La Paz, Bolivia

Photos: Orchestra playing at Belles Artes; Cathy, remember the braids?; Cathedral at main square; The young ladies who are not from El Alto; Dancing ladies.

Sunday, Oct. 17

A last word on Copacabana: It is extremely small with few cars and few barred windows and doors. There was an extremely thin lady we saw several times, each time on the road outside a place that sold CDs, which of course they were playing. This lady was spinning and dancing in her own little world. The locals paid absolutely no attention to her as this is what she did.

Our first morning in La Paz, I awake to church bells. Our hotel is at the side of Iglesia San Francisco. We walk uphill to the travel agent who is closed, but get some meds from the farmacia de lado to help with our runny noses. We go downhill to the hotel, then uphill in the other direction to find the main square. On the way we hear the music of many ten-string guitars. At the Belles Artes they are having a free concert of an orchestra. The participants are mostly dark-skinned and of all ages. We stay awhile, but Pete’s attention span is stretched, so we move on to the square. This is the site of the Governor’s Palace, the City Hall, and, of course, another church. A marching type band has just finished performing, obviously by the instruments and uniforms, they are not from El Alto! A high school band begins to perform. There are adults (teachers?) also participating. One lady is really good on the saxophone. There is a dance group preparing to perform next and I hope to see them, but a huge black cloud is closing-in, so we leave just before the band has finished. During one of their numbers, some older, well-dressed ladies waltz into the open space and performed an impromptu formal dance with white handkerchiefs waving gracefully over their heads. The audience applauds enthusiastically when they finish.

Before we reach our hotel - downhill - it begins to rain fairly heavily. We stop at our room for Peter to get a jacket, and then again walk uphill to the travel agent. It is obvious by now that she does not work on Sundays! Peter later sends her an e-mail which is promptly answered that she has our bus and train tickets ready for us to pick-up on Monday after 10.

Earlier this morning, I had a neat experience. While Peter was using the bank machine, I took out my camera to take a photo of the skyscraper across the street. At the same time two short gentlemen were also taking a picture. When they noticed me, they asked me, in Spanish of course, where I was from. I answered and asked them also. It turned out they were tourists from a town north of Lima, Peru. They told me that their town and the area is very beautiful. When Peter emerged from the caja, he was surprised as he was greeted by two little guys shaking his hand and smiling in greeting!