At lunch, by pure chance, I met a girl again I got to know in Sucre. Sometimes the world is delightfully small :-)
We ended up visiting the two art museums of La Paz together, the national art museum and the contemporary art museum. Both museums are housed in wonderful old buildings. This, for example, is the courtyard of the national art museum:
In both museums, some pieces were really good, but others I found quite ugly. I guess that's just the way it is with art ;-) This is a nice sculpture standing in the front yard of the contemporary art museum, displaying a dancer in a traditional costume - they were among the ones present at Oruro carnival:
On the way between the two museums, I noticed a shop displaying the logo of my favorite fashion label. Of course, I had to go in and have a look... But what I found was that they had apparently sewn the label's name into all their clothes - which very obviously had nothing in common with the label's very distinctive style. Very interesting... and a tad disappointing, too - I'd have bought a shirt or two for the right price ;-)
La Paz is a huge city, but the public transport system is terrible. There is no subway, of course - the hills make any rail-based system unfeasible. Apparently, the hills are too much for regular buses, too, because what they use are micro buses. Each micro seats only 12 people, maybe a few more in rush hour. To make up for the small size of the buses, there are many of them. But the real problem is that these micros operate in the typical South American system: there are no fixed stops, get on and off wherever you want, just tell the driver on time. Once you know the routes of the relevant micros that's fine, but of course there is no printed information available... terrible!
Although there are definitely fancy buildings and rich people in La Paz, signs of poverty are visible everywhere. For example the old lady desperately trying to sell a watermelon in the restaurant I was having dinner in. For example the numerous shoe cleaners who cover their faces out of shame, so their friends and family won't know they have to clean shoes to earn a living. For example the boys playing instruments or singing in restaurants and on buses. Bolivia still has a long way to go...
We ended up visiting the two art museums of La Paz together, the national art museum and the contemporary art museum. Both museums are housed in wonderful old buildings. This, for example, is the courtyard of the national art museum:
In both museums, some pieces were really good, but others I found quite ugly. I guess that's just the way it is with art ;-) This is a nice sculpture standing in the front yard of the contemporary art museum, displaying a dancer in a traditional costume - they were among the ones present at Oruro carnival:
On the way between the two museums, I noticed a shop displaying the logo of my favorite fashion label. Of course, I had to go in and have a look... But what I found was that they had apparently sewn the label's name into all their clothes - which very obviously had nothing in common with the label's very distinctive style. Very interesting... and a tad disappointing, too - I'd have bought a shirt or two for the right price ;-)
La Paz is a huge city, but the public transport system is terrible. There is no subway, of course - the hills make any rail-based system unfeasible. Apparently, the hills are too much for regular buses, too, because what they use are micro buses. Each micro seats only 12 people, maybe a few more in rush hour. To make up for the small size of the buses, there are many of them. But the real problem is that these micros operate in the typical South American system: there are no fixed stops, get on and off wherever you want, just tell the driver on time. Once you know the routes of the relevant micros that's fine, but of course there is no printed information available... terrible!
Although there are definitely fancy buildings and rich people in La Paz, signs of poverty are visible everywhere. For example the old lady desperately trying to sell a watermelon in the restaurant I was having dinner in. For example the numerous shoe cleaners who cover their faces out of shame, so their friends and family won't know they have to clean shoes to earn a living. For example the boys playing instruments or singing in restaurants and on buses. Bolivia still has a long way to go...
