Details from La Paz

After living in La Paz for almost two and half months, we are leaving tomorrow. And even though we have been here for a while, we have realised that we haven't got that many pictures of the city of La Paz. But we couldn't leave the city without making a post about this impressive place.

La Paz has a beautiful city center with old Spanish style houses and churches from the colonial time, it is also the most touristic area, where you can buy lots af colourful clothes and other things. They also have colourful buses which are very characteristic of this city.

The traffic of La Paz is awful. It seems that there are no rules and that pedestrians are never right. Therefore you have to be extremely careful when you walk around, because even if you have the right to cross a street, a car can turn a corner at top speed and you will never be right.

Consequently, the government is trying to make the cars at least respect the zebra-crossings, using very enthusiastic zebras. We hope it works.

We couldn't talk about La Paz without talking again about the Teleférico. It is a very good way to get through the steep sides of the valley where La Paz is placed in. Only 3 lines are working now, but 6 more lines are coming, which will help very much the already overcrowded streets of the city.

The government supports the culture very much, so there are often cultural activities in the streets, mostly for free. It is understandable in a country with such a rich cultural heritage they have. There are also many museums, which yesterday were all open for free, so we enjoyed visiting the very interesting Etnographic Museum. 

When you walk in the streets of La Paz, you can often get surprised if you look up and see how high the city reaches in all directions. There is more than 1000 meters difference from the highest point to the lowest, so it makes the city the most impressive we have seen so far.

Apparently, La Paz is the city in the world with most demonstrations. It has in average almost one every day of the year!
Even if the social situation in Bolivia has improved remarkably in the latest years, there are still big differences between rich and poor and a lot of corruption, so demonstrations are understandable. At least now they have the right to do it, and are not killed for it, like with the previous president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, who killed 64 persons and injured 228 in demonstrations against his exporting plans for the Bolivian gas. Short after that he got assylum in the U.S.A. where he is giving classes at the University about Latin America and Bolivia, even though he is prosecuted for Crimes Against Humanity. Once again, the U.S.A. and their disgusting politics.

Another detail from La Paz are the thousands of cables connecting every corner of the city, without any plan or order. Sometimes small epifitic plants (bromeliads) grow on them, giving a very tropical feel.

Finally, we couldn't finish this post without mentioning again mount Illimani, which has deep significance in the City and is more than once represented in wall paintings and other graphic representations. It is definitely a beautiful mountain.

Notice Illimani depicted in the street art.