La Paz

Incredible cable work

We arrived in La Paz from the lake Titicaca late Sunday afternoon.  I was not feeling too well after having eaten "fresh" meat from the market the day before.  The sun was going down and we entered La Paz via Palo Alto, a HUGE slum bigger than La Paz itself. It was nasty and that was not a good start.

Then we arrived to our hostel, in the ugliest neighbourhood of the city. Now the Bolivian capital (the highest Capital city in the world actually) is not pretty; it’s polluted, overcrowded and the traffic kills any charm that could be left. And on top of that in the more popular neighbourhoods buildings are badly maintained and the amount of electric and telephone wires hanging in the open is scary.

Llama foetus at the witch market

The columbian fans are great

The best thing that I did in La Paz was to go to the World Cup qualifier in the National stadium. Bolivia was entertaining Columbia who never did better than a draw in La Paz. It’s a privilege for a football fan to experience South American football. The atmosphere was electric. It reminded me much more of football in Mauritius when we still had packed stadia and a competitive league (Sunrise, Fire, Cadets, Scouts, Police etc).

There were some police  and military, vendors inside the stands proposing all kinds of goodies to the spectators, again like in Mauritius in the good old days : chicken sandwiches, ice creams and for the benefit of Mauritian readers: pikisidou, sorbet dilé and calaminedasse! I kid you not.

The game was underway and the Columbian team, who flew in just before the game to avoid altitude related problems, was having a lot of the ball. The game was of excellent quality and I thought the ref was doing a good job. Many Bolivian fans did not think this way and they were letting the ref know about it. From what I could understand it appears the ref’s wife was a tiny three eyed, hairy leprechaun! Must be the related to the refs in Mauritius! With Brazil automatically qualified, you can feel the extra tension within smaller nations like Bolivia who realise they have an extra chance to clinch a direct or a playoff spot for 2014.

The Colombians celebrating after their first goal

The crowd was really behind their team while yelling at the players they felt did not play to national standards. The most common one was hilarious : "Guiterez, pare con empanadas!" which in good Mauritian Creole translates to the classic "Guiterez, arete manz dhol pouri!". I almost fell down laughing.  

A Dark spot was that some of the public were shouting racist abuse at the black Columbian players. Sadly, this too reminded me of Mauritian football. Two imbeciles in particular were comparing them to chimpanzees. I turned round to discover that it was a couple, husband and wife in their 50’s!  For a nation that calls itself multiracial and multiethnic that’s a disgrace. The last comment applies to both Bolivia and Mauritius…

Oh yeah I almost forgot … guns. You know how sometimes in South America you hear that a ref or a player had been shot inside the stadium while on the pitch. I’ve always wondered how they could smuggle guns inside the ground – I theorised that they would conceal them in the drums or trumpets they bring in, or they would bribe a stadium clerk, or even hide one with a kid that accompanies the bad boys. Well mystery solved! I know how they do it … they just walk through the gates with it. Oh there are signs posted everywhere warning people not to bring knifes or firearms inside, but body searches are non-existant at the entrance. Anyone could bring whatever they wanted inside and throw at the opposition players, and they did during the game but nothing too nasty fortunately.

Anyway I had a great day out and hope I can see more games as we travel around. 

This literally is a zebra crossing

The next day we went for the city bus tour. We walked briskly through downtown and arrived on time at the stop. NO bus … hmmm. After 15 minutes we called the tour company and they very casually said that they cancelled the morning’s outing. Great! Half a morning lost.

Pied Piper of Hamelin ? 

Enjoying the Japanese food

We decided to walk around town for a while until lunch, and we headed to a very nice Japanese restaurant. The ramen, beef teriyaki and gyosa were excellent. It was so good that we went there again that evening. This time we had tempura, maki and other goodies.

We took an early taxi to the airport. Higher poorer La Paz sits at around 4000m altitude while the richer nicer neighbourhoods lie 1000m lower. The International airport is also at about 4050m (13000ft) which makes it one of the highest in the world.  The runway is a staggering 4km long for airplanes to take off safely. At this altitude, the air is less dense and the jet engines produce less power and thrust. Also the lift is smaller on the wings, therefore a longer distance is required for the plane to reach a higher take off speed. If not, well KAPUT!

After these few days we were happy to leave La Paz for Sucre. 

For more pictures : La Paz