I know I shouldn´t admit it, but the first thing I did when I got to La Paz was go shopping. After six weeks, I just couldn´t take it anymore and had to buy a pair (actually two pairs) of blue jeans. It´s amazing how a good pair of jeans can instantly make you feel more confident. =)
La Paz has some very interesting shopping. There are two shopping areas that are particularly popular: the mercado negro, which literally means black market, and the mercado de hechiceria or the witch´s market. The first one is not really a black market, but is, instead, a couple blocks of boothes selling American knockoffs, fruit, and every imaginable household item. The witch´s market, though, sells some really strange things. I bought a couple of amulets for good luck, fortune, love, etc., but I stayed clear from the llama fetus skeletons and stuffed frogs.
That night I met up with Pauline, the cute German girl who was on the Salar trip with me. We wanted to check out La Paz´s nightlife, but ended up in a gringo bar where a twenty-year-old Canadian tried to pick us up by using lines like, ¨I think it´s really sexy when girls play with candle wax.¨ =) I bet that he´s a real hit with the ladies.
The next day I took a day trip to the Mallasa Zoo and Valle de La Luna. The zoo was probably the best I have ever seen. Zoos usually make me sad, but this zoo had surprisingly good habitats for their animals. I got there around feeding time, so the animals were active. It wasn´t the same as seeing the animals in the wild, but it was still pretty neat, and I´m sure much safer, to see jaguara, puma, and condors so close.
At Valle de la Luna (¨Valley of the Moon¨), named such because the strange pillars that make up the valley look like those found on the moon, I was guided by the very amiable Lino. He is from the Amayra tribe and knew all about the area. During the tour, he played his flute for me and told me about all the medicinal and halluginegic properties of all the plants.
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