When traveling I often find myself in a state of "ponderment". This could be described as staring off into space analyzing my surroundings in the moment. Since there is already so much written on La Paz and all the things to do there, I thought in this post I might just share some of this ponderment with you.

And so it goes...

Pachamama
Have you ever seen a city that was built in a canyon? It is artistic genious, but practically insane. One end of the city rises up the canyon walls, a patchwork of brick houses inching their way to the edge, leaving no natural ground in their path. Looking up from the bottom you're left speechless, an endless blanket abrubtly turning to blue. The other end scatters down into what was once the bed of the once great Choqueyapu river winding its way back and forth across the valley floor carving ridges in its wake. Now little more than an oversized drain the Choqueyapu flows beneath percariously perched buildings, yet even the highest ridge with the tallest building is forever dwarfed by the ever imposing site of Illimani, which seems to look down on La Paz and its people with a mix of protection and disdain.

Buildings tucked amongst the Stalagmites	Illimani looks down bewildered

Choqueyapu
The smell of the Choqueyapu River is unmistakably the smell of sewage. I am repulsed by it, yet I cannot take my eyes off of it. I wonder if anyone could survive falling into it, then I see men and women workers waste deep in its waters doing who knows what. In that moment I wonder if I am a judgemental american snob, or if those people really are getting the shaft and likely to find out just as they are reaching their later years that those days they spent cleaning the river cost them 20 years of their life.

A horrendous commute	The Choqueyapu River, a serious dose of reality.

Autobuses Americana
I was walking down the streets amazed at the site of brightly colored 1950s and 1960s era American built busses.Each bus was meticulously kept, without a single dent or scratch. GMC, Ford, Dodge, International, Chevrolet; each a piece of art. Something is too perfect though, the busses were full of Bolivians going about their daily lives, but why these busses? Am I witnessing the "real" La Paz? What is real? Are the busses this well presented on the other side of town? Are these pristine relics for my benefit or the Bolivians? Who am I to think a bus would only be pristine for my benefit in the first place?

Dodge in blue	Dodge in yellow

Muy Sueno
Everywhere you walk in central La Paz involves a hill. The main road goes up the center of the valley with a steep incline on both sides. La Paz is famous for women wearing bowler hats, but from all this walking up and down, I imagine they could be famous for enormous calves too. Someone lives at the top of these hillsides that extend to the sky from city center. How do they ever get up there? Do they walk up from the bottom or down from the top?

In Bolivia there is much to consider...

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