Bolivian Nights
It is winter in Bolivia and the sun shines brightly every day. Every night as the sun drops behind the rim of the giant crater, cold falls upon La Paz. As the light of sunset fades the air is already crisping with a cold dry ferocity that saps the heat from even the hardiest Pacenan. The air is clean and pure, frozen from the mountains, and swept off of empty plains. It is winter here.
As the sun rises over the crater rim every morning, the cold begins to lift. Reluctantly at first, and then in a rush. Tendrils of cold creep into corners, and seek out shadows, even finding some shadows deep enough that even this high Andean sun cannot penetrate. This cold lurks in it´s stillnes, reaching out to chill your leg should you pass too close.
The buildings and landscape merge into one another here, all of the same hard material - the very earth from which La Paz is carved, is bundled, mixed, baked and poured back into itself, and up into crusteacous caveties. Every building is concrete and brick. These hard and dense materials emblematically and directly display this very same cycle, day into night, heat into cold.
The walls floors and ceilings soak up the sun craving the heat and eventually fading into pastels of their former selves. But this fleeting heat fades even faster than the light reflecting off the opposite crater wall. Pause too long against a wall, or sit even briefly on a shaded concrete ledge or bench and the bite of the night nips all too closely.
Our apartment hides in the shade of adjacencies, orients itself somehow always out of direct sunlight, and therefore is always cold. Even in the middle of the day, under the direct and close sun. We are moving out of the apartemnt this weekend for a variety of reasons, and this hot topic is a very important reason.
Have you ever slept in a sweater and hat? Inside? I imagine you have, as most of us at one point or another in our lives experience a cold night´s sleep. For us this has become a routine, and not one that we dislike. There is coziness and care in the embrace of a warm hat, or a soft sweater. Bundled under blankets of fleece, and horizontal on a thin mattress we find slumber deep and dark, just like these Bolivian Nights.
As the sun rises over the crater rim every morning, the cold begins to lift. Reluctantly at first, and then in a rush. Tendrils of cold creep into corners, and seek out shadows, even finding some shadows deep enough that even this high Andean sun cannot penetrate. This cold lurks in it´s stillnes, reaching out to chill your leg should you pass too close.
The buildings and landscape merge into one another here, all of the same hard material - the very earth from which La Paz is carved, is bundled, mixed, baked and poured back into itself, and up into crusteacous caveties. Every building is concrete and brick. These hard and dense materials emblematically and directly display this very same cycle, day into night, heat into cold.
The walls floors and ceilings soak up the sun craving the heat and eventually fading into pastels of their former selves. But this fleeting heat fades even faster than the light reflecting off the opposite crater wall. Pause too long against a wall, or sit even briefly on a shaded concrete ledge or bench and the bite of the night nips all too closely.
Our apartment hides in the shade of adjacencies, orients itself somehow always out of direct sunlight, and therefore is always cold. Even in the middle of the day, under the direct and close sun. We are moving out of the apartemnt this weekend for a variety of reasons, and this hot topic is a very important reason.
Have you ever slept in a sweater and hat? Inside? I imagine you have, as most of us at one point or another in our lives experience a cold night´s sleep. For us this has become a routine, and not one that we dislike. There is coziness and care in the embrace of a warm hat, or a soft sweater. Bundled under blankets of fleece, and horizontal on a thin mattress we find slumber deep and dark, just like these Bolivian Nights.
posted by Greenstigator at 1:09 PM
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