Storytellers, political demonstrations, witchdoctors, markets
What strikes you most about arriving in Bolivia, at least La Paz, is the instant recognition that you are in a place where the population is characterised by the indiginous people. Women in sombreo (like a bowler hat) extravagant layered skirts and usually carrying child or supplies in a very colourful shawl-like papoos on there back.
Our 3 days in La Paz helped us to acclimatise to the height of around 3600 mtrs. Both of us have struggled with this with dizzyness, nausea, headaches - altitude sickness. Even the cocoa leaves didn't produce the results we expected. Now in our 5th day and heading to the Salar de Uyuni we are still having trouble but hoping that by the time we reach the great salt lakes the adjustment will have taken place.
So some interesting points in La Paz so far:
Posting parcel back to Australia. Oh how by doing normal things you can learn so much. We purchased two sombreos. (Kerry they are addressed to you.) Found the internationacional department at the post office. There was a queue of around 8 gringos (that's us). Language interpretation was challenging however the parcel was packed and stitched in a deliberate and precise way. They giggled that the package was so light. Then two forms in quadruplicate completed and the wait began. The officer in charge of weighing and paying laborously spent around 15 mins for each package. That meant we would be around 2 hrs before we hit the paying officer. No worries we could wait (or could we). Having waited for around 1 hr, the officer decided to have a lunch break. After 30 mins he returned, we decided to see if we could take our package and come back the next day. One of the packaging ladies tried to jump the queue for us but we insisted no - as did most of the people in front of us. But to her delight she realised our package was under 1kg and pointed us up stairs. So we did and within 5 mins it was on its way to Australia.
Spanish lesson in Bolivia.
2 hours is not really enough for anything except that we had private lesson in the home of the teacher Isabel. We learned how to say My name is... Plus I come from Australia. Also a few verbs and boring stuff like that. We may go back on our way through La Paz but now with the Latin American Spanish Phrasebook in hand (thanks Ron and Chris) we are saying lots more words and people begin to understand us. The problem is when they speak back to us.
The natural surrounds... The city of La Paz cowers in a narrow canyon gouged from the ´high Altiplano, and is dwarfed by the magnficant icebound peak of Mount Illimani, which rises imperiously to the southeast.
Oh yes and what about the storytellers, political demonstrations and witchdoctors. Well, in La Paz, at any time of day in the main area around the San Francisco Church are groups of people crowded around a single person - some just telling stories, others spruking political beliefs and others selling the benefits of mysterious plants and mummified llama. There are numerous political demonstrations accompanied by firecrackers, police, rifles, armour riot gear but as yet no tear gas.
What strikes you most about arriving in Bolivia, at least La Paz, is the instant recognition that you are in a place where the population is characterised by the indiginous people. Women in sombreo (like a bowler hat) extravagant layered skirts and usually carrying child or supplies in a very colourful shawl-like papoos on there back.
Our 3 days in La Paz helped us to acclimatise to the height of around 3600 mtrs. Both of us have struggled with this with dizzyness, nausea, headaches - altitude sickness. Even the cocoa leaves didn't produce the results we expected. Now in our 5th day and heading to the Salar de Uyuni we are still having trouble but hoping that by the time we reach the great salt lakes the adjustment will have taken place.
So some interesting points in La Paz so far:
Posting parcel back to Australia. Oh how by doing normal things you can learn so much. We purchased two sombreos. (Kerry they are addressed to you.) Found the internationacional department at the post office. There was a queue of around 8 gringos (that's us). Language interpretation was challenging however the parcel was packed and stitched in a deliberate and precise way. They giggled that the package was so light. Then two forms in quadruplicate completed and the wait began. The officer in charge of weighing and paying laborously spent around 15 mins for each package. That meant we would be around 2 hrs before we hit the paying officer. No worries we could wait (or could we). Having waited for around 1 hr, the officer decided to have a lunch break. After 30 mins he returned, we decided to see if we could take our package and come back the next day. One of the packaging ladies tried to jump the queue for us but we insisted no - as did most of the people in front of us. But to her delight she realised our package was under 1kg and pointed us up stairs. So we did and within 5 mins it was on its way to Australia.
Spanish lesson in Bolivia.
2 hours is not really enough for anything except that we had private lesson in the home of the teacher Isabel. We learned how to say My name is... Plus I come from Australia. Also a few verbs and boring stuff like that. We may go back on our way through La Paz but now with the Latin American Spanish Phrasebook in hand (thanks Ron and Chris) we are saying lots more words and people begin to understand us. The problem is when they speak back to us.
The natural surrounds... The city of La Paz cowers in a narrow canyon gouged from the ´high Altiplano, and is dwarfed by the magnficant icebound peak of Mount Illimani, which rises imperiously to the southeast.
Oh yes and what about the storytellers, political demonstrations and witchdoctors. Well, in La Paz, at any time of day in the main area around the San Francisco Church are groups of people crowded around a single person - some just telling stories, others spruking political beliefs and others selling the benefits of mysterious plants and mummified llama. There are numerous political demonstrations accompanied by firecrackers, police, rifles, armour riot gear but as yet no tear gas.
'If images take awhile to download, forgive us, we are in internet cafes where the technology doesn´t allow us to resize.´ If anyone has any tips from the internet let us know.
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