Concert Part II

The concert was a real riot: the goth-metal-rock venue was located in a community center that usually plays folk music. I arrived a bit early and, as usual, was the only gringo in the place, and the few black-clad people sitting there gave me a look like “What are you doing here?” I ran into a few familiar faces, notably my former roommate Evan, and as we watched the Metallica and Apocalyptica music videos they were playing before the show, I myself was thinking “What am I doing here?”

When the band got on stage, the lead singers were decked out in black corsets, skirts, and commando boots. They played a lot of screaming cover songs, and while my friend Karim looked a bit stiff, the other singer had her curly black hair whipping and her hands writhing through the air (it was a bit cliché). When the next group went onstage I just about lost it – it took me a double take to figure out that the lead singer was, in fact, a man…he had long, straight hair and was wearing a skin-tight full-length strapless pleather dress. To complete the ensemble, he had painted his face white and his eye sockets black, and he was playing a huge white double bass in a rather phallic fashion. I applaud the groups for their enthusiasm, but in a venue with not more than 50 people, it was kind of comedic.

After Evan and I couldn’t bear it anymore, we headed out to my new favorite place in La Paz – it’s a bar/lounge called “Adam’s Rib”, situated in an unmarked, white house at the end of a very, very steep street in Sopocachi. From the outside it looks like a ordinary place, but when you go, after you’re personally greeted by the jolly owner, you’re overwhelmed by the sheer amount of kitsch. Every room in the house has been converted into a makeshift lounge that is decorated with colorful odds and ends that should look tacky, but in combination give the place a charming and unusual feel. We ran into another friend, Dado (who happens to be the AP photographer for La Paz), and ended up chatting until 3:30am, while the resident Siamese cat wandered in and out of the rooms meowing.

Yesterday, on our way up to buy a few DVDs from the electronics market, I paid a visit to my former landlady, Doña Emma, who owns one of the tiendas in the witches market. I brought my 5 gringo friends into the back of her store, which is dark and dusty but filled with thousands of interesting things, where she had us participate in an Aymara misa/ritual. She had a small bowl in the middle of the floor filled with leaves and some sort of liquid, which she lit on fire to form a flaming bowl of incense (which is great for me, being afraid of fire and all). Chanting in a mixture of Aymara and English, she had us sprinkle sand and then some flammable powder on the bowl. After we “washed” or faces and bodies with the flames, we then had to walk over the foot-high flame three times.

During the ceremony she offered us coca leaves, which is chewed along with a burned quinoa paste. As my first time chewing coca (you don’t actually chew it like gum, more let it sit between your back teeth), it was actually quite pleasant – the juices are a bit sweet and have a numbing effect on your mouth. I suppose this weekend in general was a first for coca experiences - at “Adam’s Rib I also tried a coca-infused rum mixed with lemon and some sugary substance. (I’ve also seen fish with coca-cream sauce and coca flour).