La Paz , the City of Peace, is certainly an extraordinary city. It is quite true to say that firstly La Paz literally takes your breath away, for at an altitude of about 3800 metres above sea level this is the highest city in the world. Altitude is simply not much fun, we will be quite glad to get back to sea level. Interestingly in this city, the rich people live down the hill and enjoy a little more oxygen and the poor live on top of the hill and enjoy the view, but less oxygen. La Paz is a city of 1.3 million with a poor satellite city on top of the hill where another half a million (soon to be a million) people live. The city is build around a huge basin and is surrounded by an extraordinary range of snow-capped mountains (which are over 6000 metres) which serve as a magnificent backdrop.
Two things stood out. Firstly with no public transport, and as most people don’t own cars, people travel in mini buses. These mini buses, each individually owned and financed by micro finance are the method of transport for hundreds of thousands of commuters each day. Each van has a driver, and another young man, who hangs out the window or door to hawk for business. From our three star hotel, in the centre of town, the noise of these young men hawking for passengers sounded like a great cacophony of chanting or speaking in tongues. Traffic, like elsewhere in South America, was chaotic but the chanting seemed to rise about all else. Red lights, road lanes and road rules seemed to be only advisory, rarely adhered to.
Secondly, to help the situation the government has added a feature to help pedestrians cross the roads – zebras at the crossings. Our experience was that these ‘zebras’, probably made crossing the already busy road even more dangerous. But they were fun to watch.
Bolivia is the poorest country in South America. A place of contrast, extremes and some very real challenges. With its first ever, indigenous president newly elected, and close allies in Venezuela and Cuba, we can only hope and pray that Bolivia may look forward to better days.
2 comments:
God's database must be unlike any of ours in keeping track of all these places and people... Hoping your brains don't explode with new sights & sounds & smells.
Take care of youselves
Peter C
Hey Peter - it is a big world and it is fun trying to take it all in - but hey we are on holidays - thanks again for the encouragement to do the blog. We are really enjoying the experience. Regards to Judy
Richard and Wendy
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