Enjoying Bolivia 169high quality professors and signifi cant research projects.
The university also runs a quality television station,
Channel 13. Surrounding the university are numerous
photocopy shops, where text books are routinely copied. A
textbook author will never get rich in Bolivia.
Foreign Embassies
It is at this spot by the university, Nudo Villazón, where
the main avenue splits into
two parallel thoroughfares,
Avenida 6 de Agosto with traffi c
moving south and Avenida Arce
moving north.
Walking down Arce, you’ll pass
the fi ve-star high rise Radisson
Plaza Hotel, an attractive traffi c
circle called Plaza Isabel La Católica, and the Centro Boliviano
Americano (CBA), which features an English language library
with an annual membership fee.
You will now pass various embassies. Visitors from Great
Britain, Australia and New Zealand will be attended by the
UK Embassy on the right side of the avenue.
Just past the UK Embassy is a lifeless stone block fortress
that happens to be the United States Embassy. Canadians,
Germans and Swedes will also fi nd their embassies on the
same Avenida Arce. Across from the United States Embassy
is the neo-medieval Brazilian Embassy.
The Womens’ Prison
Once down in Obrajes, the road levels out to a slight incline.
Middle class Obrajes is the home of the Womens’ Prison.
“Children often live in prison with their mothers,”
explain two former prison employees, Daniela and Nancy,
interviewed for this book. “You don’t see any loving games
among the children,” Daniela says, “only violent games. It
is ironic that a prison that is supposed to protect society is
breeding new criminals.”
Daniela and Nancy explain that the women imprisoned for
terrorism have become leaders among the inmates. “When
Avenida Arce ends abruptly
before the breathtaking dropoff
into deep gorges, but the road
continues, via hairpin turns,
passing the presidential residence
and then moving roughly parallel
to the Rio Choqueyapu.