How I became a La Paz Streetwalker - A personal tale
(Author Anonymous)
I got off the plane yesterday afternoon in La Paz and checked into a moderately priced hotel on the waterfront. Down the street a bit, in the late afternoon, I watched a sunset to knock your eyes out: glowing oranges (I know, I know, just pollution) and a strip of blue just above the horizon. I’d been told that La Paz was a safe town, so I decided to walk up to the main square to see what was happening there, and to see the church. I watched the kids playing, running up and down the bandstand steps, and the other oldsters talking to their friends.
A bunch of people were playing some version of Bingo, a caller yelling out words in Spanish I couldn’t understand. By the time I had seen what I wanted to, and eaten a dish of mango sherbet, it was 7:30 and full dark. I looked at the map I had picked up and figured I could walk back to the hotel by a different route, and see what the neighborhood was like.
So there I was, walking along, not minding my own business,
rubber-necking over the fences, speculating on what the families inside
the houses were doing (mostly watching TV, it seemed, from the blue
glow), when BAM. I staggered back and realized I had hit my forehead
on the corner of a low-hanging air conditioner. Luckily I had
a not-too-greasy dinner napkin in my pocket, so I could staunch the
blood I could feel trickling down my forehead into my eyebrow.
That’s what comes of being so nosy.
At the next house I dodged their air conditioner, but
wasn’t watching my feet and caught my toe on a piece of metal.
Turned out to be a length of rebar sticking out of an unfinished set
of steps. I don’t think my toe is broken, but will check it out
when I get back to the hotel.
At the next lot the house seemed to be under construction; at least
there was one pile of sand and another of the pink rock that they use
a lot of here. My hands took most of the weight when I tripped,
and I don’t think my wrist is more than sprained. Then, when I
fell over the log in front of the next house, I only scraped my knee.
I didn’t have another napkin, so just had to let the blood run down
my leg.
The following house must have been owned by someone
quite prosperous. I thought that because there were two almost
new cars parked across the driveway (and it was paved, not dirt), and
I am sure it was a purebred Doberman pinscher which lunged at the fence
and grabbed my elbow when I squeezed between the cars and the fence.
Mostly he just tore my shirt…it had long sleeves; and I had a sewing
kit back at the hotel to make a repair with.
By the light of the streetlight I checked my map; only a couple of blocks to the hotel. The napkin I held to my forehead was pretty soppy by now, and my limp was getting worse. Maybe I did break my toe. Maybe I can tape it to the next toe to stabilize it, just in case. With my next step I realized there was nothing underfoot, and the world turned black.
The hospital room was pretty decent, and the nurses were efficient
and clean. When they let me out of here in a day or two I’ll go
back to see how big the drop-off in that sidewalk really was, and I’ll
remember that it doesn’t take frousy hair, a pretty face, and a big
bust and bottom separated by a tiny waist to become a streetwalker in
La Paz. What it does take is common sense and a strong sense of
survival.
This story was submitted to us in our first year online. How times have changed - somewhat. The city of La Paz has taken on the effort of modernizing it's sidewalks and streets in the El Centro district. 16th of September has been completely rebuild with broad contiguous sidewalks, textured streets and handicap ramps at the intersections. Street impinging air conditioners are disappearing with attrition and with the rising value of real estate, when buildings are refit, the sidewalks usually benefit as well. The Malecon waterfront walkway now extends the full length of the cityfront and is one of the favorite walking places for both locals and tourists in the mornings and evenings.
The effort was inspired a few years back when a local politcian determined La Paz wasn't getting it's fair sahe of the cruise ship traffic do to the bad combination of the bad sidewalks and the senior status of the avereage cruisehsip patron. (It wasn't the 25 minute bus ride each weay from the deep water harbor of Pichilingue that detered the visitors)
Strolling around La Paz has not lost all it's challenges nor it's charm that walking the streets of this old city can provide.