La Paz, Bolivia
Rem Sapozhnikov (February 2008)
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The first impression of La Paz can be expressed in just a few words: the city of contrasts! Its central part does not differ at all from modernist areas of other Latin American capitals: buildings of banks, international companies, governmental structures and trade centers add to La Paz a cosmopolitan appearance.
However, the slopes of the huge depression, in which a fast mountain river used to run in distant past, and later La Paz found its place (3600-3800 m above the sea level), are completely covered by «shantytowns» - unpretentious small houses made of cheap bricks, where majority of the city population lives, actual capital of Bolivia.
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Every morning dwellers of these mountain slopes – small traders, policemen, transport drivers, builders, gardeners, cleaners - go to work along the steep streets. The overwhelming majority of them are people with Indian blood - quechua and aymara.
A snow covered mountain Illimani, being the symbol of the city, gives a poetic note to La Paz. Illimani is represented on the label of the most popular in Bolivia beer - «Paceña». Maybe it is because the water for brewery is taken from the mountain streams of Illimani.
La Paz is calm and cosy in the evening. Generally at this time there are already no manifestations, demonstrations and other protest actions: Bolivia is living through the epoch of cardinal reforms, and it is difficult to do without these measures.
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