A year and a half ago, three young Bolivian entrepreneurs launched Popular, a restaurant in the centre of La Paz, betting on Bolivian food and local products. Their gamble paid off, as it is now one of the highest-rated restaurants in the city and – pun intended – probably the most popular. In 2015, a young Bolivian coffee amateur opened the first branch of Typica, a cozy coffee shop in Zona Sur decorated with vintage Bolivian furniture that offers food and coffee roasted on site. It has since expanded to four new locations, one in La Paz’s Sopocachi neighbourhood and others in Santa Cruz, Cochabamba and Oruro – and it keeps on expanding. These success stories are only a few of the examples demonstrating the possibilities and opportunities that Bolivians can aspire to.
Bolivia is a place where anyone with vision, motivation and a small amount of capital can make it happen: a pizzeria, an art gallery, a magazine, a fashion brand or a career as an influencer. New enterprises appear every week, most of them started by young Bolivians who see an opportunity to make a living by filling a gap in the market, transforming the country little by little into something new.
The recent boom is also accompanied by a reappropriation of Bolivian culture and goods. The country is developing its own artisan industry, and one can find Bolivian whiskies, coffee, clothes, even cider. Entrepreneurs have a profound desire to show the world – and each other – what Bolivians are capable of. This may be part of a global trend to consume and produce locally sourced goods, but for Bolivians, it means something more, as this trend has only recently become possible here. For a long time, the consumption of foreign goods was a sign of luxury and success. But now there is a real pride and interest in buying Bolivian products and supporting local talent.
And there is a lot of talent in Bolivia. Alongside the rise of small businesses, the country is gaining international recognition for far more than only its stark and beautiful salt flats or controversial president. In the last decade, Bolivians have risen to the top of world racquetball competition, and all expectations are set on the upcoming Pan American Games in Lima, Peru. This year, Bolivia has its sights set on winning the gold, which would be its first since the competition’s creation in 1967. This would be a huge achievement for the country.
The successes we see today didn’t just happen instantly, though. Behind all these stories are years of paperwork, preparation, failed attempts and a lot of patience and perseverance. José Antonio Callisaya Rada, owner of the Cruzze Bar & Pizzeria, tells us how his previous attempts weren’t so successful. But now, it looks like his pizzeria is here to stay.
Maybe the current economic stability has been propitious for entrepreneurs, or maybe this generation has learned how to do it right. In any case, what’s to come is certainly exciting. A new experience is around every corner, from the new food-truck court in Sopocachi, to an intriguing art gallery on Avenida Ecuador, to the taste of new Bolivian wines. It feels like everything is achievable, and it probably is.
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Photos: Emily Kilner
A small but very edgy space in Sopocachi
Easily recognisable by its colourful murals of well-known Bolivian faces, Cruzze Bar & Pizzeria, on Calle Cecilio Guzmán de Rojas in La Paz’s Sopocachi neighbourhood, is a new cultural space that serves pizzas and Bolivian craft beers in a cozy and inviting environment.
It’s more than just the food that makes this restaurant so special - it’s also the decorations and the attention placed in each detail. Outside, a sign warns, ‘We do not have a doorbell, so yell and let it out.’ There is no mirror in the bathroom, but instead there’s a message reminding the customer that ‘You look good.’ A wall is decorated with messages from customers, the floor is covered with gravel, and the tables and wooden chairs are made from colourful aguayos. All of this is accompanied with good music, which the staff insist ‘is a 100 percent free of reggaeton.’
Cruzze’s owner, José Antonio Callisaya Rada, opened the restaurant in January of last year after three previous failed attempts. The fourth try, though, is proving successful, as Callisaya has managed to create a welcoming pizzeria reflecting his own style and personality. ‘I worked in a pizzeria when I was 15 years old, and I liked the idea of doing something like this after finishing high school,’ Callisaya, 26, says. ‘So when I was 18 years old, I borrowed money to open my own pizzeria, but it didn’t go well, because I did not understand where I was.’ After this earlier failure, Callisaya attended culinary school and worked in a well-known café in order to gain experience. Only then did he once again begin looking into opening his own restaurant. He researched by taking different ideas and advice from friends, relatives and acquaintances, and little by little he created a concept for his own business.
‘The 2016 phrase “La Paz Ciudad Maravilla” inspired me,’ he says, ‘and I thought, Why not have a place that is at the level of the city? Why not make a pizzeria that represents the city? And that's where these details come from.’ Recently, La Paz has experienced a boom in local enterprises, and restaurants and chefs have been rediscovering traditional gastronomic values and incorporating them into modern cuisine.
Many of these new entrepreneurs are young people, who highlight Bolivia’s rich culture by combining traditional and contemporary ingredients. ‘We are trying to change the game,’ Callisaya says. ‘We do not want to copy the style of large corporations or want to impose anything—we want to explore our own culture.’ Now, together with his partners Martha Flores and Gustavo Rodríguez, Callisaya is working with discipline and perseverance, providing his clientele with a friendly place where they feel at home and can choose their own ingredients and design their own pie. Callisaya and his team are also eyeing the future, exploring the possibilities of expanding and opening locations across Bolivia, while always respecting the style and the spirit of each locale.
