We arrived today in the highest capital of the world
by bus 3632 m above the sea level. My first impression:
AMAZING. Not because its is beautifull, no the geographic
situation of the city is a kind of futuristic. The
sight of the city lay 500 m below the new city of
El Alto, perched on the rim of the canyon. I never
saw something like that. All arround the city the
Altiplato and some picks of erroded mountains. Everywhere
tounsend of houses going up to 400m above the city
all red make of bricks.. Between this houses just
few meters to walk down. The city itself is chaotic.
First the houses and buildings haven t any kind of
artistic signature. Everything is just put together
seems beeing build with no plan. The people, some
walking through the tausend of people lying on the
street and selling chocolate, drinks, fruits, watches
etc... Then here and there a terrorist looking guy.
He has a black skymask and his job is to clean shoes.
Why that mask? Because he don t want to be recognize
by the people he knows ( job is not the best).
Then you got this funny people with yellow, red or
organge harney and a mobil phone to rent. Yes you
are on the street need to call somebody, you take
the mobil phone of this people, of course this last
is attached by a chain to his howner, and make you
re phonecall for few pesos.
Then you have the facinating Mercado de Hechiceria, a marquet on the street where you find every kind
of gif. Naturaly when I try to buy something I get
into 3 differents shops and get for the same thing
3 different price (some double price). So you have
to handle this and get the price lower (part of the
game). Well from the stone Pachamama to the real llama
foetuses you will find what you are searching for.
Beautifull and colorfull Bolivain clothes knitted
of llama and alpaca wool, and a lot of bolivian instruments
such as mandolin (charango) and the famouos quena indian flute. But not the items are
interesting, the people who sell them to. Some very
old man or women, carring on the face the wrinkles
of they difficult life.
The museo de la Coca a little but interesting museum
is allso at this place. Amazing coca leaves, here
I could learn everything about the history of the
coca. From the Inca use, to the productivity effect
on high altitude, etc...
COCA ! |
