Cuidad de La Paz, Bolivia

March 14, 2009

Located at an altitude of 3,660 metres (12,008 ft), it is the world's highest capital city.
Also known as Chuquiago Marka or Chuqiyapu from Aymara: "chuqi" = gold, "yapu" = farm. La Paz was founded by the spanish colonialists in 1548 and originally named Nuestra Señora de La Paz (meaning Our Lady of Peace).

We arrived to our hostal in the early afternoon and after climbing 3 flights of stairs to our room I was left gasping for air. We had just come from ground zero and had spent the past month and a half lying around on the beach!

By the second day of taking it easy we were adjusted to the altitude and walking up and down the steep streets of La Paz exploring. The first day we just wandered, checking out the witches market and the famous Murillo plaza (where the government palacios are).


The second day we went to the large church, Iglesia de San Francisco, and discovered a museum next to the main door. The museum was a cultural and historical experience as it lead us through the oldest jesuit church in La Paz built by the indegenous polulation. The church had a huge collection of anonomous paintings by indians whom illustrated various biblical stories as they understood them (many of the paintings were not a true reflection on the bible). The church was also built in a style called- baroque indigena, a style completely invented by the indegenous population. Instead of long, triangular style roof, it was curved and circular and there were large windows throughout. The church was built by the Aymara peoples, whom were colonized around the mid 1500's. An mark was left on each stone comprising the church by the workers, as if to say 'that was me! I built this'. The marks are still visible on the stones all around the church and monastary. The tour ended with a surprise- on the roof, in the bell tower, with an amazing view of the downtown area and the surrounding mountains.

La Paz opened up to us within a few days, it takes some exploring to really experience the city. There was too much to do and see, we are planning on coming back after exploring the southern part of Bolivia. Oh, and Greg wants to eat at the fabulous french restauraunt we already visited (it was that good, and cheap!).