... in response to Re: Re: the origin of agencies in South ..., posted by OkieMan on Apr 11, 2005[This message has been edited by Cali James]
Bolivia is sometimes referred to as the Tibet of the Americas. I had a Bolivian novia many years ago and traveled to La Paz on several occasions to spend time with her and her family. It didn't work out but this was providential as it turned out. As far as Bolivia goes, I consider the three major cities to be La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba. American Airlines has fights to La Paz and Santa Cruz.
La Paz is one of the most unique places a person could ever visit. It is unlike any other place I've ever been and I've traveled quite a bit. The city is perched up high in the Andes Mountains and sits on what is called the alto-plano or high plataeu in English. About 60 percent of the people from La Paz are indigenous and are descendants of what were the Inca. There are three official languages spoken in Bolivia, Spanish and the two native languages of Quechua or Aymara. La Paz itself sits in kind of a hole in the high desert. The hole protects it from the elements but La Paz as you might imagine is not particularly warm.
Bolivian culture at least in La Paz is much more conservative than Colombia. If I were to hazard why, I'd say it was because of the large Indian population. Economically Bolivia is poor. The people of so called higher class in La Paz live at the bottom of this hole I talked about and as you climb the sides of it, the higher you get the poorer the people become. On the craters rim or on the alto-plano itself is another large city called El Alto. The city is very poor and 100% indigenous. The airport is actually located in El Alto. When I got off the plane I remember being struck by the altitude, it's somewhere around 13,000 feet. The drive through El Alto and down the craters rim was a real eye opener. I'd never seen such poverty but the people didn't look particularly sad, rather just going about life as we all do. I took the same path from the airport to La Paz that Secratary of State Schultz did in the 80's. The difference being the Bolivians tried to bomb Shultz's motorcade lol. The indian people are shorter than the mestizos and have very colorful clothing. You'd see women carrying babies on their backs with interesting hats.
If you ever go to Bolivia, I recommend visiting two places near La Paz. The first is Lake Titicaca. It's a huge lake on the altoplano. It's maybe 100 miles long by 50 miles wide. Part of the lake is in Bolivia and part in Peru. My Peruvian amiga in San Jose says the Titi part is in Peru and the Caca part in Bolivia lol. Anyway, it's very interesting and worth visiting. You can stop along the lake to eat at different places,. I remember the menu at our stop had trucha (trout) and huge frog legs among other things. Because Bolivia is landlocked, the Bolivian navy makes it home on Lake Titicaca. Somehow I found it amusing when they pointed out the little Navy boats to me but they did too.
The second must see is the Tiahuanaco ruins about 2 hours by bus from La Paz. I won't tell you much because you can read far more on the internet but the ruins are from a culture more than 2,000 years old. As I walked around the temple ruins, I had to stop every so often do to the altitude. Walking up hill was tiring. I remember on the trip back to La Paz, we caught the last bus going back from the countryside. It was very packed with people who live off the land literally, it had a very distinct odor lol.
My ex-girlfriend's family were mestizo, very hard working but simple people. They owned a trucking company and hauled raw materials around La Paz for construction projects. They were making more money then myself at the time, somewhere around 75K US and owned a lot of property. This would have made them well to do by Bolivian standards but interestingly enough they were not considered upper class because they were mestizo. In Bolivia, you could see stratification by color: white, mestizo and then indian. However I will say, that in Bolivia, the indigenous people have much more political power than in other Latin American countries.
I did not spend much time in Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is a much newer city and not as culturally interesting as La Paz. It is located on more or less the edge of the Amazon and is not at altitude. It is a warm humid city and there are few indigenous people living there. The city boomed a few years back from both oil exploration and the production of coca that occurs nearby. I remember meeting a few Mennonite's on my A.A. flight and later discovered that there is a large community of them in the Santa Cruz region. I think Santa Cruz might be good hunting grounds for a guy however. The women are friendly, attractive and open to international relationships. I think it was Gary Bala who brought up Santa Cruz as a possible destination and I couldn't agree more. The women in Santa Cruz look similar to Colombians (although it's hard to beat a Calena lol) but a bit more conservative. I think Santa Cruz as a destination might be like Colombia 10 years ago but much safer.
If you have any questions about Bolivia please feel free to ask me.
