At the end of our tour yesterday, our Red Cap guides had explained a little bit about Bolivian politics. There are many protests and they can turn violent. We had been turned away at the Plaza Pedro D Murillo, adjacent to the Presidential Palace, for that reason. In fact, the Presidential Palace is known as the "Palacio Quemado" (Burned Palace) because it has been gutted by fire so often. In 1946, the then president was the last one dragged from the palace and hung from a lamppost in the plaza by an angry mob. We've enclosed a poor picture of today's barricade from across the street.
Our guides had mixed feelings about the current president, Evo Morales. He has done a lot to curb racism and promote indigenous pride. He has re-nationalized a lot of the public infrastructure that was sold off by a previous president who took the profits and ran to the US. This happened only a dozen years ago.
However, Morales also says some things without thinking. For example, he said that the female hormones fed to chickens to make them grow faster was causing the men who ate them to turn gay. He had to apologize to both the chicken producers and the gay community. He also said that, since Bolivia is underpopulated, he would tax women without children and outlaw condoms. He had to apologize for that too. There's actually a popular book of all his wild statements.
Morales is also changing the constitution in an attempt to hold power longer. This is making many Bolivians very nervous.
This morning after breakfast, we reserved this hotel again when we return from Sucre. It's a bit dreary but it's cheap and we'll only be here for about 15 hours overnight before we fly to Lima.
We went back to the San Francisco Plaza and Church to see more for ourselves. First we stopped inside the Church, which is very ornately decorated. The stone carvings on the walls, ceilings and pillars were made by Incan stone carvers so they reflect some traditional indigenous beliefs. Above the altar were 20 to 30 mirrors. According to our Red Cap guides, the indigenous people who first came to the Church had never seen their own images before and were fascinated by mirrors so the priests used mirrors to lure them in. The priests told them after they had a look that the mirrors had captured their souls but, not to worry, if they came to Mass every day for the rest of their lives, their souls would be okay. Nowadays, although about 80% of Bolivians identify themselves as Roman Catholic, only about 10% go to church.
For 20 Bolivianos each ($4 CA) we got a private tour of the church and monastery museum. One part is closed off since there are still monks living there. We climbed up a narrow passage (pictured) to the bell tower where we could see the handicapped tent city in the plaza.
When we went back out to the plaza, the handicapped people were just starting a protest march to somewhere. We gave one person a donation and then moved on up through the Mercado Lanza to the Plaza Alonzo de Mendoza. From there we walked down and around the Plaza Pedro D Murillo to see if we could get in to see the Presidential Palace but it was even more heavily barricaded and guarded than yesterday. It was still only about noon but we were getting tired of the car exhaust and congestion on the busy streets. We walked back down to the Plaza San Pedro, bought a couple of pastries, and relaxed. It was the only place where we could sit in peace shaded by a few trees. In the park was one of the many shoeshine vendors. They all cover their faces so no-one will recognize them and see how low they've sunk to make a living.
Eventually, we walked back up through the food market streets and the huge Mercado Negro (black market) in which anything is for sale along its narrow, winding lanes. By a little after 2 pm we were back at our hotel. Tonight we'll just go around the corner to Martinni's Pizza for lasagna.
Central, historic La Paz is interesting for about one full day. After that it's just noisy and congested. If we didn't have to return here and stay overnight to get our flight to Lima, we wouldn't.
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