La Paz

Feb. 21, 2006- Breath of Fresh Air

We’re still short of breath walking steps but it’s better. We’re sleeping well and drinking lots of bottled water. The altitude meds we’re taking (diamox) make the heart beat faster. That makes us breathe faster and take in more oxygen. It’s odd that I can walk up steps and talk but when I get to the top my heart is racing. Slow deep breaths are suggested to slow things down.

La Paz is also the home to the highest basketball courts with the shortest players. Balls get more bounce and propulsion for the effort since the air is so thin. Golfers love it. Airliners are specially designed for high altitude landings. The oxygen masks usually deploy around 10,000 feet when pressurization is lost. Here they’re designed so they won’t drop when the airplane door is opened at 13,300 feet. The tires are unique and the engines need extra force to take of in thin air. You’d think that the planes could just sail off the top of the mountain and fly but they actually need longer runways. One positive about the lack of oxygen in the air is that people rarely smoke. I asked what the average size of a newborn is since I couldn’t imagine a woman under 5 feet delivering an eight-pounder. They run around five pounds. To end the litany of factoids I’d like to teach you a new word. Cumbreros are thieves who steal bowler hats. Evidently the pricier ones made of finer alpaca wool go for $300-400. There seems to be a big “hot” hat market here.

Looking Out & Inward

We drove up to a lookout point for photo-ops. We looked down into La Paz and onto flat-roofed terra-cotta houses. They spilled up the side of the hills like Bolognese sauce overflowing its bowl. Poverty is always more beautiful from afar. There were 250 rivers carrying gold into the bowl when the Spaniards came in 1535. No wonder they were so excited.

Our guide, Pedro was bemoaning the fact that Bolivia once had a seaport, but it has lost every war it has fought…even the one with Paraguay. Each war reduced the size of the country so that it’s now called Little Peru. He segued into the Indians reconnecting with the ancient religion. He said that they really sacrifice 2,000 llamas in August. They’re what we would call kosher slaughtered. Their throats are slit. The entrails are read and most bury the carcasses. Some are eaten. During times of illness they believe that parts of the spirit leave the body. If it’s a minor injury, you can call your own spirit back. In more serious cases a Shaman is called. He brings a guinea pig that he kills and disembowels. The entrails are read to determine the seriousness, area affected, and treatment. Treatment is with natural medicines in order to reconnect the good energy and drive out the bad.

We went to the Witch’s Market and saw more evidence of the old ways. Naturally aborted dried llama fetuses are sold to those building a new house. Old ways not only die hard but the number of Indians following Catholicism is decreasing. My friend Judi and I bought no llama fetuses but in other negotiations we learned that the “ultimo” (best) price vendors came down to as a matter of course wasn’t the lowest. We played calculator roulette with each party entering their offer and walked away happy.

Venturing Forth

I asked Pedro how gays are thought of and treated here. He said that S. America is a chauvinistic society but progress is being made. A few years ago gays were allowed into the military. The president of the tour guide association is gay and a good friend of his. There are now parades and pride day. A prominent lesbian politician is running for office and should win. He’ll vote for her. We passed several well-manicured parks on our way to lunch at the Oberland Hotel, a small Swiss owned place. Part of the buffet was llama meat. It was in a sauce and much better than the shoe-leather we had last night. Bolivia has just started exporting it to Germany. It’s lean and packed with more protein than chicken.

We ventured to the Valley of the Moon, which is an area of those sandstone pillars I described yesterday. When we returned to the hotel David and I took off to locate the synagogue. It was a short distance away. We found it, it had no marking indicating what was inside, and it was closed. So what’s new? A vendor nearby told us it was open on Sabado.

Bolivia is a bargain. You can get a lunch of a wrap, fries, and Coke for under a dollar. They’re just gearing up for tourism and I’m sure things will change. They no longer use their small gauge railroad because it was too slow and haven’t replaced it. The signs aren’t bi-lingual and even the woman in the gift shop at our hotel doesn’t speak English.

Pedro has a good sense of humor. He suggested that Bolivia market itself as Revolutions Are Us. They’re had five presidents in the last two years. He said they could hire out to anyplace that doesn’t like its president. Any takers?

Dinner tonight was at Dumbo’s. It’s a Bolivian Denny’s. The food was average and it cost all of $5 for the two of us. We topped it off with a 50-cent big mound of ice-cream and headed for the hotel. We leave for Lake Titicaca tomorrow.

Toby