I instantly fell in love with La Paz. The hills
surrounding the city are completely covered with red brick buildings
which from the ground level look like hundreds of tiny blocks of lego
stacked on top of one another to create a colourful little toy town. By
night these hills transform, with each small block being replaced by a
bright light glowing through the darkness like an abstract reflection of
the stars above.
Behind these hills stand the grander mountains, so high that their peaks
are smothered in snow. We planned to climb one, Huyana Potosi, but
first had to spend three days in La Paz to acclimatise to the crazy
altitude. This wasn't a problem though as there's plenty to do in the
city and we began by joining a free walking tour with two local
Bolivians to suss out where would be best to spend our time.
The tour was brilliant and we learnt so much about La Paz' loco history.
It started out at San Pedro prison which is a low security
establishment bang in the centre of town. They use the term 'low
security' loosely here, for in fact the gates are guarded by just a
couple of officers and on the inside the prison is run by the inmates
themselves. However, there's little concern for prisoners escaping for
most are better off in San Pedro where they live in fancy apartments and
have an abundance of customers to support their cocaine business.
Next we visited the Rodriguez food market which is essentially the
locals' open air supermarket. Each stall is run by a cholita, a Bolivian
woman in traditional dress. Here, our guide confirmed our suspicions
that a Bolivian cholita is not one to be messed with. They're renowned
for their strong builds and stronger brains which they use to whip their
men and children into shape.
Also explained here was the interesting history behind their signature
clothing of puffy skirts and top hats which don't actually fit on their
heads. The layered skirts make the ladies look larger to imply they have
good, child bearing hips and they help keep their legs warm during
early mornings on the markets. The hats, on the other hand, serve a much
less practical purpose; merely a fashion accessory introduced to the
cholitas when the Europeans invaded in the sixteenth century. Though
they were initially of course brought over for the men, they were soon
sold to the women once the European designers realised they'd
underestimated the size of a Bolivian male's head, having wrongly
assumed they'd be smaller because they're short. In fact, the average
Bolivian has a much larger head and so even on women, these hats were
too small. Nevertheless, they made it work by telling the ladies this
was how they're worn in Europe and the fashion has stuck ever since.
What's even more amazing about these hats is that they now speak a
language of their own; a straight up hat signifies a woman is married or
taken, whilst one worn on a tilt tells a man that she's single!
Cholitas will pay up to thousands of dollars for the best top hats and
between them, they're saving the businesses which have long gone bust
in Europe where they originated.
La Paz is full of amazing markets and the next on our list was the
Witch's Market, thus named for all the weird and wonderful concoctions
sold at the stalls there. You can find a potion for every purpose, from
'follow me' dust to attract new partners, to 'repel me' powder to rid
yourself of unwanted attention (though trying to export this out the
country is not advised, for fear that it would be too easily confused
with South America's other, more popular powder.)
Such a phenomenon could reasonably be assumed to be a tourist trap but
in fact, the Witch's Market long pre-existed tourism and Bolivians
genuinely believe in the magic of these medicines. The llama foetuses
available at the market remain one of the best selling items because the
locals use them as offerings to their Goddess Pachamama, burying
them beneath the foundations of new buildings for good luck. To our
horror, our guides explained that for larger constructions, a more
significant sacrifice is usually required; humans! The most common
victims are the homeless people of La Paz because they're the least
likely to be looked for. For this sacrificial ceremony, a construction
team would be hired to take the unknowing victim for a few drinks, wait
for them to pass out and then bury them deep beneath the concrete before
they wake up. Though there's little evidence that such practises still
exist, we were still warned against accepting free drinks from any
locals. It might take a while for anyone to come looking for us too!
A little disturbed, we moved onto San Francisco Square where the grand
Catholic cathedral stands. Similar to in Peru, the religious faith of
most Bolivians is a little complicated. Whilst in many ways they remain
true to their ancient beliefs, they've been heavily influenced by the
Christianity imposed on them during the Spanish invasion. When the
Europeans first arrived they used all sorts of tactics to trick the
Bolivians into converting. For example, Bolivians believed that when
they were frightened, their souls left them and escaped to heaven and in
order to retrieve them, they had to call them back with a traditional
arm signal. When the Spaniards saw them waving to the heavens they
identified an opportunity and installed mirrors into the alter of the
Church; 'You poor, confused people! Your souls are not in heaven;
they're here in the Church! Come and look for yourselves!' When the
Bolivians set eyes on their reflections in the mirrors they were
convinced, but still not converted. 'Can we take them? Can we take back
our souls?' they asked. 'No, I'm afraid they are trapped here but what
you can do is come and visit them so you can reconnect with your souls
whenever you wish.' From then on, the natives were attending a daily
mass at the Catholic cathedral.
The final piece of history we heard that day was the long line of bad
presidents the country has suffered. There was a time when coming into
political power just meant getting rid of the current president which
inevitably ended up with someone being thrown from a balcony or hung in
the square. Even the current president who the majority of Bolivians
actually approve of has made some monumental errors. For example, he
announced on National television that in order to solve their problem of
underpopulation, he'd ban the production of condoms and introduce a tax
to all women over the age of eighteen who didn't have any children.
Fortunately, he quickly felt the wrath of the cholitas rising and
apologised a few days later, abolishing the idea completely. However,
with such ludicrous laws being passed around it's little wonder that the
locals love to riot so much. It's unbelievable, but that's Bolivia!
We covered a lot of the city during the tour but we didn't have time to
stop and shop so we spent the whole of the following day rinsing the
markets. It's been so long since we've felt we can spend any money on
ourselves and with so many beautiful trinkets to take home as presents,
we ended up buying the whole of Bolivia and then returning the next day
to do exactly the same.
