*what our gringos´ eyes manage to see in la paz

we got to laz and instaled ourselves in a very gringo hostel. on a plus side it has hot water and is in a very centre. after sucres´ beauty, la paz seems dirty, chaotic and not too impressive. maybe coz i havent spotted a good market yet :) the city is located in a canyon and quite high too, so we keep loosing our breath pacing up and down the streets.
we go to the witches market and ponder the goods which can be bought. they are as follow : llamas´ fetuses which people bury under the houses in order to scare of ghosts and as a sacrifice to patchamama (mother earth), fertility and potence herbs and teas, little figures and stones and other stuff that our gringos´ mind wont be able to apprehend.
we also go the museum of the coca, which is a fascinating eye opener. it shows how coca has been used for 4500 years and has been a sacred, ritual palnt which bonds the community, helps to reach to the spirituality and helps to fight the altitude, the hunger and the tiredness. then the europeans came and the church banned it as ´diabolic´. but when the opressors understood that the miners work more efficiently when they chew coca, they asked the church to allow it and even made it abligatory. how 2 faced we humans are!
then the europeans extracted cocaine from the leaf and the whole mess started. intrestingly enough coca cola used to contain cocaine. now the 50% of cocaine consumption goes to the us, so the us wants to destroy as much coca fields as possible. how about doing something to prevent cocaine use or fight the drug trafficers at home, ha? also the chemicals needed to produce cocaine from the coca leaf come from the western countries.
there is a legend here that says the leaf given to the people of the andes as a miracle, in the hands of a white man turned into the white powder and brings misery and darkness.
we also go to the valle the la luna, amazing canyon just outside la paz, where water, winter and sun created maze'like structures.
on the way back we try to exchange our books in the city book exchange spots and are disgusted by the fact that they CHARGE you for this. i guess humans wont take long to come up with money making ideas from anything.