Friday, April 6, 2012

Worth 1000 Palabras

Per the request of some special people, these are more pictures for your viewing pleasure.  Above is the view of my house from the end of the driveway inside the large metal gate.  The car belongs to the lady who lives with me (whose parents own the home).  Note the large apartment building being built directly behind it.  It may be hard to see, but just behind the door of the house is Shadow, my terrier mix friend who is - you guessed it - black.  He's here with me now, in my room because he is super afraid when nobody's home (lots of scratching and barking).  He's also deaf, which makes for a challenging situation with a dog who is barking.  He says hi to you all (he's looking at me right now). 

Above is a great example of an unfortunate form of artistry that's seen all over the city: graffiti.  I don't think I've seen one city block without it.  What you see above is a normal street in La Paz in a neighborhood that's known to be "middle class".  Most of the day, the stores have open doors (I think I took this before 8am).  Also note the low hanging electricity wires.  (Apparently there is a tourist bus that's double decker where you have to duck at times to dodge the cables.)  Low hanging wires remind me of one fun fact that I haven't shared yet: I am taller than half of the people that live here.  Yes, that's right.  All 5 feet, 3 inches of me is just the right height in La Paz, Bolivia. 

I
Above is another view of the city from a community called La Bitana in the main part of the city.  Note the mountains in the distance.  The views here are amazing.  Just today I noticed for the first time a snow-capped mountain in the distance which was outstanding! 


 Another fantastic view. 


An interesting sign (of course with graffiti) that I found walking the street today during the "Walk of the Cross" which is a Good Friday tradition in Bolivia.  The sign must be from years ago...?  It says "Tuberculosis is cured...with directly observed treatment by the health [department]".  Also see behind the sign that the mountains appear to be dirt and not rock.  This apparently is true, making mudslides a common occurrence during the rainy season. 


Bolivians looking down to the street from their apartments.  Most families have little to give, but lots of love to share.  

2 comments:

  1. Bek! Thanks for the pics ....keep it coming! Love u!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you, thank you, Bek, for keeping this up! It is SOOOO interesting!!! Can't believe petite you are taller than "average" there!!

    The "Walk of the Cross" sounds like the Catholic church practice of observing the "stations of the cross" on Good Fridays. Another tradition is the washing of the priests' feet (I want to say on Holy Thursday the day before Good Friday). There are 12 "stations"--each one representing the major phases of Jesus' life. Usually, this occurs by stopping at 12 different "markers" in the church (most of my experience was plaques--but there are actually statues of each phase at some fancier churches). People just silently go in throughout the day on Good Fridays here and pray at each "station" on their own usually. Fascinating that they do this there and wonder how they went about it that you might have observed?

    Again...thanks for posting, dearest one!

    ReplyDelete