Last night I rode into LaPaz Bolivia on a very nice bus from Cochabamba ... 7 and a half hours. When we finally made our destination about 4 pm Tuesday, I noticed that LaPaz was kinda like ... a bowl of Cheerios.
Picture a bowl of Ceerios, almost totally eaten, with a lot of little soggy Cheerios at the bottom in milk, and many little other Cheerio dudes hanging onto the side of the bowl. That´s what LaPaz is: kind of a bowl of a city, with the downtown area right in the middle, and all around it, little houses and huts and building hanging onto the surrounding hillsides.
OK OK maybe I was hungry as we rolled into town, but it is a beautiful city nonetheless. The picture here can sort of give you an idea. I am here for 2 days as I make my trek along Lake Titicaca and then to Cusco, Peru. The Jesuits here are really nice, and this morning I will get a tour of their "collegio" here (middle school /high school) and then off to see some museums and the cathedral. It seems Bolivian vocations come from parishes more than high schools, so I found out. And the greatest number from LaPaz (probably because it´s the largest city). But cities more so than the rural areas are fertile grounds for vocations. Maybe that´s why the saying goes ...
Bernardus colles,
valles Benedictus amabat,
oppida Franciscus,
magnas Ignatius urbes.
No, it´s not Spanish, it´s Latin, and it means that the major religious orders founded ministry in many different types of places:
Bernard loved the hills,
Benedict the valleys,
Francis the towns,
Ignatius great cities.
OK, I am off to make my way among taxis and vendors in this great world capital.
Patricius
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