La Paz, Bolivia
The first impression of La Paz can be expressed in just a few words: the city of contrasts! Its central part does not differ at all from modernist areas of other Latin American capitals: buildings of banks, international companies, governmental structures and trade centers add to La Paz a cosmopolitan appearance.
However, the slopes of the huge depression, in which a fast mountain river used to run in distant past, and later La Paz found its place (3600-3800 m above the sea level), are completely covered by «shantytowns» – unpretentious small houses made of cheap bricks, where majority of the city population lives, actual capital of Bolivia.
Every morning dwellers of these mountain slopes – small traders, policemen, transport drivers, builders, gardeners, cleaners - go to work along the steep streets. The overwhelming majority of them are people with Indian blood - quechua and aymara.
La Paz is calm and cosy in the evening. Generally at this time there are already no manifestations, demonstrations and other protest actions: Bolivia is living through the epoch of cardinal reforms, and it is difficult to do without these measures.
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