Bolivia - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 162

Museo Nacional de Arte
To the southwest of Plaza Murillo on
Calle Socabaya, the Palacio de Los
Condes de Arana, one of La Paz's finest
surviving colonial palaces, houses the
Museo Nacional de Arte (Tues-Fri
9.30am-12.30pm & 3-7pm, Sat
10am-5.30pm, Sun 10am-1.30pm;
B$15; W mna.org.bo). The palace itself is
a magnificent example of Baroque
architecture, with a grand portico
opening onto a central patio overlooked
by three floors of arched walkways, all
elaborately carved from pink granite in
a rococo style with stylized shells, flowers
and feathers.
Contemporary Bolivian artists are
represented but the museum's art
collection is centred firmly on colonial
religious works, featuring several by
the great master of Andean colonial
painting, Melchor Pérez de Holguín.
Look out for the temporary exhibitions
programme, which often strays from
the colonial theme.

Calle Jaén and its museums
Calle Jaén is the best-preserved colonial
street in La Paz and home to no fewer
than five municipal museums (all
Tues-Fri 9.30am-12.30pm & 3-7pm,
Sat & Sun 9am-1pm), all accessed on
a single B$4 ticket, sold at the Museo
Costumbrista Juan de Vargas at the top
of the street (the entrance is just around
the corner on Calle Sucre). Set inside a
renovated colonial mansion, this museum
gives a good introduction to the folkloric
customs of the Altiplano and history of
La Paz, partly by way of some wonderful
photographs. Housed in the same
building but accessed from Calle Jaén,
the Museo del Litoral Boliviano is
dedicated to one of Bolivia's national
obsessions: the loss of its coastline to
Chile during the nineteenth-century War
of the Pacific (see p.155). Next door, the
Museo de Metales Preciosos , also known
as the Museo del Oro, has a small but
impressive hoard of Inca and Tiwanaku
gold ornaments, and informative displays
explaining the techniques used by
pre-Columbian goldsmiths. On the other
side of the road, inside the sumptuous
mansion which was once the home of
the venerated independence martyr
after whom it's now named, the Casa
Museo de Murillo houses an eclectic
collection, ranging from colonial
religious art to artefacts used in Kallawaya
herbal medicine.
Set around yet another pretty colonial
courtyard a little further down Calle Jaén,
the delightful, independently owned
Museo de Instrumentos Musicales (daily
9.30am-1pm & 2.30-6.30pm; B$5)
features an astonishing variety of
handmade musical instruments from all
over Bolivia, including the indigenous
charangos , some of which you can pick
up and play. They also host concerts of
traditional music (usually B$20).

2

Iglesia Santo Domingo
A block northwest from Plaza Murillo
the Iglesia Santo Domingo (Calle Ingavi,
at Yanacocha; sporadic hours; free) has
a richly detailed eighteenth-century
facade carved from soft white stone in
Mestizo-Baroque style, exemplifying the
combination of Spanish and indigenous
symbolism characteristic of Andean
colonial architecture.

Museo Nacional de Etnografía y
Folklore
The small but rewarding Museo Nacional
de Etnografía y Folklore (Calle Ingavi;
Mon-Sat 9am-noon & 3-7pm, Sun
9am-12.30pm; B$20; W musef.org.bo)
is housed in an elegant seventeenth-
century mansion, with a variety of
costumes and artefacts representing
three of Bolivia's most distinctive
indigenous cultures: the Aymara culture,
formed of thirty ethnic groups in the
Cordillera Oriental; the Uru-Chipayas ,
who subsist in the Altiplano around
Oruro; and the Quechua-speaking
Tarabuqueños from the highlands east
of Sucre.

Plaza San Francisco
Though the frenetic traffic running
alongside detracts from its charm, the
Plaza San Francisco is the focal point for
the city's Aymara population. It is one of
the liveliest plazas in La Paz, busy with
people enjoying snacks and juices or