Casa Robino

¡Perez! ¡Perez! un bolivianito yell the driver to the crowd.
I jump into the shuttle which will bring me back in La Paz through the only Bolivian highway, 13 km, la autopista La Paz-El Alto.
Small distance but big changes.
El Alto (The Height) proudly located on a plateau, 4000m high is the mekka of the Aymara, the natives from the area of Titicaca lake. It is at the same time the stronghold of bolivian leftist syndicalist and indigenous movements and a giant ultra liberal market where you can find almost everything, from magic native artifacts to smuggled merchandise and, a lot of Chinese trash.
La Paz (The Peace) is a big valley entirely built. By night the landscape of the officious capital of the country is magical, I see the lights of all the districts weakly stowed into high slopes. Down in the center are the jailones (wealthy people) and the tourists.
The highway has been built by Hugo Banzer, one of the so many bolivian dictators, during the 70's. At this time he started a lot of public works, all of them tarnished with corruption, specially the highway whith a cost of 34 millions US dollars instead of 7 initially planned. A lot, back on those days when Bolivia was one of the poorest countries of South America (which is still the case).
At the entrance of the lanes, just before the tall gate, there is many little stalls, this is indeed the end of El Alto infinite market, people buy chicharron (fried pork), música chicha (Peruvian cumbia) and drinks while waiting for their shuttle.
The van start up, we go down. There is all kind of things on the highway, specially people; some are running, others are chatting, some look like dead, probably they are just drunk.
Advertisements also, EVO (the president), MAS (his party), TIGO (mobile phone company).
Soon, perhaps no-one will see that, the electricity company is threatening with cutting the light because the highway company hasn't payed bills for 11 months.