Monday 15 July 2002
Today it was Monday and La Paz' birthday. This sounded exciting, but it also meant that today was a public holiday. It was a bit annoying as we arrived a Saturday. Two days with every shop and museum closed when we only planned to stay for three days in all.
We had five projects to complete on the expected last day in Bolivia. We needed to change our airline ticket, we needed to find a present for our Brazilian hosts, and I needed a haircut. We also wanted to experience the perfect view over La Paz again and we had to find out what the celebration of La Paz' birthday was all about.
After some search and walking around we finally found a phone that was enabled to make international calls. As today was public holiday the Varig Bolivia office was closed. The Varig office in Denmark was closed as well ad to wait a day to find out when to leave for Brazil. Urrgh.
To find out what and when things would happen during the birthday of La Paz, we asked a receptionist in one the international Hotel Paris, located almost next to the president palace. She told us just to stick around, as something would happen during the day. Later we met some English-speaking tourists who told us that nothing really started before 6pm on this very place.
In the hotel we also asked the receptionist about which bus to take and were to go, in order to get a perfect view of the city. The receptionist pointed out the location and advised us to get a taxi as the suburbs were very poor.
We went by taxi on a rather intense drive. The driver was very service minded, but a bit expensive. On our way up the asphalt ended and we saw fewer cars and minibuses, but we didn't slow down. On the other hand we saw a lot of the big old Dodge and Ford busses, which seemed perfect for the steep slopes.
As we got in longer distance from the city center and into the less attractive suburbs - it's inconvenient to live on the steep slops away from the center - the filth were pronounced and the houses looked very similar to the ones we saw in Peru. The driver continued all the way up to the edge of the valley and stopped the car different places for us to take pictures.
What a view. La Paz is a wonderful odd city, illogical located inconvenient in the mountains, but logical at the foot of the most beautiful showy mountains. At this level the city looks like it was built at the bottom of Grand Canyon. Our drive down to the city center was as exciting as the drive up. We stopped on the main street El Prado and found a nice restaurant with a great view to the street. Their burger was tasty but the meat was not done. The waiter didn't understand the problem, but gave it another try and this time it was well done. I just hoped not to get diarrhea again after this experience.
We still had some projects to fulfill for the day. We returned to the San Francisco Square to find a decent present to our Brazilian hosts. We didn't know their taste and were a bit anxious to buy something that they would consider as "kitsch". We ended up buying yet another alpaca plaid as it seemed to be the most generally acceptable and usable present to receive.
On our way back to the hotel we passed a men's hairdresser, which was my cue. The only words in Spanish I manage were "No sideboards", "No shaving" and "Short". And so it was. After cleaning scissors over a candle and changed the razor blade the haircut went on with sign language, scissors, shaver and razor. Half an hour later, I looked like a US Marine with a local stylish cut over my ears. No complains from me, the price was reasonable EUR 2.00!
Our final project for the day kicked off at 6pm on the square Plaza Morillo. A crowd of people was joined in front of the president palace and along the pedestrian street next to the square. Most of the people carried the red-yellow-green Bolivian flag or the red-green La Paz county flag.
At 6.30pm some very important men arrived to a grand stand, the audience shouted with joy and the press photographed. We didn't know if it was the president or the mayor who arrived. What we were meant to attend was a local procession with military music, marching army divisions and cars decorated in paper and cardboard as mountains, houses, famous locals etc.
After an hour we decided to pass the crowd and the police' closing off heading against the city center in order to get dinner. Here we met several other orchestras ready to march. We saw panpipes corps, beautiful girls as drum majorettes freezing dressed tight-length and orchestras enough to keep us away most of the night it proved to be.