Keeping La Paz [Spanish for: 'Keeping The Peace']

The title of this post refers to La Paz’s peaceful state, in comparison to the rest of the country, and to my own personal struggle to stay sane while I remain stuck here.

Don’t get me wrong, this city is great, but I've exhausted all of Lonely Planet’s sightseeing recommendations and eaten every vegetarian menu option in every restaurant in the city. That part didn't take long though- Bolivians really like their meat. On the plus side, my 2-star hotel room (Hotel España seen below) is equipped with cable TV so now I’m totally up-to-date on Latin pop music. There are about three channels that play music videos non-stop and I watch at least one top 20 countdown everyday. In case you’re curious, Enrique Iglesias’ ‘Lloro por ti’ is dominating the Latin American billboard charts, and ‘Tres’ by Juanes isn’t far behind.

I want to acknowledge that this is a very important time for Bolivia, but selfishly, I must also acknowledge that this is not a very interesting time to be a foreigner in Bolivia…

For Bolivia, these recent political events represent a time of change and progress. The government has been in talks with the ‘Media Luna’ (the eastern opposition states) to draft up a pre-peace agreement and they have arrested the leader of the state of Pando for his involvement in the murder of an unknown number of indigenous people last week.
On Monday, Evo Morales met with the leaders of UNASUR (South America’s NATO) to have an international brainstorming session. What I've gathered from that meeting is that Bolivia’s neighbors do not want to see this government dissolve and that they are willing to offer all sorts of diplomatic support in order to maintain stability. Chavez went one step further (surprised?) and made it quite clear that ‘he’s got Evo’s back’ and that he will ‘beat the $#*%’ out of the opposition if Evo wants him to. Evo politely declined Hugo's generous offer… The country seems to be working slowly, but surely towards a semblance of unity and understanding. I’m just still having trouble accepting the removal of roadblocks and the end to rioting in the Media Luna as some great political concession… Last time I checked putting an end to illegal action is not synonymous with being cooperative...

For a foreigner, all this action means that the country is in a tense calm and that travel and activity must be kept to a minimum. The Canadian embassy has issued a travel advisory warning Canadians not to engage in any ‘non-essential travel’ and this warning is what has kept me from starting work. Even though there has been no violence in Sucre and the roadblocks have ended, I am technically an employee of the Canadian government and so I am not allowed to travel until I get the big OK from the Canadian consulate. At least all branches of the Canadian government are efficient and fast acting… I’m sure I’ll hear from them really soon!
No but seriously, hopefully my next post will be written from my new home in Sucre.

Instead of just being Debbie Downer (which is clearly one of my fortes) I will add that through a long chain of family friends I have been put in contact with some lovely humans here in La Paz. They took me out for a few nights out on the town and helped me learn that alcohol has greater effects at higher altitude. So that's one thing I've managed to accomplish.

These are 2 short videos I took from a bus window driving down to La Paz from El Alto last weekend.