Museo Nacional de Etnografía y Folklore
Saturday, March 16
La Paz has several small but interesting museums that are definitely worth a visit when you are staying in La Paz. One of them is the National Museum of Ethnography and Folklore.
Most of La Paz's museums are somewhat dated, both in terms of their space and their exhibitions. This also reflects the fact that Bolivia hasn’t the strongest economy in the world. However, admission to the museums is very inexpensive, so a visit is always worthwhile, even if the exhibitions are sometimes rather small.
The National Museum of Ethnography and Folklore is located in a beautiful, magnificent 18th-century mansion. After purchasing a ticket at the ticket office, you walk down a hallway into the open courtyard of the large stone building. The visit is worthwhile just to see the impressive building. The exhibitions are spread across many different rooms, and we were surprised at how large the museum and the exhibition turned out to be. The exhibition covered topics such as traditional clothing throughout history in different regions of Bolivia, the production of the clothing, and various textiles and weaving techniques, as well as a photography exhibition.
Our favorite room in the entire museum, however, was the Mask exhibition. Various carnival masks from different regions of the country were on display here. To make the masks look particularly impressive, they were mounted on a black wall in a darkened room and illuminated by spotlights. The black background contrasted well with the bright colors of the masks, and it was great fun to examine each one closely and learn about the different carnival traditions throughout Bolivia.
