La Paz

I finally made it to Bolivia. This area was the bane of my parents existence. Feedback from family, friends, co-workers, and random strangers had convinced certain members of my family that terrible things could possibly (and probably) happen to me here. Although I knew the dates I would be arriving in Bolivia and the dreaded La Psz, I kept things vague for the most part about the arrival time to try and diffuse the stress levels. I don't know if it worked, but all hearts (including my own) were still beating at this point. I boarded an early morning bus from Arequipa, with a transfer in Copacabana, to the largest city in Bolivia, La Paz. On the bus I met a young woman who was raised in Columbia, but now living in the Canary Isalnds, and traveling around South America on her own. She spoke decent English, and of course her first language was Spanish. She decided to be my travel buddy for La Paz. Although she drove me up the wall, she was very nice, sweet, and I thought a buddy for the city would help aleviate some parental stressors. I was surprised at the city of La Paz, from the terrified voices of my parents swirling in my head I anticipated a dark, shady, and scary city. Instead I found streets lined with local vendors who would swap out their wares as the day progressed. In the early morning one could find tables and tarps lined with heavy jackets, down vests, wool socks, snow pants, or gore-tex water proof travelling pants, hats, and heavy knitted sweaters. It was as if at any minute the skies would open up and piles of snow would blanket the unaware pedestrians of La Paz. After about 10am the winter wear would be packed up and hauled away, and breakfast type entres and street vendors would come out. Not someone with an egg and sausage biscuit, but instead some type of thinly sliced meat, potatoes and onions mixed in a large wok. Or have your choice of meat or cheese empanada. Cups for freshly squeezed juices were available as well. Half of the recently juiced fruit skin rested as a lid, or a pit of the fruit bobbed in the cup to mark the favors available. I always missed the lunch and mid afternoon rush, I not know if the food vendors stayed out. During the evenings, very nice spandex type clothing, with glitzy chians, tiaras, "diamond" encrusted bracelets, rings, earrings, and necklaces were always available to anyone looking. I typically chose not to partake in these clothing options. I don't want to detract from my casual mud stains, and smell of stale unwashed clothes. One cannot wash clothes enough when backpacking.. I am officially tring to live up to my nick name of Smelly Kelley apparently. La Paz also has very beautiful architecture throughout the city. One can easily walk to a multitude of Plaza de Armas ( main squares) within a few minutes of one another. This is uncommon in South American cities. Typically there is one main square I which the rest of the city tends to be centered around. In La Paz we had difficiutly nailing down which was the "Main" main square. The Church of San Fransico was made from brown sandstone bricks, that had the small fine crumbling appearance of a sandcastle. It was tall and the small square in front of it always filled with people sitting on the low chains thst hung between low cement pillars. Pigeons like most squares were the principle land owners and residents. Down the road was a market that from the outside looked like a parking garage. The inside set up was similar with 4 cement floors, connected by a thin set of stairs located at the back, or you could work your way up and down the low slanted ramps. Stores were crammed in one by one selling anything one could want. Books for school, history, physics, literature, suduko, best sellers and children's book in one section. Another devoted to dog food,or the kitchen supplie store, selling everything from tupperware to Swiss army knives. The stores looked like small wooden sheds smushed in one next to another. Only enough room for the salesperson to stand in the middle and the cash machine. Every other inch of space the items for sale were piled upon one another. One section we found as we were leaving sold teddy besrs. From small enough to fit into your pocket to teddy besrs that were six feet tall and 3 feet wide.... About 15 stores line up offering the same products. My Colombian friend, Estefanía was leary to venture to far from the street our hostel was on. She really had no sense of direction, and once we had rounded a corner, had no idea how to get back to where we stared. I finally red her with a map, and with this in had I could finally lead her away from out one block radius. I got a four block radius to work with. Although she did not minos how to read a map, she felt comfortable enough at first to explore a little. But I still felt like I had a leash on. By our 3 day in La Paz, and covering the same loop over and over again, I set off and dragged her a bit along with me. I may have overwhelmed her as after 2 hours we crabbed it back to the hostel because she was too tired and needed a 3 hour nap... I kept exploring. The people of La Paz were friendly and helpful. Although I often had a Spanish speaker to help me people were always happy to poi t you in the direction s of what you were looking for, help you find the item, store or restaurant you wanted, and in general were friendly and kind. I had none of the forseen problems in the area and was presently surprised.