Day 12: Downtown Adventure

Yesterday, July 10, we ventured downtown to visit my aunt Lucy. Downtown La Paz, or "el centro" is extremely crowded. Since transportation is a private industry, there are tons of different ways to go into the city. However, the government sets all prices for bus fares. It's quite interesting.

El centro really isn't that far away, but there are SO MANY CARS and SO MANY PEOPLE that it takes about an hour to get into the city. My papito says that all Latin American cities are extremely populated and crowded. We rode a bus into the city for 1.5 Bs, about $0.22. We were lucky to get seats on the way into the city. I'll explain later.

San Francisco church

We had to make a stop at a bank for mi papito, but after going to the bank we went straight into the city. We got off at San Francisco church. It's a huge church that once comprised the city of La Paz. Attached to this post is a picture of the bell tower. All around the church are vendors selling Bolivian products. All in all, we bought a ton of Bolivian stuff. We bought tons key chains, hackysacs (sp?), necklaces, bracelets, a wallet, a Bolivian grandpa-style sweater, a hat with alpacas on it, and even a shirt that has the Adidas logo but says "Alpacas" and has alpacas in the logo. I even bought 3 shot glasses that will make GREAT decoration- shout out to Teresa Campbell from New Jersey... your shot glass that you requested looks great.

Lechon with potatoes and plantain

We had a great time in the city at my great aunt's apartment. She made us a GREAT Bolivian meal called "Lechon". "Lechon" is ribs and pork shoulder marinated in lemon overnight. Then, the ribs and pork are cooked in a yellow chili sauce with lots of garlic, cumin, and salt and pepper. It was AMAZING. Here is a picture of the food. My aunt is very hospitable, so we were invited to eat and eat and eat and eat. Writing this the next day, I'm still full!

Me and mi Tia Lucy

My mom and Mt. Illumani 

My aunt owns a 4 story apartment building with a spectacular view on the roof. We were able to take some great pictures of Mt. Illumani, standing above 20,000 feet. They are attached to this post.

After lunch with my aunt and her sons, (my mom's cousins) Cesar and Rodrigo, we went out for more Bolivian shopping. Before we left the apartment where I'm staying in Calacoto, mi mamita told me to not say a word in English or Spanish while shopping. If the vendors suspect you are a "gringo," or white from the United States, England, or any country that they expect you to be rich, they charge you much more for a product. I didn't take mi mamita's advice and spoke Spanish, and we did find some unusually high prices here and there- like a man who followed us on the street and offered a table decoration piece of fabric (don't know how to describe it) for 500 Bs, nearly $100! It was not worth that much, so we turned down the strange offer. The good part about the vendors making up the prices as you ask is that you can haggle the prices down. That's what me and my aunt did. I would ask, in Spanish, if a price seemed
 reasonable, and my Paceña aunt (meaning a native from La Paz) would say how we could find the item cheaper, proceeding to ask the vendor to lower the price. It worked almost everywhere. We make a good team!

A shop with various items on sale

Another shop with items on sale

The way back to the apartment was much more... stressful. From the plaza of the San Francisco church we had to catch a specific bus going back into Calacoto. There were tons of buses everywhere. Luckily our bus was right there at the plaza. We had to run to catch it. Once on the bus, we realized there were no seats, which is totally normal for a busy Latin American city. This would have been fine, except for my height so I had to duck the whole way until I could get a seat. The bus, made to seat 29, had 60 people at one point (I counted!) At one point there was a man who PAID to ride the bus, standing on the bottom step hanging out the door of the bus, having to hold on for every little bump and turn. That would never fly in the United States. I know I felt every bump and quick turn/ stop, so imagine how the man hanging out the door felt. When someone wanted to get off the bus, everyone would have to get off to let the person go, since the whole aisle was filled with people standing back to back and side to side.

We got home, safely, an hour after we left the city. It was amazing- such a great experience. I hope we can go back soon.