Culture

Zombie Politics
29 Jun, 2015 | Laura Chitty
Nuclear Power and the PachamamaThe Bolivian government turned heads around the world in 2010 when it introduced a controversial and ground-breaking regulation called the ‘Law of Mother Earth’. It was...

Brain Training
29 Jun, 2015 | Katherine Browning
Vipassana Meditation in Bolivia“Anger is anger. When one becomes agitated as a result of this anger, this agitation is not Christian, or Jewish, or Muslim.” S.N. GoenkaThe first time I heard about Vip...

The Rise of the Past
29 Jun, 2015 | Laura Chitty
Bolivians Between Spiritual WorldsThe largest indigenous groups in Bolivia are the Aymaras and Quechuas. The former are mostly found in the vast plains of the altiplano region on the west of Bolivia,...

The Church of Ayahuasca
28 May, 2015 | Valeria Wilde
ILLUSTRATION: MARCO TOXICOFor Andean and Amazonian indigenous cultures in Bolivia, hallucinogenic plants are synonymous to medicine, spirituality and even religion. Ever since ancestral times, a...

The Danish Invasion
28 May, 2015 | Sophia Vahdati
PHOTO: JULES TUSSEAUDenmark and Bolivia are worlds apart, both geographically and culturally. Yet a Danish community is emerging in La Paz, made up of more than typical expats who have come to ‘find t...

El Clásico
28 May, 2015 | Sophia Vahdati
PHOTO: MICHAEL DUNN CACERESPapá Bolívar in our hearts and celestial blue passion running through our veins. The age-old rivalry fuels an ever unpredictable outcome. Win or lose, triumph or defeat—we a...

The Many Colours of Carnaval
28 May, 2015 | Sophia Vahdati
PHOTO: SZYMON KOCHANSKIOver 200 years old and officially one of UNESCO’s Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, the Carnaval de Oruro, a tradition of hedonism and spectacle, rem...

Lolita the Kosher Chef
28 May, 2015 | Sharoll Fernandez
PHOTO: NICK SOMERSEvery morning, Lolita leaves her house at 8 am so she can be on time to make the bread. She has been part of the Chabad Lubavitch for four years, working for the rabbi’s family as a...

Michael Jackson is alive
28 May, 2015 | Rodrigo Barrenechea
PHOTO: IVAN RODRIGUEZ PETKOVICOne of the most striking characteristics of La Paz, emerging from the depths of informal labour, is the artistic display of informal shows that take place in the centre o...

Taxi Trivia
28 May, 2015 | Phoebe Roth
PHOTO: AMARU VILLANUEVA RANCESomewhere amongst the abundance of radio taxis and the rather suspect missing-a-headlight cabs, you can find a driver named Mario Durán, who famously challenges his passen...

La Quinceañera
28 May, 2015 | Phoebe Roth
PHOTO: LINDA MARKLUNDIn Bolivia, fifteen is the age that a girl enters into womanhood, and the quinceañera tradition dictates that an extravagant party is thrown to celebrate this rite of passage. It...

Urban Cemetery
28 May, 2015 | Phoebe Roth
PHOTO: MICHAEL DUNN CACERESWalking through the general cemetery of La Paz, I was astounded at how strange and different it looked to anywhere I had seen before, with various blocks of what looked like...

Kilometre Zero
28 May, 2015 | Phoebe Roth
PHOTO: NIA HAFThe central station of the red teleférico line is situated next to what used to be La Paz’s only train station. It shut down in 1996 as the tracks had been deteriorating for years, along...

Día del Mar
28 May, 2015 | Emily Gray
PHOTO: MICHAEL DUNN CACERES Bolivia is one of two landlocked countries in South America, with a long, painful history regarding the sea. On March 23, 1879, Bolivia lost the War of the Pacific to...

Psalms and Skulls
28 May, 2015 | Emily Gray
PHOTO: AMARU VILLANUEVA RANCEIf you happen to be in La Paz in November, you’ll find yourself immersed in two Bolivian festivities for the dead: Todos Santos and Las Ñatitas. On the first of the month,...