the occasional large mausoleum breaking up the pattern. The best (but not the most tactful) way to describe the crypts is that the are a lot like storage lockers. The shrines are stacked 5 or 6 high and the structures that house them are hundreds of feet wide. Some of the structures have multiple stories. There is the military section, the poor section, the rich section and a section for pretty much any income level. Some of the shrines are ornately decorated and obviously well cared for, others just have the deceased's name scratched into the concrete used to seal the crypt.

The cemetery was very busy. Visiting your dead is a big deal in Bolivia. Apparently, the crypts are recycled, many of them are currently empty and have obviously been used before. It was rainy and misty, which is the perfect way to walk around a cemetery

After the cemetery, we stopped for a street empanada, and wandered our way back to the hostel through the now bustling streets. The two-hour snooze was well appreciated. We discovered that walking down hill or across a hill (there is no flat ground) was okay, but we were really breathing hard going up hills. It may be a while before we get used to the altitude.

A few hours later we emerged (not happily) from our hostel and went wandering again. We saw the cacao museum and learned that S. Freud was the first European to try cocaine. We also learned that the mining industry runs on the cocoa leaf. The miners refuse to work without it and it increases their ability to do the back-breaking labour required. Apparently the leaf is also full of “nutrition”.

After lunch and more rest we went down to see the church. It is very ornate. The stations of the cross would be an altar in most churches. The altar is immense and very gold. There are more saints than I could shake a stick at and each one has his (they are mostly men) own prayer. It was Sunday evening so there were lots of people coming and going.

Right behind the church is the witch's market. It is quite touristy, but you can still find stalls selling herbs and traditional cauldron ingredients. We had dinner around the corner from the market. Dinner was good, but I ordered a beer that turned out to be malt liquor. After choking it down I was fortified to head out into the rain again.