We landed a bit early in Lima and for our midnight flight to La Paz . The connecting passengers
were directed through a long but fast-moving queue for security screening. It was a little different- keep your shoes on,
no separate bag for liquids. The flight boarded and landed on time and I tried
to sleep but, even on a flight leaving at midnight, I really couldn’t.
Immigration at La Paz was easy.
They never even asked for all the documentation I’d brought. As we waited in line, a guy in a surgical mask aimed an electronic thermometer at each forehead
to weed out the feverish.
I got to the hotel at 4:40 AM and managed to sleep about 4
hours. After breakfast I ventured out
for a walk and picked up provisions at a large supermarket where they had to have
had 20 kinds of marshmallows. I love
checking out supermarkets when I travel to get an idea of what the average
people eat. There were many varieties of
quinoa-our guide later told us that he’d grown up very poor (his father left
the family) and they ate a lot of quinoa, which he rarely mentioned to his
friends because that was food for poor people.
Now, of course, it’s hugely popular in the United States and well-known
for its health benefits.
I’d met the other 3 women taking this part of the tour earlier
in the day and when they suggested a visit to a ceramics artist recommended by
the guide, I decided to join them. The
taxi ride up the mountain was worth it all by itself but the artist, Mario Sarabia,
turned out to be a gracious man who told us about how he used clay from local
construction projects and used an electric oven because a fire kiln wouldn’t
heat the clay enough at that altitude.
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Studio Entrance with some of Sarabia's work, surrounded by beautiful gardens
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A vase by one of his students, in the process of curing
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His array of chemicals and compounds for glazing and clay preparation- they included bone ash (from cows), silica, black iron oxide and bentonite
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We met for dinner later after I’d been to the gym and done
some more walking.
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A gym with a view.
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We chose a Bolivian
restaurant and after finding that our translation apps couldn’t handle half the
words on the menu (probably because the names came from indigenous languages
and not Spanish) and the waiter’s English was limited, told him to just bring
us some plates with a little of everything except tripe and tongue- that we
could translate! We washed it down with
a local beer and it was delicious.
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The menu
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Not sure what it all was, but it was very good!
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