&
TRAVEL
One morning in ...LaF%£z
Ben Connor takes a walk, has a shoeshine and feels right at home in the Bolivian capital.
am strolling through the busy
streets of La P217. when the
crowd before me parts to reveal a tiny. grubby-faced child. Dressed in a brightly coloured alpaca poncho and beanie hat. he’s bobbing up and down beneath the bustle and big city buildings. singing earnestly and strumming randomly on his battered miniature guitar. I walk up to him and put some change in the box at his feet. He responds with a cherubic smile.
La Paz. capital of Bolivia. is a chaotic. charming city with its grand. crumbling buildings and colourful inhabitants. Situated on the Andean plateau in the basin of a large canyon. this is the highest capital city in the world. with an altitude of 38mm. It has one of those geographical settings that makes everyone and everything seem just that little bit more beautiful.
Plaza Pedro de Murillo. the square at the heart of the city. A large group of men in balaclavas walks towards me. pointing at my shoes and talking loudly. l have been forewarned that these are the shoe shiners: mostly teenage boys trying to acquire the necessary funds for schooling. The reason for their headgear. l have been told. is that they wish to hide their faces in order to avoid the social stigma of their lowly. but transient. trade.
Around the plaza's perimeter. and far more welcoming. are the unmasked shoe shiners with their pale blue fold-out boxes full of brushes and polishes. 1 look down at my boots. They‘ve been neglected for months and the leather wrinkles up like the skin of an ageing sun-worshipper. l lower myself onto a cushioned seat beneath a blue and white parasol. engage in some friendly shoe-
‘THE GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING MAKES EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE SEEM THAT LITTLE BIT MORE BEAUTIFUL'
Leaving my hostel earlier that day. I descended the cobbled Yanacocha Calle which climbs the northern rim of the basin. There I stared across the canyon to the south. where rows of cream and caramel residences populate the southern steep escarpment and fiuted cliffs. Further down stands the church of Iglesia de Santo Domingo. a large colonial building with a grand central arch decorated with stone alcoves. fioral patterns and pillars of stone fruits.
The buildings of central La Pill. are a mishmash. Dignified structures of colonial rule. with their stone reliefs and bay windows of wood-carved refinery. are wedged between multiple eyesores of cost-cutting modernity and the occasional towering glass edifice. all of them bound together by an inexplicably vast web of cables.
I turn left and find myself in 100 THE LIST 15 Feb -— 1 Mar 2007
shining chitchat. then relax and take in the spectacle.
A blanket of pigeons covers the plala‘s stone floor. bulging at points where bird-loving inhabitants have deposited seeds or bread. ()thers perch atop the heads of the five stone statues which ring the plaza.
An old man in white overalls and cap drags an ice-cream cart with striped parasol. and the pigeons scatter. Groups of friends and families gather to chat and eat ice cream.
La Pal. has had a violent history. Among the many complex and disturbing events that have shaped this city. and the country as a whole. was the public hanging. in l946. of President (iualberto Villarrod from a lamppost in this very square by a group of vigilantes.
The scene today is relatively calm. Indigenous women sit in
front of stalls. from which they sell an intriguing variety of goods. Their traditional costumes are every bit as eye-catching as something you might see on a
catwalk in Milan. only in place of
the latest designer creations they wear bowler hats. pleated skirts and shawls.
The famous hats are a purely Bolivian phenomenon. attributed to the marketing genius of a merchant with a surplus to sell who arrived in Bolivia many years ago and promptly spread the word that they were the height of fashion among Spanish women. Trends in Spain might have moved on. but the native Quechua and
' Jr'- "
"1‘: s. isw- i j .1 . . ‘55.: b‘ 9'. a? 1. \ If; 73‘. at
Aymara Amerindians have defined
their separation from their former colonisers by maintaining their
own fashions. My shoes shined. I wander down
Socabaya Street to Alexander
Coffee. Entering the stylish cafe. 1 walk past the ground floor counter and glass display cases of exotic looking pastries. and make my way upstairs. ()n the curved wall of the spiral staircase leading tip to the first floor I see a large painting on a white laminate canvas: a baby samurai is floating over an ill- defined mountain landscape during a coffee bean shower. Alexander's. l have been advised. has wireless internet