Streets of La Paz.

Life in the streets of La Paz is buzzing. Every day is market day. Mostly certain products are sold in the same street. Easy to compare prices. But strange to see a street with only clothes, or drugstores, or bridal gowns. 

In La Paz you still see many women wearing their native clothes. The wide skirts and shawls of wool (to keep warm!). They carry their babies and goods in colourful blankets on their back. Remember the city is built on rather steep mountain slopes. So no easy place to push a pram.   

This is a "witches" shop. They sell herbs and potions but also lama fetus's  to be burried under the house as an offering to the Pachamama.

The fetus's are hanging in the entrance.

A street completely dedicated to tourists. 

Business is closed.... is it Sunday??

Just a few products to sell.

The public baths are next to the fried chicken.

A lot of traffic in the streets. 

Even in  the middle of a kind of roundabout women sell clothes.

Like in the neighboring street.

Everybody in Latin America loves pork rinds.

And fruits

Want to have your picture taken? These photographers sit here all day waiting for you! A peaceful place compared to the busy streets.

In the center of La Paz

 La Paz is located on the sides of a very steep and rather narrow valley at the end of the high flat Altiplano of El Alto. At the deepest part there is a city highway running from El Alto to the south-east. The Plaza Mayor with the San Francisco church (started in 1548 as a convent) is located on the right side (when going down) of this main road.

Next to the Plaza Mayor is the market hall. A large concrete building with a lot of food stalls. No it is not a parking garage. From this market hall a colorful footbridge crosses the busy road into the city center on the other side.

Looking from the bridge to (more or less) the west......

...... and the other way to El Alto.

 

The road leading up to the Plaza Murillo is a walking area.

At the corner of the Plaza Murillo is the National Art Museum. A beautiful old building outside and inside.

The Metropolitan Cathedral built in 1835.

The presidential palace, the Palacio Quemado, is also situated on the Plaza Murillo

From the bridge at the market you have to climb some steep streets to go to Jaén street. As you have to stop a few times to get some air, look back and surprise yourself. The view to El Alto is amazing.

Jaén street is one of the few areas that have been restored. Here you also find many museums. 

On the corner of this arcade is a nice restaurant. Time to sit down and take a rest.

An ocean of houses......

La Paz  ... the highest (administrative) capital in the world.
Altitude 3650 meters.

The plane landed at the airport at El Alto; flat as a polder. Driving to the hotel in downtown La Paz we suddenly drove into a huge chasm. La Paz is built on the sides of this chasm all the way down to where the chasm becomes a valley.

Almost all the houses are built like cubes. Concrete pillars and walls of bricks in between. 

A wall of houses going up. Where the wall ends, the city of El Alto starts.  

A good looking neighbourhood in La Paz. 

La Paz, clinging to the "wall".

The city centre of La Paz. Left of the high rise building (one third of the left in the middle) is the presidential palace. 

In the background the mountain Illimani, the guardian of the city.
Illimani is 6438 meters high.

 

La Paz is a large city with almost a million inhabitants.

You can click here to see this panorama in a larger format.

Sucre

We walk in Sucre, low historical buildings, busy traffic and fantastic bundles of electrical wires (as everywhere else in Latin America).

The capital Sucre is the 5th largest city of Bolivia. 

Apart from  the "Casa de la Libertad" and the "Supreme Court" there are many churches, and other buildings that are interesting. Later we will visit the Recoleta convent.

A grand Theater.

The impressive Government Palace of the department of  Chuquisaca build in 1896.

Just leave it to the women to keep the streets clean......

Just an impression; Pototsi

Main street Potosi, Bolivia

More than 4000 meters altitude. We don't have much time to walk around the city center, but that is not the problem.... it is the altitude (again) that is hanging like lead on our feet.

Tower of the Cathedral of Potosi.

Potosi is famous because of the silver found in the "Cerro Rico" the rich mountain. The mining of sliver (for the king of Spain) started halfway the 16th century and went on well into the 18th century. Potosi with it's 200.000 inhabitants was larger that Paris at that time.

At first native people used to work in the mines, later on slaves from Africa were brought there. Working conditions in the mines were extremely bad. People were locked into the mines, changing only silver for food through a small hole. Never able to come out.

Now Potosi still has a population of 250.000 people, but it looked to me a quiet small town. The main attraction is the "Casa de Moneda" (see next post). Here some pictures of the city and its people.

Potosi Cathedral.

 

The main street.

A street in Potosi looking towards the Cerro Rico.

Modern windows... only 1 layer of glass... and it can be very cold there.

It is no luxury to wear a warm shawl.

Pleated skirts.