The Fishers in La Paz, Bolivia

My mom got a taste of local life here in Bolivia during her visit. Maybe a little more than she bargained for. On Friday in the late afternoon, Mom and I decided to head for the tourist market, which is near the “main drag” in downtown La Paz. As we were approaching the market, we noticed that the street was particularly busy with traffic and it seemed everyone was pouring out of the buildings onto the street. I commented to mom that I thought this was strange because Bolivians usually work into the evening since they take a long lunch break. I figured that they must just leave early on Fridays and didn’t think much more about it – but it it should have been the first clue of what was to come. . .

We did our shopping fairly quickly and decided to catch a taxi to a restaurant about ten minutes away. I thought it would be easier to catch a cab on the main street, so we made our steep descent back down  the market street. As we got closer, I realized that there was no traffic coming the direction we wanted to go. Then we both noticed that there were a lot of police officers blocking the street. You would think these would also be clues to be alert to something going on, but until I turned and saw the police in riot gear and the hundreds of protesters marching, I didn’t really get what was going on. We didn’t get too panicked because all the Bolivians around us seemed totally unconcerned and the demonstration appeared to be fairly peaceful. We could tell though, that it was going to last a long time because we couldn’t see the end of the marchers, then they started shooting what we can only hope were firecrackers and I saw men carrying some effigies. We thought it would be wise to duck up a side street and pray for an open taxi to drive by. Finally one came, and after a harrowing ride to the restaurant, we started breathing normally again.

Protests are a frequent occurence here, but I had never been a few feet from one before. We found out the next day that they were marching about rising inflation, especially the cost of staples such as bread. We actually experienced some of their frustration early in the week when we went to the bakery, and they were completely out of bread. Apparently, the government is trying to set price caps on bread but the bakeries want to raise prices to make up for the increasing cost of flour. I’m not sure exactly what’s happening, but I guess many bakeries are cutting production until this gets resolved.  

Otherwise, my mom’s visit was very fun but uneventful!