I have been in La Paz for over a week now, and the altitude sickness dissapeared after 2 days!
I´ve had a great time in all respects. I´ve spent the days in my Spanish classes with Roxanna, the teacher. The classes have been helpful, and very grammar heavy. I probably need that as I´ve tended to pick up Spanish through reading rather than formal learning.
I´ve spent time looking around various museums and seeing what La Paz has to offer. In the centre is the San Fransisco cathedral, which is impressive but certainly inspires sympathy for the poor people who were forced to build it. Amongst the interesting museums I´ve seen is the Coca museum, which details the history of coca and it´s use amongst Andean peoples (the leaf and not the white powder). Coca is universally used here in tea and chewed as well (I tried chewing it but it didn´t work for me- but it is nice in tea), and is lauded for all kinds of health benefits including for altitude sickness. The museum said that the Spanish thought about banning it as they thought it got in the way of ¨civilising the natives¨ in the name of Christianity, but they didn´t as they realised how much harder it made them work in the mines. It also displayed research saying that coca would be very helpful getting addicts of actual cocaine, which seems to make sense. Unfortunately I can´t bring any home, taking any across any borders would land me a long jail sentence.
On Sunday I saw a big festival in the centre of La Paz; the main street was closed down and all kinds of stalls were set up and Bolivian traditional music was played and various dances went on. Interestingly the majority of the large number of stalls were dedicated to environmental causes, reducing CO2 emissions, protecting the jungle, and various stalls were dedicated to vegetarianism too. I don´t really know enough to comment here, but it certainly seems appropriate since Bolivia is on the front line of climate change.
On the subject of vegetarianism I´ve managed to eat well in some of La Paz´s large number of vegetarian restaurants, all you can eat for 2 pounds! I´ve eaten various delicious dried bananas and other fruits which I can´t name at these places. And I have dined at La Paz´s Korean restaurant!
As I said, Im living with Gloria and Rene who are very helpful. It´s much better than living in a hostel as I can live with a family and ask lots of questions about Bolivia and my travels, and its a lot cheaper as well. Yesterday Rene took me to buy a bicycle for my trip and bargained the price down for me. Hopefully I have a bike that will survive Bolivia, Northern Chile and Peru. He showed me which roads were good and which were not good on the map last night.
I´m staying with a Japanese girl who is being paid by the Japanese government to teach Bolivian primary school kids for two years. She teaches all subjects in Spanish, which is quite impressive considering how different Japanese and Spanish are in terms of construction. There seems to be a lot of Japanese people living here, I saw an exhibition about the historical Japanese immigration into Bolivia and there are a few communities in Bolivia. There seem to be quite strong links and I´ve heard Japanese spoken on the street a few times.
All in all La Paz is a very pleasant city with steep gradients; nowhere is flat. Ancient vehicles transport people around, including some very ancient but colourful Dodge buses that visibly pollute the whole street as they struggle up what must be 20 percent gradients.
Poverty certainly is visible here, Bolivia is the poorest country in South America (although I think not central), and according to the GNI (an of index of inquality) it is one of the most unequal. Morales is popular and has done certain things to improve the lot of the poorest, but the evidence on the street is that he has a long way to go. There are a lot of people begging, and shoeshine boys who are working just to send themselves to school. One of the Dutch girls who studies where I do works for a charity that looks after small children whilst their mothers work in the market, otherwise the children would simply have to be on the street all day with their mothers.
However I´m sure Morales is not popular in all quarters, in my homestay there was a lot of tut tutting at the TV when Humala (leftish) won the election in Peru!
A lot of graffiti and murals around Bolivia (and statements by Morales on huge posters) on high rises express a desire to get back the sea that Chile stole 130 or so years ago. It´s still a sore point here.
Hope all are well and if you´re unlucky I´ll blog again soon. (although my brother probably inherits the family tradition for long- winded writing. To be fair to him he writes a lot better than me!)
I´ve had a great time in all respects. I´ve spent the days in my Spanish classes with Roxanna, the teacher. The classes have been helpful, and very grammar heavy. I probably need that as I´ve tended to pick up Spanish through reading rather than formal learning.
I´ve spent time looking around various museums and seeing what La Paz has to offer. In the centre is the San Fransisco cathedral, which is impressive but certainly inspires sympathy for the poor people who were forced to build it. Amongst the interesting museums I´ve seen is the Coca museum, which details the history of coca and it´s use amongst Andean peoples (the leaf and not the white powder). Coca is universally used here in tea and chewed as well (I tried chewing it but it didn´t work for me- but it is nice in tea), and is lauded for all kinds of health benefits including for altitude sickness. The museum said that the Spanish thought about banning it as they thought it got in the way of ¨civilising the natives¨ in the name of Christianity, but they didn´t as they realised how much harder it made them work in the mines. It also displayed research saying that coca would be very helpful getting addicts of actual cocaine, which seems to make sense. Unfortunately I can´t bring any home, taking any across any borders would land me a long jail sentence.
On Sunday I saw a big festival in the centre of La Paz; the main street was closed down and all kinds of stalls were set up and Bolivian traditional music was played and various dances went on. Interestingly the majority of the large number of stalls were dedicated to environmental causes, reducing CO2 emissions, protecting the jungle, and various stalls were dedicated to vegetarianism too. I don´t really know enough to comment here, but it certainly seems appropriate since Bolivia is on the front line of climate change.
On the subject of vegetarianism I´ve managed to eat well in some of La Paz´s large number of vegetarian restaurants, all you can eat for 2 pounds! I´ve eaten various delicious dried bananas and other fruits which I can´t name at these places. And I have dined at La Paz´s Korean restaurant!
As I said, Im living with Gloria and Rene who are very helpful. It´s much better than living in a hostel as I can live with a family and ask lots of questions about Bolivia and my travels, and its a lot cheaper as well. Yesterday Rene took me to buy a bicycle for my trip and bargained the price down for me. Hopefully I have a bike that will survive Bolivia, Northern Chile and Peru. He showed me which roads were good and which were not good on the map last night.
I´m staying with a Japanese girl who is being paid by the Japanese government to teach Bolivian primary school kids for two years. She teaches all subjects in Spanish, which is quite impressive considering how different Japanese and Spanish are in terms of construction. There seems to be a lot of Japanese people living here, I saw an exhibition about the historical Japanese immigration into Bolivia and there are a few communities in Bolivia. There seem to be quite strong links and I´ve heard Japanese spoken on the street a few times.
All in all La Paz is a very pleasant city with steep gradients; nowhere is flat. Ancient vehicles transport people around, including some very ancient but colourful Dodge buses that visibly pollute the whole street as they struggle up what must be 20 percent gradients.
Poverty certainly is visible here, Bolivia is the poorest country in South America (although I think not central), and according to the GNI (an of index of inquality) it is one of the most unequal. Morales is popular and has done certain things to improve the lot of the poorest, but the evidence on the street is that he has a long way to go. There are a lot of people begging, and shoeshine boys who are working just to send themselves to school. One of the Dutch girls who studies where I do works for a charity that looks after small children whilst their mothers work in the market, otherwise the children would simply have to be on the street all day with their mothers.
However I´m sure Morales is not popular in all quarters, in my homestay there was a lot of tut tutting at the TV when Humala (leftish) won the election in Peru!
A lot of graffiti and murals around Bolivia (and statements by Morales on huge posters) on high rises express a desire to get back the sea that Chile stole 130 or so years ago. It´s still a sore point here.
Hope all are well and if you´re unlucky I´ll blog again soon. (although my brother probably inherits the family tradition for long- winded writing. To be fair to him he writes a lot better than me!)
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