Trip to El Alto

Today, I traveled from La Paz to El Alto.  El Alto is technically its own city, but in a lot of ways it’s a barrio/burrow of La Paz.  La Paz is in a sort of valley, and El Alto is on the hillside (which is why its name means “the high”).  La Paz got its name when fighting broke out between the Spanish king’s people and the (Spanish) people already living in Bolivia.  The Spanish king told them they needed to make peace with each other or the indigenous people would overthrow them, so La Paz (“the Peace”) was created.  (It was an indigenous city before that, I believe, but I don’t remember the name it had then.)

I also had some mango for breakfast.  Can’t forget that!

So in El Alto, we visited UPEA (Universidad Público de El Alto/Public University of El Alto).  We talked to a bunch of human rights majors in their first year (of five) at university.  UPEA is only 12 years old, and the citizens of El Alto fought to get their own university.  I talked to two boys named Gustavo and Mario.  They were pretty cool.  I asked about differences between men and women in Bolivia, and they told me that now women have the same opportunities as men, and could go to university.  (I definitely don’t think men and women are equal here, or most places in the world, but it was interesting to hear their take on the issue.  I think women probably do have most of the same opportunities, there are just other structural issues that prevent them from seizing them.  Example:  Women can go to college just like men, but if women are more likely to drop out of primary/middle school to work, equal opportunities to go to college won’t do them any good.)

Next we went to Teatro Trono, an after school arts place for kids.  It was formerly a group of boys from an orphanage who performed in the street to survive, but now it’s an afterschool arts program for kids ages 7 to early 20s.  The kids there can chose classes to take, and write all their own skits to perform.  The whole building (it’s 7 floors) is made with recycled materials, so the windows all don’t match and the doors to the bathrooms are old bus doors.

There are 2 single-stall bathrooms on each floor, and since the women’s one was taken, I decided to use the men’s.  (There are 22 women and 2 men on my abroad program, so it’s a valid decision.)  This little girl who was hanging around told me “That’s the men’s room!”  Our presentation had already started upstairs and I didn’t want to miss it, so I asked, “If I go in the men’s room, can you not tell anyone?”  And she smiled and said okay.  Afterwards she told me her name was Alison and that she learns ballet and theater here.  I forgot to ask how old she was, but I’d guess around 8.  A new friend!

Also, there was an imitation mine under the building, so we walked around down there.

On the way home, we stopped at a park overlooking La Paz.  The view was gorgeous, but the houses there were a really stark contrast to the view.  It was some serious juxtaposition.  I’ll look for a good photo.

You might want to click to see this bigger

We learned about El Alto from our guide.  El Alto doesn’t have any 2nd degree hospitals, which from what I understand means that the hospitals here only deal with emergencies.  For anything else, people have to drive to La Paz.  Twenty-five percent of the people here don’t have electricity and 80% of the people living here are Aymara (an indigenous group).  Evo (the Bolivian president) promised to improve the services in El Alto, but the people are waiting for him to fulfill that promise.

For dinner in La Paz, I tried to find Thai food with some friends (tried REALLY HARD.  It was well hidden.)  Then we gave up and went to a Moroccan place.  We shared some couscous with veggies and chickpeas. Then we started talking to three Israelis on the other side of the room.  We ended up chatting for 2 hours (they spoke English).  They had just finished their military service and were traveling throughout Latin America.  I learned a few words of Israeli but I forgot them all. :)