We took a guided walk from the new and impoverished city of El Alto up on the Alti Plano and down through La Paz to the Zona Sud (the posh bit). In the two cities, the extremes of wealth don’t sit teeth by jowl, instead the money seems to have flowed clean off the lip of the Alti Plano, cascaded through La Paz, accumulating and gathering momentum before settling, glittering, in the Zona Sud.
In El Alto, we were warned of the dogs that languidly potter wild—rabies is the same regardless of how cute and innocuous the dog may appear. Up here, communities have to look after themselves and in a return to the Aymaran people’s pre-Conquistador days, stuffed Guy Fawkes figures hang limp from electricity cables to warn thieves of their fate. These same people are incredibly friendly, not to offer a greeting to passers-by is considered the height of rudeness. And the stunning descent admiring the mountains and valleys was punctuated with countless words of “Buen dia”, “Hola” and reciprocated nods.
Down in the handsome equivalent of Parliament Square in La Paz, we were shown bullet holes in the walls following a shoot out between the police and the army in 2003. Given the turbulent news reports, it seems extraordinary that Bolivia could be going through a period of relative calm. However, in the most unstable country in South America, to keep the same government for two years is long time.
Ecology seems to be difficult state, while new parks have been built by the mayor and give welcome respite from the city, through La Paz’s centre flows a scummy river so dead that nothing can survive in it.
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