Instituto Americano

La Paz American Institute -or-
El Collegio Instituto Americano
Landaeta Street near Plaza del Estudiante on the Prado


Photo from Frank and Bessie's collection

   

Photo from Frank and Bessie's collection

We were introduced to Senor Panteliz,
Director of Instituto Americano
Bessie Beck had a copy of this photo (left) in an album, titled "American Institute."
Here is the same building in October 2000.
 
We spent the most time with Martha Loetz, who is the daughter of a Bolivian political official. Doc and her father were close friends. Martha is 74 years old and very active. She would have to wait for us while Gary and I huffed and puffed walking up the stairs of the Instituto Americano. Martha attended this school a couple of years after Dad. Doc was a director of this school prior to getting his medical degree. Nelson attended school here until he went to college in the States.
 
 
The school was across the street from our hotel, so I went back on my own to buy the soccer team's T-shirts and shorts. While walking the grounds I asked an older man directions to the store and explained who I was. He also knew Doc and my Dad. I raced back to the room for the picture book to show him old photos of Dad at school and Nanny and Doc in the hospital. A younger co-worker joined him and he explained each of the photos to him.
 

A Tour
From the lower right corner, you enter the school grounds, walking up the staircase, past the school's logo painted on the wall.Turn left in front of the yellow 2-story building and enter the main offices. After meeting the director and getting a ticket from the receptionist, continue in front of the building and turn right at the corner to ascend the stairs up to the oldest building on the grounds. Behind this building, there are two more buildings, the farthest has a red-tile roof and white walls. Moving left you see the gymnasium with a curved gray roof with three spines. Continuing down hill, you walk past five more buildings, ending at the two-story white building with a red-tile roof, near the basketball court. The grounds cover 4 city-blocks and have a 2-lane-road tunnel under the soccer field on the upper grounds.

Panoramic pictures were taken from our hotel room.

   
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