On the president´s trail..
Tonight there was a big fanfare around La Paz.. people marching around, carrying flags, calling out slogans. I thought it was a protest of a sort.. but upon reaching Plaza San Franscisco it became apparent what all the fuss was about. There was a big screen TV, people sitting on a raised platform, and a huge crowd gathering around the area backed with patriotic slogans over the PA system. Even fireworks. Yep, the president is in town.
Evo Morales is the newly elected president in Bolivia. He is the first native Bolivian president in the country, and as such is very popular, almost hero-like, amongst the native Bolivian population. I dunno too much about the politics here, but apparently he is fairly left-wing and supports Bolivia´s Coca leaf industry much to the annoyance of the US government. There was a small article on the president on the local free English newspaper, focussing on the president´s taste for colourful knitwear.
The funny thing is, it´s almost as if he´s stalking us. We left Rurrenabaque for La Paz a few days ago, and the day before that someone told us that he´s friends with the president, and that the president was coming into town the next day around 10am. We weren´t sure if he was serious, but the next morning people were fussing around town, putting up flags and things. Our flight was at 10am, so we thought we would miss the chance to see the president. However, when we got to the tiny airport there were a bit of a crowd gathering around, some security people and a small camera crew. As we walked into the airport office we could see soldiers lining up on the runway, and two people stepping out of a small, official looking plane. One of them is the president, but we didn´t know which one.
After a while we figured out the president was the one wearing a casual blue jacket, and after a bit of a walk up and down the runway, he headed straight towards the airport office, right where we were. At one stage I was only 3 meters away from him and managed to catch his attention and gave a small wave.
posted by Susan @ 6:25 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home