La Paz, Bolivia Part III

Part III Walk this way...

The next part of our La Paz visit, we put on our visiting shoes and saw some sweet museums and other sites.















The Instrument Museum (as you can imagine, Lori and I were in heaven) had everything you could pluck, blow, hit, strum, toot, whatever! 5 sided guitars, 1 stringed banjos, charangoes make of armadillos, gigantic rain sticks and a 100-holed flute (I don´t know, I lost count.) Amazing!

Continuing our music day, we went to the nicest and quietest concert we´d ever seen in our lives, Savia Andina (they perform folklore music.) Think of the two radio ladies from SNL way back in the day. In the smallest voices ever, 6 men whispered to us why there we so excited about each song selection. Though softspoken, the moment they picked up their charagoes (small Bolivian guitars) they really tore it up, it was enchanting! The first and definitely not the last folklore music concert for us.
















We also visited the free ethnographic museum filled with old weavings ("This one is from century... ummm, 5..."), amazing masks used in parades and festivals around the country and beautiful feather headdresses from the Jungle region of Bolivia. Being from the Jungle, the feather headdresses were mind blowing with their exotic colors and amazing designs.













Lastly, we visited the Coca Museum, like the coca used to make cocaine, but this is straight from the Bolivian bush. (Coca + chemicals = cocaine) While you´re reading about the history of Coca (yes, the Coca they used to put in Coca-Cola) it´s almost impossible not to want to try the mouth numbing, appetite suppressing leaves, coffee, cookies, etc. A super cool museum and our after Christmas diet plan :)

During our Culture Quest, we met some nice hippies, Sergio and Fernando, who showed us some amazing valleys outside of the city. We visited the Valley of the Moon and the Valley of the Spirits with these fine gentlemen. It was awesome to get out of the city, fabulously accompanied by some interesting, spiritual, gem and nature loving hippies :)

With our spiritual hippie friends we went out dancing one night to a classy place called Jackie Chan´s. Here I found one of grossest bathrooms I´ve ever seen and a girl who incessantly hugged me before allowing me to use the stall. The second night, we really did go to a classy place. We watched in awe as fellow Bolivians danced energetically and proudly to their hometown music (you won´t find any Rod Stewart here.)