Photo Essay by Emily Kilner
The intricacies of inventing, creating and presenting cocktails at Jallalla
Will it be a G&T or an espresso martini tonight? We often spend a few minutes browsing the bar menu for a suitable tipple and wait, often impatiently, for the drinks to come after choosing our go-to classic. As customers, less appreciation often goes into the innovative and experimental work that goes on from a bartending perspective.
I wanted to capture this often undervalued talent and skill, so we headed to Jallala, a vibrant bar situated above the Galería Mamani Mamani on Calle Jaén in La Paz’s colonial district, to chat to and marvel at head barman Gonzalo Guerra’s work and discover the real view from the other side of the bar. As bars seek to diversify and attract new customers, the drinks have to follow suit. Guerra is a perfect example of a bartender whose hard work, passion and pure creativity we should appreciate more.
The master behind the bar: Guerra is an ambitious bartender. With six intriguing and tempting cocktails on the menu, he aims to use nearly all Bolivian products and local ingredients to create delectable concoctions that push boundaries.
Not your average G&T: ‘What have you had for dinner?’ asks Guerra as I ponder the drink menu. After I answer, he says that a Martín Cruz is what I need. Named after the man who named Bolivia and finished with airampo (the fruit of an Andean cactus that adds natural colour) and smoky rosemary, it’s exquisite.
It’s all in the final touches: Every ingredient of this drink is precisely thought out: ‘The cream is eaten with a stick of cinnamon, the fresh strawberries add a distinct texture and the lemon zest exploits the aromas,’ Guerra says.
A drink that tells a tale: Every cocktail comes with a story at Jallala. The Luka Quivo, a citrus-based cocktail, is served in a shoeshine box to honour the masked lustrabotas who work in La Paz’s plazas and streets.
Photo: Omar Torrico, WCS Bolivia
La Paz comes out top in the global wildlife-spotting competition
The citizens of La Paz achieved a great feat between 26 April and 5 May. This year, 159 cities from across the world participated simultaneously in the 2019 City Nature Challenge. La Paz, the only city representing Bolivia, took part for the first time and obtained amazing results: second place in number of observations, 46,931; third place in the number of participants, 1,500; and eighth place in the number of species identified, 3,005.
This City Nature Challenge was launched in 2016 as a competition between the US cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Its goal was to involve residents and visitors in the documentation of nature to better understand urban biodiversity, all registered through the mobile iNaturalist application. The competition went nationwide in 2017, and in 2018 it went global, with cities around the world competing to see in which one the most observations of nature are made, the greatest number of species are counted, and the largest number of people are involved.
But how was this accomplished? What was the process, and who were involved? Robert Wallace, director of the Madidi-Tambopata great landscape conservation programme of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Bolivia, said Bolivian participation in the competition was thought of in Mexico in October 2018, during a conference about citizen science. While there, Wallace learned about the City Nature Challenge, and he immediately enrolled La Paz as a participant city.
Photo: Omar torrico, WCS Bolivia
Wallace says that the competition complements the work of the WCS. ‘Citizen science can help conservation because this type of initiative creates a space that allows us to reconnect with nature and to enjoy it, while at the same time contributing to science,’ he explains. An organising committee comprising the WCS, La Paz’s Museum of Natural History and the biology and ecology departments of the Higher University of San Andrés planned the campaign with support from the Bolivian Ministry of Education and other schools, universities, conservation professionals, municipal entities and citizen groups.
Embodied by the national motto of Bolivia – ‘Union Is Strength’ – this disparate group coordinated more than 100 activities, including group walks in La Paz’s urban green areas, school activities and day excursions to the countryside just outside of the city. United by a love of nature and motivated to learn about and value the city’s biodiversity, participants contributed to a large catalog of La Paz’s biodiversity.
Wallace says that because of the La Paz metropolitan region’s extreme altitudinal range – with mountains towering 6,000 metres above sea level, the altiplano at 4,000 metres and the city’s southern district at 3,000 metres – the city is one of the most biodiverse in the world. Additionally, the competition allowed the world to see La Paz’s natural habitat captured by the many people here who call the city home. Omar Miranda Bayron, an environmental activist and wildlife photographer, says that ‘the photographs show in an unprecedented way the interest of people in nature, as it’s never happened before, because it’s a way to socialise knowledge and experiences with wildlife in a conciliatory way, allowing us to open our eyes through many other people.’
Photo: Mileniusz Spanowicz, WCS Bolivia
‘I really liked seeing old people, young schoolboys and adults wanting to win the challenge; biologists shared their knowledge, and photographers were also interested in helping others record this experience,’ Candy Prado, an amateur photographer, says. ‘The plus of this activity was to be able to share this with my husband, because when he saw how busy I was with the training, he decided to take some days off from work and joined the challenge.’
As paceños and Bolivians, this competition fills us with pride, but it also helps to raise awareness about the natural life existing in the cities around the world. In Bolivia, 69 percent of the population lives in urban areas, which, although human-centred, contain a rich array of flora and fauna. Wildlife only represents 3 percent of the terrestrial biomass, so it is important to highlight and promote the importance of protecting and maintaining spaces where wild species can live and thrive. Beyond their beauty, they are also essential for the balance of ecosystems and extremely important for us to enjoy a better quality of life.
Taken with a Huawei P30 Pro / Photos: Adrian Bailey
