The Muddy-Pants Diaries

9 November 2005 (Wednesday) – La Paz, Bolivia

By last night, Henry and Emmy had gotten all lovey-dovey, and I appeared to be quite a bright lamp-post, heh. So, I was happy to leave them alone today to their own dreamland and their baby talk (baby English from Henry and baby Spanish from Emmy). Yep, yesterday at Tiahuanacu, I was doing loads of translation work between the both of them. Today, I am free to do what I want.

Yes, free as a bird!!! Wow, it felt great suddenly to be wandering around all over by myself again!

La Paz is made up of modernly-attired citizens and traditionally-attired citizens. Great mix! The traditionally-attired women of La Paz are called ‘cholas’ and they have a distinct dress. They wear multi-layer skirts and petticoats to make their waists wider. I guess, the wider it is, the more attractive the woman is. So, you would see these VERY ATTRACTIVE pear-shaped women lumbering all over town. Their skirts can be really lovely, intricately but subtly embroidered (not in contrasting colours). They usually wrap themselves in yet another intricately but subtly embroidered gigantic shawl that has lovely long tassels at the ends. And the most distinct feature is the bowler hat. Here in La Paz, the bowler hats are shaped differently from those in Puno. In Puno, the hats have a slight hour-glass shape. Here, no.

I had seen a restaurant near the tourist street of La Paz selling juice for 10 bolivianos. But a short walk away to Mercado Lanzo, near Plaza San Francisco and you get great juice in huge glasses for 1.50 bolivianos!

And wow, salteñas are juicy meat or chicken empanadas and they just taste amazing!! Remember back in Quito when Ismael brought us to a place called Empanadas Bolivianas to taste some really big and juicy empanadas. Well, this was exactly it. You have to eat it holding it like a cup, otherwise the juice would just come trickling down everywhere.

I meandered everywhere without really checking the map, following my nose and instincts. There are just lots of people on the streets, lots of markets everywhere selling anything from stationery to toiletries. Who needs shops? The shoe-shiners of La Paz all wear a ski-mask to protect them from the harsh sun. Gosh, in a way, they all look like terrorists! And Immigration was worried about me being a terrorist!

Along the roads, be careful to watch out for the huge number of micros and trucks that drive crazily up and down, overtaking one another, turning without signalling, blaring their horns constantly, stopping suddenly to pick up more passengers. There is no peace here, as people are always shouting the destinations and their products for sale. What noise! What chaos! What energy!!

When I got hungry, I returned to Mercado Lanzo and gosh, a lunch of rice, fries, salad and meat for about 3.50 bolivianos (less than US$0.50)! How can you beat that?

Not only are the food and drinks cheap (if you know where to go), the people here in La Paz are simply amazing, with their cheerful smiles and curious questions. When I hopped around in agony after tasting the hot chilli of the salteñas, people around me smiled and made some pity comments. When I was drinking my juice, I chatted with the guy next to me like we were old pals. When I ate lunch, Doña Angelica slicing the beef wanted me to take photos and have them sent to her. We ended up snapping many pictures with the various ladies working at the food stalls – Mary, Manuela, Beatriz, Doña Olga…

More wanderings led me to Av. Montes where the authorities were closing the road. A huge line of crowd had gathered along the avenue, waiting for something. I asked a police and he told me there was a bicycle race and the cyclists should come by here in about 15 minutes’ time. Great! I stood there and waited. Strange that they only started setting up the railings to block pedestrians and traffic merely 15 minutes before the arrival of the cyclists! I hoped they had time to get everything ready. Soon, a few cars and motorbikes with cameramen zipped by. Then, 2 cyclists in yellow attire flashed across. The guys behind me said they were Colombians. After quite a while, a group of cyclists zipped by. The guys searched for Bolivians, and seemed to conclude they were not amongst this second group either.

Gosh, La Paz is just amazing! I really love it here. I just feel a great sense of fascination with everything on the streets – day and night. The whole city is a street market! However, many people who had come to La Paz took one look at it and said it was ugly, polluted and noisy and they moved on. In fact, many people who had arrived with me from Copacabana had left or were leaving today.

I returned to the hostel at 5pm as I sort of had an appointment with Henry (if he still remembered) to go to a guy who reads fortunes with coca leaves. I was sitting on my bed, noting down my expenses when he came barging into the room. He threw himself down on his bed, panting away. I greeted him, “hola” and asked him how he was doing. Then, I asked if he still wanted to know his future. I proceeded to tell him what had happened today, where I went, what I saw, etc… before it dawned on me I was conducting a damn monologue. I paused and studied Henry. He looked a little off. I politely ventured, “¿Algo para contarme?” (Something to tell me?)

It turned out he was in Emmy’s hotel room, chatting, when her strange brother returned and knocked on the door. She told him to give her a minute, but her brother just started screaming and whacking, banging and kicking the door like a mad man. Well, perhaps, that description was not that far off. Henry jumped into the toilet and when her brother stormed into the room, he slipped out. Later, as he walked down to the lobby, Henry saw Emmy’s dad and he made his second escape.

Gosh, Henry is a film-maker and this is just like a scene from a movie! I laughed at him non-stop. He had left his haversack, his money and one of his socks there. We tried to analyse how Emmy copes with having such a strange brother. Oh well.

Later, Emmy dropped by our room with his things and Henry did not seem interested in going for fortune-telling anymore, so I left to do some shopping.

I had resisted buying an alpaca sweater since Ecuador. But I realised that what I had was really insufficient for anything higher than La Paz. Everyone also advised me that I would need something more (and something alpaca) by the time I get to Potosi and Salar de Uyuni. Finally, I caved and headed out and bought a sweater.

Tags: 09) Bolivian Rhapsody, La Paz

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