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Postcards from:
California planning La Paz Bolivia Camino de la Muerte Trinidad Bolivia Santa Cruz Bolivia Cochabamba Bolivia Sucre Bolivia Potosi Bolibia Uyuni Bolivia Tiwanaku Bolivia Back Home in California
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Hello
from La Paz, AWAKE, AWAKE! My body is in Bolivia, but my mind is in Washington having just read Ray McGovern's shocking, but credible essay on our governments eminent plans to attack Iran (corroborated by many more believable stories. See: A, B, C, D, ...). Now that I have passed on the alert I'll refocus on being here and now, here being at the Internet computer in the lobby of the elegant five star Plaza Hotel in downtown La Paz. This is a $100 house ($62 on the Internet), but with practiced pleading negotiated a special $50-night deal with a seven night commitment. As I had planned to remain in the city at least that long it made the decision easy. There is a lot to see and do in La Paz. Between sips of coca leaf tea, I am reading, answering and reacting to emails received from a number of conscious friends. Why the adjective, conscious? It is obvious so many of our fellow citizens must be sleeping as so few have expressed appropriate outrage, alarm at the policies and philosophies guiding our government in this perilous time. But, back to the present moment and the truly wonderful personal experience of soaking up a foreign culture. I know I have only been here a few days, but already have filled my time with colorful, exotic explorations. Today I visited the Museum of Modern Art (photos) in the morning and took a three hour city bus tour in the afternoon. Yesterday I walked the Sagarnaga tourist district which I had completely missed the last time here (photos). Sunday I watched a colorful parade for the 100 year anniversary of the founding of the American University (photos) followed by a military parade of the Colorado de la Guardia (photos). A few days ago I visited the Ethnographic Museum where an amazing display of colorful masks is maintained (photos). The new American Airlines booking and automated check-in are a dream; easy and smooth. Even the security check seemed more rational this time. I remained groggy and tired the rest of the day Thursday after arriving at 6AM. A sleepless night while traveling for more than 24 hours straight will do that, but that has now passed. On the two six hour flight legs they fed us only once! Go traveling; a simple way to diet! The weather is quite chilly at 6AM at this altitude (3600 meters - that's 11800 feet), but it warms up a bit by mid-day. This is the middle of winter here in the southern hemisphere, a nice change from warm Southern California. It is Sunday now and time to check out the street action. More when something urges me back to the keyboard. Be sure to check out all the photo albums this time; I took a lot of pictures and have annotated them. Just click on the little camera icons at the top right corner of this page.
Peace, PS: As an avid China watcher it is becoming obvious to me this is a country that has much to teach the rest of the world, from practical capitalism to vigorous control of the most destructive aspects of radical religious fundamentalism. A recent ABC News article is worth a look: China's influence spreads around world
Need to add many more photos here.
There are many more photographs from La Paz: don't miss the other full screen slide shows. Just touch the camera icons at the top of the page to see contents and then click on any of interest. |
A VERY patriotic
military commemoration around the Plaza
de Armas. With drums and horns and
soldiers singing and chanting, I felt
the lump grow in my throat. An officer
read an hour long speech to the rapt
attention of both the soldiers and the
watching citizens. The climax came as
the colors were raised and every
Boliviano sang verse after verse of
their national anthem... brought tears
to my eyes. I could only understand a
few words of the speech, but clearly
heard "Chiliano," "victoria," and "marte"
so this dealt with the war with Chili I
suspect. As Bolivia lost that one I
wondered what could be commemorated...
and then it dawned on me: the martyrdom
of their heroes! This was a very solemn
event.
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  My excellent $5/mo web-host Reference photo August 2002 |
