La Paz is an incredible place; full of people both just hanging around and also dashing about and of course the whole city is dominated by the surrounding mountains.
We had a couple of hours free this morning, so had another wander around.
On the wall of one street was this green cross along with a plaque giving this explanation:
"Tradition tells that in colonial times, the Cabra Cancha alley was a dark place due to the constant appearance of supernatural beings and phenomena (ghosts, goblins, souls in pain, infernal noises of carriages pulled by knights and chains dragged on the ground) but above all, it highlighted the presence of a condemned widow who seduced all the men who gathered drunk late at night to take them on a mysterious adventure. So the residents of this street, heirs of a deep-rooted Catholic faith, decided to place the "green cross "to scare away all these evil creatures that frightened them."
These chaps are guarding the remains of Andres de Santa Cruz (1792-1865) but I'm not sure why this particular former president is still so revered.
As is the same the world over, the younger generations have adopted a more "Western" dress but the older indigenous women still wear the distinctive bowler hat. We learnt today that this was because a Spaniard bought a consignment of hats that were meant for small boys and as there were no small Spanish boys in Bolivia at that time, rather than lose money he convinced the local women that they were the height of fashion in Spain and offered them a two for one deal. The idea quickly spread and to this day a lot of women still wear them, but unfortunately most of them are reluctant to be photographed so mostly I have back views!
However for a small fee some will agree!
As the street scenes show, the ladies love brightly coloured fabrics.
We then visited Moon Valley which is a short 10kms ride out of
town. The formations in the canyon
are composed mainly of clay and sandstone and created by the
persistent erosion of mountains by the area’s strong winds and rains.
Back to the city and a visit to the Witches Market where you can buy loads of herbs for health remedies plus stone icons etc. to bring good luck and to appease the gods.
They also have a tradition of burying a llama foetus in the foundations of any new building and these are available in many sizes. We didn't realise that the larger ones weren't soft toys for quite a long time.
It does seem a shame as they look so sweet.
Sadly our time in Bolivia has run out, dinner tonight on the 15th floor watching the lights of the town and then off to Chile tomorrow morning.
I think the next two cities will be very much more "international" but still we are looking forward to them.
