La Paz

Dude. So much to say about La Paz. I´ll stick to the highlights, though.

Sunday - visited the ruins of Tiwanaku, where there existed a civilization that lived with a stable society for more than 2700 years before the Incas. It was ridiculous how skilled they were at engineering.

Monday - great day. In the morning, I learned all about Aymaran (indigeous) religion, which is really cool. Then we went to meet a painter who is world renowned for his Andean-inspired art - it´s vibrant, colorful and very reflective of Aymaran religion.

In the afternoon we met with a member of the World Bank in Bolivia - the thing I took away from this meeting was that I really need to read up some more on the World Bank before I can decide how I feel about them, and how they operate right now (I really don´t know much about them).

Tuesday - In the morning we went to the University of El Alto (in a city that is 80% of indigenous descent, and really cool) and met with the students to do some cultural interchange. A little bit uncomfortable at first since we were introduced by a professor as students from "the capital of the world" visiting students from "one of the poorest, backward nations in the world" (created a lot of sterotypes which we had to try and break down). It all got better when they started teaching some of us how to salsa - in front of everyone! Then we showed dances from the U.S. - that was funny, and definitely made us all feel more comfortable.

In the afternoon, we visited another artist - this guy was also incredible. He is both a student and a master of many disciplines of art - not only with paintings, but as an architect and cook as well. He paints what he feels when he feels it, and has the amazing capacity to master any type of art - he´s a jack of all trades, and it was amazing to see the diversity of his work.

Yo Mama compliment of the day: yo Mama is so cool, she makes the Fonz look like Erkel (is that how you spell it?).