I went to La Paz again this weekend, for a soccer game between two of the city’s three teams, Bolivar and The Strongest. It was nice weather and there were a lot of goals, I think final score was Bolivar 4 The Strongest 2. That’s pretty high for a soccer game, but it was close until the last 15 min or so. I wanted Bolivar to win, they have better advertisements. The fans were pretty enthusiastic. The building was mostly full, especially where I sat. I was told it’s common to oversell the cheap seats - we were packed in. I had a seat in the stairs, nobody worried about blocked fire escapes despite the pile of styrofoam seats that The Strongest fans were burning on the other side of the stadium.

Before the game we met up with some friends from the university who live in El Alto. I have written in this blog about El Alto, and I think I misrepresented it a little. I always had the impression of it as a massive slum above La Paz, where laws are subjective and muggers lock themselves in at night. It’s a big enough place that parts of it may indeed be as I thought, but not where I visited. It was one of the more peaceful parts of the city that I have seen. There were wide streets lined with trees, and the houses were a lot more welcoming that in other parts of the city where walls are topped with broken glass and barbed wire. Also the view was exceptional.

We went to a huge market in El Alto where they sold EVERYTHING. Plenty of the vendors were selling about what one would find in the junk drawer in my parents kitchen. Others had good stuff. I was finally able to get some shoes that fit, pants are still on the do to list. The below picture stretches out for a dozen blocks in every direction.

We went to a cool museum in downtown La Paz. It is built around an open-air central plaza. This is a common feature in La Paz construction. I’d like to see snow come through sometime. I saw a concert here a couple weeks ago, it was a good place to see a show.

It’s interesting to me how some of the hardships here are easy to deal with, and how some others are really hard. For example we get all our water from collectors high up on the mountain. If there is a shortage of rain we can run out, or if there is too much rain the system can get clogged up. We never really know if we will have water or not on a day to day basis, usually we do but there have been plenty of days that we didn’t since I have been here. Yesterday I came home from La Paz to a dry house. This means no shower, no water for cleaning dishes, limited water for drinking, and no flushing toilets. After three days of eating from street vendors the latter was be troublesome. But really it hasn’t been that hard to get used to, maybe because I know it will be back in a day or because I know we have the financial resources to ensure at least drinking water no matter what. Regardless it still makes me realize what a luxury reliable water is. The thing that gets me is the lack of the junk foods I always took comfort in back in the US. I miss a good bowl of cereal the most, but also decent chocolate and peanut butter (we can get an approximation to organic PB here but its not the same). At night when I have a nagging sweet tooth I pace the kitchen endlessly and remember of the days when three bowls of Cap’n Crunch before bed was a human right.

* the answer to last week’s “Baby-not-a-baby” game is…. NOT A BABY! (it was potatoes, no joke)

LOVE

andy