Every Saturday night in La Paz a living legend goes on stage. This happens in the Calle Jaén, one of the most interesting and possibly the most symbolic street of the whole city.
Here, you find four of the main museums of Bolivia, one of them being called Musical Instruments Museum (“Museo de los Instrumentos Musicales”) – if you were used to think of museums as of dead and boring places, well this is not the case.
At 8 pm sharp, the curtains open and in a tiny room of the museum a wonderful music show starts – this room is called Teatro del Charango, with the “charango” being one the most representative musical instruments of the Country.
It is a small stringed instrument of the lute family – or, for those that are not too keen on music, it looks a lot like a small, cute, tiny guitar. Don’t mistake it with the ukulele though: it is smaller and and its sound is completely different.
The Bolivian Master of charango is Ernesto Cavour, the living legend I referred to. He is now more than 70 years old and has devoted his whole life to traditional Bolivian music, and even invented a few instruments himself that whilst looking a bit strange they sound just amazing.
In spite of his age, his show is lively and captivating, you get to laugh at his jokes, keep the rhythm of his completely improvised solos, and if you are lucky you might also get to go upstage and share the “escenario” with the most important and influential Bolivian musician of all time.
Entrance is 30 Bs – without a doubt it is worth the price.