THE WORLD’S HIGHEST
CAPITAL CITY
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| La Paz get more dangerous the higher you go. This is the district known as El Alto |
Arriving to the capital of La Paz is unlike anything I’ve
experience, as its the second highest city in the world. That’s right, the second highest on the
planet! So you can bet there are
some pretty incredible views surrounding four-mile high city from just about
every vantage point. With just
over two million residents, densely packed into an oval shaped canyon,
surrounded 360 degrees by an arena of skyscraping mountains. The city was originally an Incan commercial
town before being conquered and colonized by the Spanish in the mid sixteenth
century. Today, it is the capital
of one of the poorest countries in South America. But proudly boost an
indigenous head of state, which was a first for the continent.
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| La Paz, the highest city in the world at over 4100 meters with a full moon so large you can almost touch it |
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| a bustling city center |
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| with lots of markets that line the city blocks |
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| US school buses get sold and reused down the river |
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| always seem to be a reason to celebrate |
I arrived by bus near the city center. The city is a mix of colonial buildings
and a busy commercial district.
It’s home to an overwhelming indigenous majority population. Despite not have the cosmopolitan flair
of other capitals in South America, there are plenty of backpackers coming and
going along the Gringo Trail to meet up with. Most stay to close to the city center. The appeal of the city’s periphery is
strong, as cable cars usher commuters up to the shanty constructed neighborhood
that dominates the upper rims of the city. At 4,100 meters high, El Alto is the highest, poorest, and
most densely populated part of the city.
It is said the higher you do the more dangerous it becomes. So of course, I had to find an excuse
to check the “Alto” out (more on that later in this blog).
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| selfie from El Alto |
COUCHSURFING A
MINITURE GRAND CANYON
I decided to couchsurf the first few days to meet a local
and get a better idea about the Bolivian culture. I stayed with an artist, who rented an amazing place on a
cliff in a pretty good area on the outskirts of the city. It was too far from anywhere to walk
and explore, but I wasn’t complaining, as the backyard of her place was unlike
any yard I had ever seen in my life.
Imagine, waking up to a miniature Grand Canyon every day, staring back
at you like an enormous tidal wave of rust colored rock. Well, that’s an accurate description of
this woman’s backyard. It was
absolutely insane! Any natural wonder like this in the US would immediately be seized
and incorporated as a national park with millions of visitors. And these are the surprises that happen
when backpacking… to experience the ordinary turned extraordinary.
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| couchsurfer's backyard |
The man who built her multistory wood and concrete home with
his own hands is a descendant of German immigrants after World War II. His family made their fortune in the
lucrative mining industry that Bolivia is infamous for. In fact, he later built a church
perched on one of the cliffs of the mountains as a tribute to a dear friend who
was killed in an all too typical corrupt business deal.
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| El Gato del casa |
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| church built as a tribute to a friend killed |
MARKETS, WITCHES, AND
PACHAMAMA
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After a few days, I decided to get a hotel room in the city
center. I stayed on a quiet cobble
stone street with a few galleries, cafes, a senior citizen home next door, and
an Italian restaurant that I frequented often in the late night when returning
from my long days out. All of my
days were spent walking up and down steep crowded street from one market to the
next. Cities like La Paz don’t
really have the large indoor shopping centers I’m use to in the US or other
large South American cities. Each
market straddles a city block and specializes in one product or another. So there are streets for electronics, others
for furniture. The largest are
outdoor food markets. However, the
most interesting is the Brujas’ Marcado, or the Witches’ Market. As I said, La Paz, unapologetically
retains its indigenous culture.
Though, Bolivianos are mostly Catholic, in these parts they have
incorporated the beliefs, traditions, and customs with that of their own. One of the most common and
neck-breaking sights in the Witches Market are the llama fetuses for sale. The custom of burying a llama fetus
before constructing any structure is customary. Matter fact, almost any occasion demands a llama tribute to
Pachamama (Mother Earth). Effigies of all the things one want, love, wealth,
health, revenge, are placed on a table over a buried fetus. Prayed over and soaked in alcohol and
then set aflame. Rumor has it;
Pachamama has a thing for human sacrifice as well. Any Boliviano I spoke with about this custom will tell you
rumors of drunks disappearing for this very reason.
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| food stall market |
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| one of La Paz's many markets |
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| many of these women know nothing but selling little to nothing to make it by... life of poverty |
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| Brujas Market |
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| llama fetuses at the Witches' Market |
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| gifts to Pachamama (Mother Earth) |
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Here are some snapshots from my time visiting Mercado de Hechiceria (aka witches market). In a deeply Catholic nation, the indigenous beliefs of the Aymara people did not die. Black magic still plays an important part in the traditions of these people. First, Pacha Mama (Mother Earth) needs her tribute. Especially, when one wants something to happen: love, promotion, a new home, money, bountiful harvest, healthy child, etc. the most common ritual followed is getting you a llama fetus from the witches market which will be buried and some good alcohol or wine (Pacha Mama don't like cheap) poured liberally on the ground. These items are combined with a ritual table topped with incense and packages known as mesas or pagos to be burned to placate the various spirits and deities that hold sway in the people's daily lives. Now I know what I need to do instead of online dating. #worldkannotravelblog
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DENTAL TOURISM
Backpacking one of the poorest countries in the world provides
getting your teeth repaired on the cheap.
