Plaza Mayor in downtown La Paz is one of the places with the biggest number of changes. The Bolivian capital seems to always have projects there, from child to teen I remember the crowds and the books sellers, people always walking, waiting, and sometimes running. Now it’s free of sellers and it’s bigger and quieter; with modern structures that harmonize very well with the old buildings. Actually I prefer it as a place to rest than Plaza Murillo that is the main civic plaza at the city.
The old river Chuquiyapu (called by Spaniards Choqueyapu) runs under the plaza. It seems that Spaniards in those centuries used the sources of water as sewers so they hide the rivers that in our way before colony instead had to be completely clean and the sewers cannot blend with the rivers in the cities, nor in other places. Actually water was considered a gift from our Apus (mountains)
So Plaza Mayor is a place open to the sky and with a secret river under your feet.
Qhapaq 