La Paz
Trip Start
Jan 25, 2008
1
22
36
Trip End
Jun 01, 2008
La Paz,
Bolivia
Sunday, April 6, 2008
We arrived in La Paz and got a taxi to our hostel which turned out to be 10 metres down from the bus station, the driver didnűt bat an eye as he pulled up and requested 10 bolivanos! We checked in and met up with the guys from our salt flat tour and bumped into Nick and Jess, an Aussie couple who were in our dorm at Rio Backpackers. Nick was in the process of trying to organise a visit to San Pedro prison of Marching Powder fame. The tours arenŽt official and so this involved ringing one of the inmates to get our names put on the vistors list so we got him to put our name down too. That night we went to a BBQ at the Adventure Brew Annex which had a wicked view of the city, but the night ended up being a late one and we all woke up a bit worse for wear the next morning. We managed to drag ourselves out of bed and down to the markets to buy presents for the inmates, theyŽd requested toiletries, chocolate and toys for children. Armed with our carrier bag full of gifts we jumped in a taxi to the prison and nervously made our way round to the side entrance. We left our passports with the guards and were met by South African inmate Kenny at the gates who geeted us by saying " Welcome to prison".
San Pedro prison is divided into two parts, the poor part is called population, our tour was of the rich part where inmates either rent or own their cells which are centered round a yard which has shops and a cafe too. There were children playing in the coutyard and our guide explained that often the family would move into the prison when the father was locked up to be with him and also as it provided a roof over there heads. We got to see some of the cells which were more like flats, one had three floors and most had cable televison and unlike the rest of South America, toilets you could flush the paper down. After the tour we went back to one of the flats where some of the other international prisoners had returned with their tour groups and hung out for a few hours drinking beers and listening to the guys stories, most of them had been caught trafficing cocaine but were really personable and funny. It was such a crazy experience but really interesting!
On Saturday we mountain biked down the "Worlds Most Dangerous Road" with Nick and Jess, we chose to do it with Gravity who were the most expensive but also have the best reputation - no fatalities to date and this made Katie feel better despite having a mild panic when she was the only person not to be given personal instruction on how to use the breaks and probably being the only one that needed it!. The scenery was fantastic, although you could only really take it in at the stops as while we were riding our eyes were permantly fixed on the road, which was probably a good thing as the vertical drops were pretty terrifying, especially as we had to ride on that side of the road as the oncoming traffic drives on the side closest to the cliff. We started the ride at some ridiculously high altitude - we were literally inside a cloud - and it was baltic, Katie though her figures had frostbite, but as we descended it got warmer and we ditched our protective outerwear, although this meant on later we got drenched cycling under waterfalls and through rivers!
After we finished the ride we had lunch at an animal reserve and got to hold a baby monkey, we didnŽt want to leave and were late getting back on the bus. The driver must have wanted to get home because he asked us if we wanted to drive back up the road weŽd just ridden down, the guide said they didnűt often offer to do this because of the wear and tear on the bus. The bus journey back ended up being more terrifying than the journey down mainly cause the bus was as wide as the road and as we were no longer concentrating on riding our bikes, we were fully aware of the 1000m vertical drop outside the bus window. Half an hour into the journey it started getting dark this was made worse by the fact we had to wait half an hour for some JCBs to clear a landslide, which was when the guide admitted heŽd never done it in the dark before and peppered this statement with the fact that more people died on buses than bikes! There was a frightening moment when the driver forgot to pip his horn and coming round the corner we were faced with a lorry twice the size of the bus and when we eventually reached the tarmaced road safe and sound, the whole bus finally breathed out and there were claps and cheers!
On Sunday weŽd booked to go to the Cholitas wrestling with our hostel, Katie wasnŽt sure sheŽd like it, not being a fan of the WWF but everyone we knew was going so we went along anyway. We were driven to a sports centre at the top of one of the hills and given front row seats, the audience was half tourists half locals. The first few matches were entertaining but pretty tame with guys dressed up as cartoon characters doing WWF moves. During one of the matches a teenage mutant ninja turtle threw a midget dressed as Chucky over the ropes but the guy who was supposed to catch him missed and Chucky hit the floor head first, went limp and had to be carried off. Then two American tourists whoŽd been pretty vocal from the row behind us invaded the ring and started wrestling each other, the place went nuts! Unfortunately we later found out theyŽd been put up to it, but it definitely worked a treat for getting the audience primed for the Cholitas match (Cholitas are the Bolivian women with the big skits, bowler hats and pigtails). It was unbelievable, these women wanted to kill each other, weŽd never seen anything like it before, it was far more brutal than the WWF and all of the female tourists went silent went one of the women was thrown into the metal barriers and emerged with blood pouring down her face! She managed to pick herself up and get her revenge though!
