Stuck in La Paz

There will be Presidential Elections this Sunday and we have encountered a slight hick-up. As no-one will be allowed to travel on Sunday, mainly to prevent people from voting in different areas and more than once, we will be stuck in our La Paz hotel. As Evo Morales seems to be well liked by his fellow Bolivians, the results seems to be a foregone conclusion.

Cholinas with their bowler hats and scarfs wrapped around their shoulders dominate the street view. For miles, the local street markets - neatly divided by the products on sale such as electricals and ironworks in one road, wool in another - wind around the La Paz streets behind our hotel. If you need something, you are bound to find it here. The bowler hats of the Cholinas don't seem to be sitting on their ears, instead they appear to be perched on top of their heads - without ever seeming to fall off. Oh, and they don't really like to be photographed. That's when the hats come off and they are quickly held in front of their faces.


One area I particularly liked was the Festival/Carnival area where lots of colourful costumes and masks were displayed. In London, there is a special Latin American carnival festival (or carnaval as the South American call it) where these costumes can be seen in action.

Just south of La Paz, a mud-cum-rock area is called Moon Valley (Valle de la Luna) because of its appearance. Water seems to be the cause to these rock formations that look very much washed out. Honestly, I didn't know they had these kinds of rock formations on the moon. I'm being sarcastic, of course.

Tomorrow I'm off to Tiwanaku but there might be a problem because of the impending elections as we may encounter road blocks etc. Ah well, we shall see.