La Paz por Feliz Navidad

On the 23^rd December we headed off on the truck again towards La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. The crew had decorated Amber with Christmas stockings for everyone and some tinsel and bobbles but to be honest although it started to at least feel a bit more Christmassy the only place we wanted to be was home :o( When we arrived we had a tour of the city including the valley of the moon from a local guide called Julio. He showed us around the city - which is massive and jammed full of people, cars, animals and market stalls - and gave us a very honest picture of how it is to live in Bolivia. He talked a lot about the corruption and illegal drug trading in the country and the stories he told were unbelievable!! The country is South Americas poorest but yet it is the richest in terms of natural resources. He said that the average wage was around $100 a month per family and it was clear that many people were living on this small amount. However, there was clearly another section of the population in La Paz living on well over $100 a month!! He pointed out penthouse apartments in the centre that sold for $1million - $4million and he mentioned the high ownership of Porsche Cayman cars - apparently this is the only super car that can survive in the high altitudes of Bolivia!! These people are making huge amounts of money from the illegal trading of Cocaine or from corrupt political deals but their earnings are obviously not included in the development statistics for the country!! So on first glance I think Bolivia seems a lot more developed than you would think being the poorest country in SA. He told one story about a past president . He was given a multi billion pounds budget to reform the transport links but decided that he would rather keep it for himself. And fled in an army helicopter to North America but not before landing on the roof of a local bank to steal $8 million in cash to pay the people he had bribed to get him out of the country!!! There is a famous jail in the middle of the city where, at the weekend, you can see lots of fancy cars pulling up to collect the inmates who are mostly corrupt politicians and as long as they have enough money they can buy a pass to get out for the weekend!! Apparently the ‘cells’ also vary depending on how much money you can pay - you can have satellite tv, nice furnishings even a Jacuzzi in some cells!! Julio was also very open about his dislike for the current president Evo Morales who won his election with a land slide majority and actually Julio did vote for him because he was the best of a bad bunch, He is the first indigenous president and has implemented many new laws granting more rights for the indigenous people and coca growers (he used to be one!) which has made the rich middle class very unhappy!

Getting to La Paz was an interesting trip...we all took a ferry (well small tug boat crammed with locals!!) and Amber the truck had to take a wee ferry of her own...

 

  

Okay so enough politics and on to more important matters!! It was Christmas and although we had decorated our truck we were all feeling very unChristmassy!!! We hadn’t done any rushed Christmas shopping, we hadn’t heard any Christmas songs blaring constantly, none of us had been to a Christmas work do and to be honest we were all missing home :o( On the truck on the way into La Paz we started to discuss having Secret Santa so we would at least all have one present to open on Christmas day and I suggested that it might be nice to get together some money and buy some presents for kids in a local orphanage if we could find one. Everyone seemed really enthusiastic about the idea and I couldn’t wait to start buying toys!!! Luckily Niks one of the Dragoman leaders had been to La Paz 7yrs ago to do some volunteer work in a local orphanage and so she contacted them and arranged for us to visit on Christmas Eve!! We collected over 2000 Bolivianos and split into 3 groups for our Christmas shopping spree!! One group bought a new pair of pants and socks for each of the 54 kids in the orphanage, one group bought lots of sweets, cakes and fizzy drinks for the party and our group bought a hair band for each of the girls and a toy car for each of the boys and skipping ropes, balls, tennis rackets, lego bricks and an electric keyboard for them all to share!! The next day 15 of us headed down to the orphanage in santa hats with bags full of stuff!! We attracted lots of attention on the streets, all the kids were looking at us and lots of locals shouted Feliz Navidad. We stopped in a coffee shop on the way and the cakes in there were YUM!! We were all finally starting to feel Christmassy and you know what im like - I was sooooooooooooooo excited!!

We arrived in the orphanage while the kids were doing some art in another room. We set up the party in their dinner hall and put a present and lots of sweets and cake on each of their tables. We then lined up at the door and made a big tunnel for them to run through while we sang Christmas songs!! They were all so cute. They had a uniform/tracksuit so all the girls were in baby pink and the boys in baby blue and they were between 4-14yrs old. They all looked very excited about their new toys and we hadn’t even shown the big sack of things to share!!! We couldn’t take any pictures for child protection reasons but I don’t think I will ever forget their wee faces anyway!! We also had a few extra pants, socks and toy cars and gave them to some of the ladies running the orphanage for their sons. I have never seen anyone look so grateful over something so small. I have to say its probably the most enjoyable day of the trip so far for me and it really felt to me what Christmas is all about. When we were talking to the lady that runs the orphanage we asked her what happens to the kids when they turn 14yrs and apparently there is another orphanage in the city for boys that are 14-18yrs old but there is no equivalent for girls and so if they are lucky they will find a rich family who will take her on as a maid otherwise she is out on the street to fend for herself!! Its just heart breaking to hear and its so difficult to help them in any kind of long term way as there is so much corruption but it was nice to at least go in for the day to put smiles on their faces and hopefully the toys will last a while :o)

On Christmas day we went to an Irish Bar for traditional Christmas dinner - it claims to be the fifth most popular bar in La Paz (bit of a weird strap line!!) and to be honest it was a bit odd!! The head bar man was clearly coming down of his last high and needed to do another line of Bolivias famous cocaine before his jitters threw our Christmas dinner round us!! The other barman seemed just slightly autistic and got very frustrated if he couldn’t remember exactly which drink was for which person (there was about 20 of us and he could just shout out the drink and someone would claim it!!) Anyway the food was ok but the craic was mighty and Tom was the secret santa giving out the presents. He ended up with a Spiderman cap and a set of pan pipes and I got a lovely scarf, a bottle opener key ring (very handy) and a nice little Bolivian pen. It wasn’t anything like Christmas at home but it took our minds of being away for the day!!