For the last two weeks, I haven’t done any major traveling outside of La Paz. However, I must say that I have really enjoyed just exploring La Paz more.
I was invited by two other CFHI interns to join them and Dra. Terejina for a trip to Valle de la Mallasa. The valley is located about an hour outside of La Paz. This valley was just as beautiful as Valle de la Luna that I visited my second week in La Paz.
The other interns and I also took a day excursion to Tiwanaku. Tiwanaku is an archaeological site that contains small ruins and reconstructed ruins of an empire that was established around 1000 BC. Tiwanaku came before the great Incan Empire. Some historians and archaeologist say that this empire fell because the people of Tiwanaku were no longer able to farm the land. Overall, I liked the trip but was expecting a lot more ruins like those that I had seen in Machu Picchu. In addition, I visited a couple museums there.
This past Saturday (July 31), my housemates and I went to the big parade that ran through the Prado (the main street in La Paz, which is very long). The parade is an annual celebration of that includes traditional dance (each dance told a specific story) and music. From what I was told by a couple of Bolivians is that almost all public university students are required to perform in the parade by law and that the parade was designed as a way to preserve Bolivia’s traditional culture. For me, the parade surpassed what I was expecting. Most of the outfits/traditional wear had such fine detail that highlighted Bolivian culture. Overall, my favorite parts of the parade were the bands, especially the drumming.
This past week I also visited the Zona Sur, which is located about 30 minutes from where I live in the Sopocachi neighborhood in La Paz. The Zona Sur is an elite district in La Paz where all the rich people live like the diplomats. The area is nice and the buildings are spectacular, especially the houses. While in the Zona Sur, my friends and I went to a restaurant called Charlie Papa, which reminded me so much of Red Robbins. The food was excellent, and I would highly recommend the restaurant to anyone visiting La Paz. In addition, the prices were very reasonable.
Besides the things mentioned above, I finally was able to make it to La Paz’s famous Mercado Hechicería. This market is famous for its continuous display of dried llama fetuses. I must say that I was shocked to see how big the llama fetuses were (they aren’t small by any means).
This week I was also reminded once again of how dangerous La Paz can be. One day as a group of my friends and I were walking through one of the markets, one of my friends had dirt spilled on him. As the dirt was thrown on him, we suddenly found ourselves in a swarm of people. As we were in the swarm of people, another one of my friends spontaneously yelled, “Watch you stuff you guys!” At first, I was so confused as to why all of a sudden we were in a crowd of people that just kept bumping us, and I also was confused as to where the dirt had come from. However, as quickly as the crowd appeared, they disappeared. After the crowd disappeared, my friend took off his jacket in order to get the dirt off. As he put his jacket back on, he checked his coat pocket and wa-la….. his camera was missing!!! He had just been robbed. We immediately stopped walking and stopped in front of one of the vender stalls. We were in shock of what had just happened. We told the woman vender what had happened, and she explained that the whole throwing of the dirt on a person and then the spontaneous crowd was one of the tricks that pick-pocketers used. She explained that a person on a bus most likely threw the dirt. Even though I was wearing a backpack, I wasn’t pick-pocket because 1) I never carry anything valuable in my backpack or in my pockets and 2) I wear a money belt around my waist and and the money belt is always under my shirt. I really felt so bad for my friend. He literally lost all his pictures that he had taken of his trip thus far and the worst part is that he hadn’t uploaded any of his pictures onto a computer.
Although the whole pick-pocketing put a little damp on our spirits, I must say that I have enjoyed La Paz. This is my last week in La Paz because I will be spending the rest of my time in southern Bolivia taking more Spanish classes and learning more about the infectious disease known as Chagas.
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