If you're looking for a quick and incredibly cheap lunch in small, cramped quarters, you can't go wrong at the the gleaming new Mercado Lanza near the Iglesia de San Francisco. With hundreds of stalls serving food and juices, you'll definitely find something appetizing. Just don't be squeamish about sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers.
I don't know how many pictures I took during our weeks in La Paz... and I don't want to count, because the total would probably freak me out. Just from our apartment window, I must have snapped over a hundred! But I've gone through them all, and picked out some of the great images that didn't make it into other posts. I think it's safe to say, La Paz was one of the most photogenic cities I've ever seen.
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
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.
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.
"Why are we walking?! There are buses which go up to Killi Killi". Aw man, don't be a such a wimp, Jürgen! We need the exercise. And it's not even all that high.
One of the more famous areas in La Paz is the Mercado de Hechecería, or The Witches' Market, found on Calle Santa Cruz and Linares, near the Iglesia de San Francisco. Here, shops and street vendors sell totems, trinkets and talismans, meant to appease the gods of sun and earth. The sheer number of shops speaks to the stubborn persistence of a religion the Catholics weren't able to uproot, despite their best, bloody efforts.
Basically, any spot in La Paz can be used a makeshift viewing point. Just raise your eyes off the ground and there's the massive Illimani Mountain towering over the southeast. Looking up towards the west provides a view of El Alto, Bolivia's fastest growing city, stretching haphazardly across the cliff. And if you drive into El Alto, the panorama of the city below is unmatched. Though La Paz itself can be grimy, polluted and uninspiring from an architectural standpoint, I doubt any other city in the world provides as many incredible picture-taking opportunities.
We've already written about the our visit to Tiwanaku for the Aymara New Year celebration. But we had so many pictures, we've had to split them up into two posts. Here's our second set of images from this amazing festival... including the sunrise, and the events which followed. Keep your eye out for Evo Morales: this is the second time we've been able to see Bolivia's president!
The pre-Incan ruins of Tiwanaku, just 35 miles west of La Paz, host Bolivia's biggest celebrations in honor of the Aymara New Year. With a belief system rooted heavily in the natural world, the Aymara recognize the winter solstice (June 21st) as the true beginning of the year. We woke up early in the morning to take part in the fun.
