The Bolivian capital of La-Pass is the only city in the world where the inhabitants of social lower classes look down on the rich.
It is at some Manhattan or in the Moscow Stalinist skyscrapers the price of housing grows along with the number of storeys of the house: the higher the apartment, the more expensive rental. In La Pas, the most highly opposed capital of the state in the world, is the opposite. The poor live on the slope of the mountain (more precisely, extinct for a long time to a volcano). The houses of those who are richer are below. The fact is that La-Pass settled at an altitude of 3600 meters above sea level. High sprinkle of air and excessive level of ultraviolet radiation are the usual everyday problems of those who live too close to the sky.
Travelers get acquainted with the features of the Bolivian climate in the first minutes of stay in the country: as soon as the doors open in the plane, passengers feel a sharp drop in pressure. Hypertension tourists are especially difficult. They no longer want to go anywhere, but instead ask the stewardess a blanket and stay sleeping right on the plane.
The body, however, quickly adapts to the conditions of the highlands. Having settled in the hotel and having lunch, the most impatiently already cheerfully rise along the winding streets of La Pas. Less persistent linger in the nearest street bar and order tea from Koki leaves: a popular Bolivian drink that helps to cope with a high -altitude disease.
The higher up the mountain, the less it is possible to make out the speech of the local population. If in the lower quarters of La Pas you can still hear the usual continental Spanish, the Indians live at the top, who speak the language of Kechua and Aimara. Both those and others prefer to settle in the mountains, avoiding lowlands.
The motley ethnic composition of the La Pas population is best noticeable in the city market. Between trays with fruits are fortunetellers and predictors of the future. The dark -haired grandfathers in bright woolen hats – in the city it is rarely warmer than 15 degrees Celsius – they will tell the traveler for a small fee where the curve of fate will lead. Here is a woman in a colorful skirt and an English male pot, like Charlie Chaplin, squeezes juice from fresh tangerines. In the features of her face, more than one generation of Indian ancestors is guessed. Through the road – the witch market, nothing unusual.
Old women sell mixtures from dried roots. The shop of each merchant is decorated so that any provincial shaman will envy it. In the baskets at the entrance, frog legs (or even the frogs) lie with piles),
Spiders and other insects. The counters are broken from boxes and bottles with unknown powders. And the dried embryos of the lamas hang from the ceiling.
Lama, perhaps the most famous animal of South America. It’s the same as a camel for Africa (especially since they are distant relatives). Lam was tamed by the Indians of the Andes several thousand years ago, long before these territories mastered the Incas and Aztecs. Lams for the Bolivians are not only pack animals, but also something like a symbol of good luck. For example, dried lamps dried when laying the foundation of a new house – the Bolivians believe that this will bring happiness to the family.
Each tourist traveling in Bolivia makes dozens of photographs of these animals, especially since meeting a llama in Bolivia, grazing peacefully in a meadow is a common thing.
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Author: Marat Abdrakhmanov
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