seekingmygreaterperhaps

Hello! I am writing to you after an exciting 2 week vacation with *some* of the Beatty/Blumhorst family in the marvelous Bolivia! La Paz was our home base, and many adventures took off from there. One important thing to know about La Paz is that it is at quite a high altitude: 3,650 m (11,975 ft). For some perspective, Denver is less than half of that. I traveled to Quito, Ecuador, which is at 2,850m so I thought I was prepared. Newsflash, I wasn’t. When I arrived in the La Paz airport, I felt it immediately. I took precautions like taking altitude pills, taking it easy, and chugging many bottles of water. This fun altitude played a role throughout the entire 2 weeks, so I just thought I’d get it out of the way here. Now on to the fun stuff.

La Paz’s public transportation system is my favorite- cable cars. The Teleferico connects La Paz (not perfectly) with the most gorgeous views. 10/10 recommend. They run like clockwork, and you never have to wait for the next metro train, because the little cable cars just keep going.

My first full day in La Paz, I was awaiting my family’s arrival because we are coming from different continents, and I had a full day of touring to do! I chose to pay for a tour of a neat architectural style specifical to El Alto, and boy, was I glad I did.

I am a multifaceted woman- I love beautiful landscapes, but also nerd out for cool looking architecture. I took a tour of the Cholets, and had an absolute blast. Apparently, I was the only one who wanted to explore these buildings by foot on a Sunday, and I had my fantastic guide Cristian all to myself. Yes, I had a private tour. My guide did a wonderful job, and I got to nerd out on this beautiful architecture.

Cholets are a specific type of architecture designed by Freddy Mamani and the name is derived from “cholo” which is a derogatory slang word, and “chalet” like the fancy houses in Switzerland. Cholets have between 3-7 floors, and are very expensive. [Fun fact- I learned that brick houses are taxed less, so I saw the majority of the buildings in El Alto and La Paz to be made out of brick.] The owners of Cholets typically occupy the top floors that look like fancy glass houses, rent out the middle floors to tenants, have one floor to rent out as a party space or event hall, and rent out the bottom/street floor for commercial purposes.

The beauty behind this architecture is blending in the Aymara indigenous culture and colors to a modern design. You will see many that imitate the southern cross important to Aymara religious practices, and bright colors that are reminiscent of Bolivian weaving wool.

I even got to go inside one of the Cholets because my guide “knows a guy” – and even though it was messy because they had a party in it the night before, it was an epic experience. The colors on the inside were just as bright as those on the outside. I saw a Transformers Cholet… and then saw many others too. Bolivians love Transformers- I saw nods to the franchise in many different places.

While in La Paz, I also toured around the historic center. I took a walking tour, strolled the witches market where they have llama fetuses (that all die of natural causes I’m told) that people use for rituals. Bolivia is interesting; 70% of the population is Catholic, while also still believe in “Pachamama” which is the indigenous religion of Mother Earth. It is a place of duality. The Spaniards came and forced their religion onto people, but the people also said, yeah we are going to keep this other stuff too.

Witches market goodies above. While tempting, I did not buy a love potion. Apparently you have to blow the dust on a person’s neck? Seems dusty.

The touristy street was very colorful. I love the contrast of these buildings. You have the modern one in the back which is the seat of government. You have the colonial style presidential palace in front, and the traditional Roman church to the right. Wild. Also- look at the clock on the right closely.

Now to take a quick look at some of the food I ate in Bolivia. The highlights for me were the salteñas and the api. Salteñas are similar to empanadas, but the filling is liquidy and you have to drink it a little bit. One of my tour guides say that it’s common Bolovian knowledge that if you spill your salteña on yourself, you’re a bad kisser. HA! Api is a hot beverage made out of corn and a bit sweet. I enjoyed both. I also tried llama a few times- it was good! It just tasted like meat.

I thought I was going to be able to put all La Paz things in one blog post, but it appears I cannot as this is already getting pretty long. Stayed tuned for more La Paz content!