Saturday 8th April 2017
Fly Sucre to La Paz, Bolivia.
Easy transfer to Sucre Airport, which was set on a high plain in
the mountains. En route, passed a weird egg-shaped group of houses which had
only been discovered when they cleared the ground for the new airport. 1100
flight Sucre to La Paz. Indulged in a massage chair in the airport, with Judy
alongside – entertained the airport with our screams of laughter. Great
massage. Easy 50 minute flight which
would have taken 10-12 hours by road.
Collected by Franz. Started at El Alto, above La Paz, with both
towns having a total population of about 2million. And only 20 supermarkets.
Lots of entrepreneurs, with many people selling their own produce at the side
of road or in kiosks, or at the markets. Those with more money buy minibus
taxis and transport batches of people for 2B or 60c more if outside of town.
However, you have to be prepared for the minibus to be full and to take
detours. In this area, many ladies wear the top hats/bowler hats and very full
skirts, plus lots of layers. The bowler hats started in the 1920s when a
Spanish entrepreneur imported a load of Spanish-style higher hats intended for
the male bowler-hat market. The men didn’t want them, so he found some fashion
Conchita’s and they started the trend. Best original hats costs about $120 US,
so are handed down the generations, same as jewellery.
Took pictures of some shoe-shine boys. It is not an honourable job
if you want to impress a girlfriend’s parents, so they cover their faces to
avoid identification. Looks really threatening if you don’t realise this –
balaclava’d men approaching you. Luckily my trainers clearly didn’t need a
shine.
We then had lunch at Casa de Piedra in honour of Neil’s
birthday. Unfortunately he’d already
left the group and was somewhere in Peru. Nevertheless we ate and drank to his
health – veg and quinoa soup, salad buffet, mix of Bolognese, cows tongue,
chicken, plantain and small dried potatoes. Fruit salad to follow. All very
nice. During the meal we were
entertained by a 5-piece local band, Munaway, with guitars, drum and
panpipes. Also a dance troupe showing
the different dances of the country. I
took one for the team and ended up on the dance floor strutting my funky stuff.
We bought one of the music CDs of Munaway ‘Gustavisto’.
Again, full of food and slightly suffering from the altitude, we
took a walking tour of the "Witches
Market'' where bowler hatted women in their flared skirts sell such items as
dead cats and llamas foetuses said to ward off evil spirits. Explanation given regarding presents you
should give ‘Pachamama’ or mother earth – animal foetus, sugar blocks,
colourful paper, money etc. which then gets burned. On through markets at Sagarnaga Street, buying couple of wrist bands woven
by a lady sitting on the floor, and a fossil.
On to Plaza Murillo, and the Presidential Palace. Two weddings
and a funeral took place within 20 mins of us standing there! Behind the Palace,
the current president, Evo Morales, has started a new palace which looks like a
particularly ugly block of flats!
Completely ruins the vista of the square. Madness. He’s in his second term and legislation
doesn’t allow him to sit for a third, so manoeuvres by him behind the scenes to
get the legislation changed. However, he
has managed to instigate some very impressive cable cars which are now dotted
around the city.
Picture of Roberto with palace guards!
On to the Valle de la Luna - Moon Valley – a weird formation which
Neil Armstrong allegedly said looked like a moonscape. Formed by sedimentary
lands and tectonic movements it looks like a series of termite mounds, and just
as likely to collapse in certain weather conditions. At that point it started to rain, so we
jogged through the muddy walkways quite quickly!
All too full still from lunch so just walked into town in the
evening, mainly fast food places, but eventually found a café-bar which sold
wine and beer. Shared a bottle of Chardonnay with Ed and Jude. Very good night’s sleep at lovely hotel – Rey
Palace Apartment Hotel.
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