Masks are an essential part of Bolivian celebrations, allowing dancers to adopt the personalities which populate the country's myths and legends. Demons, dragons and angels join representations of real-world creatures like bears and beavers.
La Paz has a number of intriguing museums, including one dedicated to the unfairly maligned coca leaf, and another which takes a look at the War of the Pacific, when Bolivia lost its ocean access to Chile. Though we're normally big on museums, we were constantly distracted by the bustling street markets, and never made it to most of La Paz's. But we dared not skip out on the Museo de Etnografía y Folklore, near Plaza Murillo.
Living in Bolivia was an experience in healthy eating. I don't think I've ever consumed as many fresh fruits and vegetables as during our time there. And it's all so affordable. You can buy a papaya the size of a toddler for less than a dollar. Of course, not every Bolivian specialty is healthy. Here are some of the more hearty dishes we enjoyed
If you're looking for a cheap and cool place to stay, here are three Bolivian hostels and hostals we can recommend in some of the country's coolest cities: La Paz, Potosí and Sucre.
Two-thirds of the way up the hill which eventually ends in El Alto, you can find the viewing point Andina Jach'a Kollo. Just don't trust your map or taxi driver to get you there.
One of the most famous prisons in the world is the inmate-run San Pedro, smack in the center of La Paz. Yep, I said "inmate-run". Authorities guard the gates, but within the walls of the block-sized facility, the prisoners run the operations.
About 40 minutes south of La Paz, a bizarre landscape of eroded rock and clay takes shape. Known as the Valle de la Luna, the jagged hills and crags seem to belong in a science fiction film, and not so near a major city. A small park allows visitors to explore the area from within.
We recently attended the famous Lucha Libre at a sports facility in El Alto. Bolivians are wild for wrestling. Posters of famous American wrestlers are everywhere, and you can't go a block in La Paz without seeing seeing it on a curbside television set. Bolivia doesn't have a professional league on the same level as the USA's WWE, but El Alto's Sunday afternoon Lucha Libre makes a solid substitute.
American Visa is one of the very few Bolivian novels to have ever been translated into English. A darkly humorous tale of crime and murder set in La Paz, it tells the story of Mario Alvarez's increasingly desperate attempts to get a visa to visit his son in the USA. The picture it paints of La Paz is colorful and gritty, filled with thieves, transvestites and prostitutes.
Walking aimlessly about town one sunny weekend afternoon, we happened upon a pageant called Miss Cholita Paceña 2011, just as the winner was being announced. With a grin larger than her hat, she danced about the stage, gladly receiving accolades from the crowd. We thought it was a good introduction to this random picture post, which includes a lot of other lovely things from La Paz... a soccer field with a gorgeous mountain view... the Illimani... and two Boxer dogs, handsome from the front and behind!
