darragh murray

La Paz, Bolivia, is one hell of a city, and it’s a royal shame that I could only stay 3 and a bit days. For an Australian, it is a city of constant comedy. If there was one image of La Paz that I will remember forever, it is the sight of kids dressed in Zebra suits directing pedestrian’s across the roads, which are inhabited by insane drivers who care little for traditional road rules. Traffic lights are optional, it seems.

Altitude is a killer here. The city has an elevation of nearly 4000 metres, which means headaches, blue veins, and lots of sleep. I coped alright, getting over the worst by my second day here. For the poor and weary travel, La Paz offers much. I managed to pick up a poncho and fedora hat for as little $22.00 USD (I now have a complete Clint Eastwood costume). Drinks are about one Australian dollar.

I managed to trundle my way into two museums. The Museum of Bolivian Musical Instruments housed some very very strange instruments including countless charangos (an instrument that now possess), harps, horns, drums, and pianos. You were even allowed to play a few. Moss, my travel companion, busted out a version of the Stranglers hit “Golden Brown” on some ancient organ, a tune that seemed to confuse some of the local Bolivian’s that milled about the museum. I have a video of this feat that I will eventually upload on to youtube. I had a go playing some bottles filled with various quanties of water.

The Coca museum, located in the witches’ plaza area of the city was another interesting place to visit. Coca, being very close the hearts of Bolivians, has a bad reputation in the westernized world, mostly due to its derivative, the ‘scourge of society’, cocaine. It seems that during the Spanish conquest, the church outlawed the plant, declaring it ‘evil’. However, once the Spanish figured out that coca increases productivity, and decreases appetite, the Church rescinded the order – so the indigenous and African slaves could work the silver mines for 48 hours straight without food. It also seems that while cocaine is illegal in Bolivia, many western nations are allowed certain quantities of cocaine for presumably scientific purposes. Bolivia is not on this list of countries.

I’m staying at the massive hostel called Loki – one of a chain of Loki hostels across South America. It is located in the remains of an old hotel, and filled with European style décor. It seems to be run by Irish punks! At least, many of the male staff have Mohawks and enjoy listening to copious amounts of punk music (Dead Kennedys, Rancid, Offspring). It’s a pretty nice place (run by a guy by the name of Osgur - what a cool name!), and has it’s own bar, and serves breakfast and dinner. They also have cable television, so I was able to waste yesterday watching Liverpool beat Inter Milan in the Champions league. Many nations are represented here, in terms of fellow travelers – Australians, Canadians, Americans, British and Israelis. Drinks and meals are cheap. Life is good.

I leave for the town on Uyani in south western Bolivia tonight to take a tour of the Salt Flats. Life is mighty fine.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 4:30 am and is filed under travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.