And Now for Something Completely Different — The Festival of Alasitas

Sometimes life gives you a treat, completely unexpected and unsolicited. Yesterday was such a day for me; I got to take part in the annual Bolivian Alasitas festival. As I understand it, Alasitas is based upon an ancient Tihuanaco tradition, one that was carried on during Incan times and lives on as an Aymaran custom. More recently (as in several hundred years ago) the festival was infused with some trappings of Catholocism, and today it remains a thriving cultural institution.

A Funny Thing Happened to Me on the Way to the Plaza

I took a little walkabout yesterday in La Paz, to see what I could see. Now that I’ve been here for a couple of days, I’m beginning to notice aspects of the city that I missed in my first impressions. For instance, This is a city of art. Wherever you go, the city is a canvas.

From the quaint,

Barbeque Tango

This past weekend was dominated by two themes: dancing and meat. Not dancing meat mind you, you’ll find that in a different sort of blog. Anyways, Saturday afternoon we took in a two-hour tango lesson. Having watched it and tried it, I’d describe the tango as ‘attitude loosely set to music’. It’s all about smouldering gazes, peacock-like walks, and good posture.

As it happens, a number of the folks at this particular tango class were planning a barbeque for Sunday, and invited us along. About 10 of us went out to the Valle de la Luna south of La Paz, and had a good ol’ fashioned cookout. The area had a sort of Polynesian feel, complete with thatch roofed barbeque shelters.

Giant Slides and Other Adventures

Hi ho, Stewart Prest here from Bolivia. I’m still a bit behind on my updates — the pictures I’m including in this post actually came from an adventure during our first weekend in La Paz. That Sunday, Manuela and I took it upon ourselves to prove that we had fully adjusted to the altitude by climbing up to every hilltop viewpoint in the entire city. By and large, we made it unscathed, with no cases of the Bends or collapsed lungs to report. What follows are a few of the pictures from the trip.

Checking in from La Paz

Well, I’ve been in Bolivia for just over a week now, and have shared all the typical experiences of a recent arrival to La Paz: the thrill of a new culture, the difficulty of a new language, the warmth and friendliness of most Bolivians, the pain of altitude sickness, and naturally, good ol’ fashioned travelers’ sickness.

The city is a marvel – a study in contrasts if ever there was one. La Paz is full of office blocks and condominiums, and some areas look every bit the bustling modern metropolis. However, try to take a picture of the bustle, and you quickly discover that every snapshot of the business quarter captures the modest clay-brick houses that stretch up the hillsides surrounding the city, symbolic of a very different way of life. As a general rule, the farther up the hill, the poorer the area.