Thoughts on La Paz, Bolivia

We have been in La Paz, Bolivia for almost a week now. Unfortunately I got a bug so have laid around reading and playing games on my Ipod and have gone for little walks. Beth has ventured a bit further, exploring the city's markets and street foods. Our hostel is smack in the middle of the Witches Market, where you can find ladies selling magical herbs and tinctures and dried llama fetuses.

Any kind of walk in La Paz is quite an event. The city sits on the eastern shoulder of the Andes at over 12,000 feet above sea level. The narrow, cobbled streets are steep and will have you panting like a dog in the summer heat before you know it. The sidewalks are thin to non-exisitent. A dull stink of sewer and grime wafts constantly through the air, and people are everywhere buying and selling and bartering. You buy can buy everything from toilet paper to sunglasses on the street markets. The food has been wonderful, although not helping my stomach bug. You can buy eggs, bread, jewelry, snake skins, herbs, small stuffed alligators playing little guitars, fake Rolex's and fake Ray-Bans. The drivers are ruthless which makes crossing the streets a stressful and death defying act.

Cathedral San Francisco

Throughout our travels we have frequented many beautiful churches. Cathedral San Francisco, sitting like a fortress two blocks from our hostel, is spectacular. The plaza in front is packed with market vendors selling flowers, food, juice, palm crosses and jewelry. Upon entering the church I realized what a sanctuary this must have been for people living in this fast-paced and chaotic city. The church was dimmly lit, and people were scattered in the pews praying or just taking in the unshakeable character of this building. The walls are made of huge stone blocks nearly 4 feet thick and really make one feel secure. Along the side walls you find ostentatious shrines to various saints.

In many of the South America churches we've visited, Cathedral San Francisco no exception, these shrines tend to be particularly gory and graphic, with bloody and savage representations of the cruxification. Paul Theroux, in The Old Patagonian Express, commented on this observation too. He makes the interesting point that in this part of the world, where the people have seen so much blood, torture and pain themselves, in order to make the sufferings of Jesus appear to exceed their own he must be represented with the utmost gore and anguish. He's right. The images are sometimes downright revolting. The shrines of the Virgin Mary are quite the opposite, however. Mary is always the idealic vision of a queen mother, perhaps reminiscent of the Spanish queen of the motherland during conquest.

Coca

Quickly upon entering northern Argentina and Bolivia we saw vendors selling coca. As a westerner the first thing I thought of was the synthesized drugs made from these leaves that are causing all kinds of havoc throughout the Americas. However, coca has been cultivated for medicinal, ceremonial and alimentary uses since the time of the Incas. It is deeply rooted in family tradition and social culture. It's therefore important to separate the plant from the drug that causes so much fuss. It is a way of life to drink coca tea, chew coca leaves to reduce the symtoms of altitude sickness, and maybe get your fortune told by "reading the leaves." None of these activities even approaches the experience of using the synthetic drugs. Their effects are mild and beneficial, with no harmful ramifications for the body.

In the 18th century, the Catholic Church banned the use of the coca leaf, calling it a weapon of the devil and an obstruction to broad scale conversion of the natives. The church then rescinded this stance when they saw how much harder the natives worked in the silver mines while chewing coca. In the great mines of Potosi and elsewhere the amount of coca consumed by the workers often exceeded in monetary worth the gold and silver extracted.

Moving On

We are heading east to Santa Cruz, Bolivia today to spend some time on a little family run vegetable farm for a week or so. Beth is quite excited to get digging in the dirt and maybe hang out with some animals. We are hoping the lower altitude will help me recover from my bug.