A bit closer to home, literally

In my last post, I mentioned that La Paz was all nice and quiet even though Bolivia is facing a "political situation". Well today I got to be a little more into the action. As I went grocery shopping, I suddenly realised that right on the other side of the street was a demonstration blocking the street. I went on, wanting to be away from it as all consular memos tell you to. But as I came back from the grocery store about 45 minutes later (thinking they had moved on) I realised that they had only moved about 20 meters, to be on a dead stop in front of my building. They stopped because, right in front of my building, was about 30 cops from the riot police with the big shields. It's not quite a fun sight to see. But I have to say it was really peaceful. The people marching were mostly Aymaras asking for justice for the Pando massacre of a few days ago, but they didn't seem angry, just peacefully marching. And they spread out quickly without a fuss. Nonetheless, after being bombarded with bleak news stories about where Bolivia could be headed, it was a bit disconcerting to see this in front of my home. As an aside, I met a friend of mine at the grocery store who gave me an invitation to her wedding October 4th. It was really weird to hear myself say, totally seriously "Of course I'll go! Well, unless there's a civil war by then" and she answered, "Yeah, I don't think there will be one. I hope not, that would ruin the wedding". I think everyone is rather optimistic that this can be resolved through mediation and talks, which started yesterday and are apparently fruitful. But you only need one idiot to go kill someone and restart hostilities and I believe the proverbial shit will hit the fan... Anyways, I'm rather optimist too, but know that I also am preparing an exit strategy "just in case".