At the end of my second day in La Paz , I can wholeheartedly confirm that it
is a truly fascinating city. Even those people here who are lucky enough to
have travelled the length and breadth of the world keep a special place in
their heats for La Paz .
It is hard to know where to start. Perhaps I ought to follow
convention and start at the beginning! After a somewhat dodgy connecting flight
from Miami to La Paz in total darkness, the views as we
drove down the mountain from the airport at El Alto proved worth waiting for.
As dawn broke and the fog (with a lot of smog added in) lifted, the vast and
dusty city was rather spectacularly revealed.
In fact, the word ‘vast’ doesn’t quite cut it! What I think
makes it appear bigger than it actually is, is that it exists in a large V
shaped valley created by the surrounding mountains, so from any point in the
city you can see almost all of the rest of it. The only way I can describe it
is for you to imagine taking each corner of London and folding it upwards!
From where we are living- in a quiet residential area on the
edge of the centre- it is a 1.50 Bolivianos (about 15 pence) bus ride up the
mountain to the city centre and the offices of both IS and Aldeas (the gradient
makes walking it unthinkable).
The transport system is both thoroughly entertaining and
extremely chaotic. It is essentially made up of tiny minibuses which can ‘fit’
about a dozen people in which have signs on the dashboard stating the route usually
accompanied by a man hanging out the window shouting out the same instructions.
You flag it down, jump (literally) in and it will stop anywhere you want on the
route (bus stops are like flying pigs here and stopping in the middle of a
roundabout is not uncommon) and then everybody has to shuffle around when
someone wants to get off. One of the most important phrases which we have
needed so far is 'aqui mi bajo' or ‘I want to get off here please’!
Perhaps the most striking aspect of La Paz however is the indigenous culture that
still dominates much of modern life. Many of the women, particularly the older
women wear traditional Bolivian dress every day, whether they work in a tourist
area or construction. The traditional dress consists of thick layered skirts in
all shades and colours and at least two brightly coloured shawls, as well as Bolivia ’s
famous bowler hat perched precariously on their heads. Some of the locals also
chew cocoa leaves, a very mild narcotic which staves off hunger and dilutes the
effects of the altitude.
The altitude hasn’t proved too much of a problem for most of
the group so far, although walking anywhere is tiring- even just walking up a
short hill makes your heart race which has made me feel dizzy more than once.
These first two weeks are mostly training, learning about
the projects we will be working on and getting to grips with the language-
something that I am really enjoying and after just a few days my Spanish is
considerably better than it was before I left (although I still have a long way
to go!).
