Goodbye Bolivia and Good Luck

Today is my last day in Bolivia. These past two days I have spent back in the glittering valley of La Paz, walking around the city and taking teleferico cable cars wherever they roam. Currently there are 3 cable car lines, but Evo Morales promised as part of his bid for renewed presidency (which he achieved this year, so he will be president 2015-2020 as well) to build 3-5 new lines as well.

One thing to be said for Evo though is that even apart from the teleferico project, there are clear signs of improving infrastructure in the country - such as the new motorway under construction between Cochabamba and La Paz or the already completed one betweenn La Paz and Oruro. Evo is generally either worshipped or at least tolerated with the sentence "he's not perfect, but bettter than the previous guy". And since Evo has been president for 10 years already, the fact people even remember the previous president's time proves that Bolivians have a far better political memory than the inhabitants of most nations.

A thing one always runs into is street markets. There are no depatment stores here in the way we Europeans understand them, but this oversight is more than made up for by the ubiquitous markets. Usually the markets follow the old logic of guilds - where certain guilds would be centered around a certain street. Therefore the stores selling fabrics are all in one sector of the market, as are the fruit sellers in their sector, the toilet paper and shampoo stands in another, sexy underwear in another etc.

Vendors of all things magical and superstitious also have their own section called the black market. I ran into several sections of the black markets today. In one part they specialized in burning herbs and items representing wealth, health, love etc on small burners to bring good fortune. The burning was accompanied with chanting and ringing of bells. For me the tourist price for a good burning would have been a steep 300 bolivianos (over 40 euros). 

Another item, which may be found all over Bolivia at markets is a dried lama fetus. One would be rash indeed to undertake to build a house, without burying a lama fetus under the foundations. A much cheaper security, since prices start at 4 euros.

However I decided to opt for good fortune by buying a bottlefull of it and getting my own Ekeko - god of consumption - for my home shrine. He looks like the happiest travelling salesman around. I also thought a nice touch is that my good luck is bottled in a William Grant whisky bottle.

Tomorrow I head for Peru and the city of Cusco. Goodbye Bolivia and good luck!