Today was a day based around shopping. Our hostel is situated in a touristy area so
there are lots of market type shops around (known as the witches market). During the day we bought a couple of things
for ourselves and also some birthday presents.
These special people might be getting something in the mail soon.... We
didn’t forget anyone however, everyone else might be getting something small
with a Bolivian flavour to it. We are unsure how long it will take to post to
NZ but postage will be made today.
I’m not much of a shopper but I actually enjoyed walking
around the markets and having a look at all the different items that were up
for sale and the Bolivian culture. This
shopping continued until mid afternoon.
We then went into the Museo de Coca (Cocaine Museum). This was very interesting. The museum was opened about 15 years ago and
it is very honest in its assessment of cocaine.
It was opened to try and teach Bolivians and tourists the effects of
cocaine. There were 19 different
sections in the museum including the history of Coca leaves (which is used to
produce cocaine), how cocaine was used as an anaesthetic, the use of cocaine in
CocaCola (don’t worry, cocaine was taken out of CocaCola about 1950), how
cocaine is produced and the effects cocaine has on people. I mentioned coca leaves on day 20, where we
had them when we went into the mine in Potosi.
The history of coca leaves, according to the museum, is long as
labourers, especially miners, constantly chewed on coca leaves while they were
working. Some workers apparently worked
48 hours constantly with no food, only chewing coca leaves as studies showed
they gave you more working stamina. Back
in the day, this made coca leaves more valuable than gold and silver!!! Obviously
this is not true now, especially as Ann and I bought a bag of coca leaves to
give to the miners as presents on day 20 for Bs5 (approx NZ$1).
We then ventured into the city centre for a look. Here it is predominantly Bolivian, no
tourists around as it is out of that ‘area’. Around the main plaza was some parliamentary
buildings and the Cathedral. The main
plaza was full of dirty pigeons, not surprisingly however as the locals kept
feeding the dirty critters.
At 7pm, we went out for dinner with the Pom and
Aussie from our 4x4 tour. We went to an
Indian restaurant which has been recommended in our Lonely Planet travel
book. It was great to have a curry and
it was fantastic aswell! The Aussie decided to try the “highly not recommended”
Chicken Vindaloo, which was “the world’s spiciest curry”. The reason he wanted to do this was because
his brother did it when he was in La Paz and he had a t-shirt to boast about
it. Not to be outdone, the Aussie
finished his meal and got his free t-shirt.
It was a struggle however, it is fair to say he did not enjoy his
meal. I had a quarter of a mouth full of
his curry and was struggling.Museo de Coca - http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g294072-d317327-Reviews-Museo_de_Coca-La_Paz_La_Paz_Department.html
Star of India Restaurant - http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g294072-d1507950-Reviews-Star_of_India-La_Paz_La_Paz_Department.html
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