A couple years ago, I chipped a molar while eating some beef stew in
Ukraine. The most expensive $2 USD
meal I’ve ever had. At the time, I
had no insurance, so just let it be until I returned to my teaching job back in
Florida. Unfortunately, my
insurance didn’t make any significant dent in the $1200 USD price tag it was
going to cost to fix it. So I
decided to have that taken care of in La Paz. With the help of the lady who worked at the front desk at my
hotel, I went to an upscale dentist office in the city and paid $75 USD to have
it fixed. The best $75 dollars
I’ve spent on the whole trip. Three
months later and my tooth still works!
To be fair, the procedure is expensive for the average Boliviano who rakes
in a merely $3000 USD a year.
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| hard to tell, bu this was the best $75 USD I've ever spent |
CHOLITA WRESTLERS AND
PRISON TOURS
After a few days of exploring the market and getting my
tooth fixed, it was time to experience some prison wrestling. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do both at
the same time. But separately… no
problemo!
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| a young girl reacts to the arrival of Swamp Thing to the wrestling ring |
Two of the biggest draws in La Paz is the Cholita womens’
wrestling in the super high and bad neighborhood of El Alto. Inspired by America’s WWF and Mexico’s
Luche Libre, Cholita Wrestling is one of a kind because it features indigenous
women in their traditional Cholita outfits taking each other down in a stadium
ring before hundreds of ruckus fans.
It’s about as ghetto fabulous as you can get in these parts. Imagine, overly loud traditional
Boliviano music blaring out of a ratchet speaker, crowds of both locals and
tourists drinking cheap beer and even cheaper boiled hotdogs, as pairs of
wrestlers like Wolfman, Swamp Thing, and Rico Suave getting piled drived and
bitch slapped by Cholita women for about three hours. In the end, you can get on a stage and have your photo taken
with these awesome women of El Alto.
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| Cholita Wrestling |
No trip to La Paz is complete without a visit to see the greatness of the Wrestling Cholitas. Their costumes are still everyday attire by many of the Aymara women. Don't let the dresses fool you, these women are fierce.
SAN PEDRO PRISON
The other highlight that La Paz boosts is the infamous San
Pedro prison tour made famous by English drug trafficker, inmate, and writer
Thomas McFadden, who ran tours here during his incarceration during the early
2000’s. It was an up close and
personal tour that allowed backpackers entry in to one of the most corrupt and
bizarre prisons in the world. Prisoners
would escort visitors around the prison for a fee. You maybe asking yourself, “What kind of shit is this?” Well, when a country’s average GDP per
capita is $3000 USD a person, in a country that is the second largest producer
of coke, well then, you can make a prison sentence feel like a long holiday vacation.
First off, the prison guards only operate “outside” the
prison walls. So what goes on
inside the walls is under the jurisdiction of the prisoners themselves. In 2010, the prison tours stopped
because a twelve-year-old girl was raped and impregnated while visiting her
father. The only thing they took
away from the prisoners was the tours.
They still have full control of what goes in and out of the prison. Yes, wives, girlfriends, prostitutes,
children, drugs, flat screens, cable, wifi, food, alcohol, drugs, you name it… everything
can get in for a price. I stood
outside the prison entrance and actually witnessed a woman bringing in a king
sized mattress!
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| entrance to San Pedro Prison |
So, how does one get a prison tour today? You can only tour from outside the
prison with a few of the free city walking tours offered by various
organizations, like Red Cap… or you can go with a former inmate. The most popular way to tour is with Crazy
Dave from New York City, who got busted for trying to smuggle eight and a half
kilos of coke out of Bolivia for a $70,000 payoff. He was convicted and ended up doing fourteen years in San
Pedro. Despite all the time he has
spent in Bolivia, he still carries the Bronx accent, swag, sag, and dew rag. Inmates can still partake in
the production of various drugs.
It’s that blatantly corrupt here.
In addition to the drugs, women, cable and wifi parties that go on
behind these prison walls, there is also a barbershop, food stalls, gym, and a
laundry mat. Kingpins pay up to
$5000 USD a month for a penthouse suite with a Jacuzzi. The cellblocks are based on “rent” paid
by the prisoners sent there.
Prison real estate ain’t cheap!
And the prison is about to get the world’s attention, as Brad Pit has
bought the rights to the story of that English drug trafficking inmate who made
San Pedro famous in the first place.
Keep an eye out for the film “Marching Powder” coming to a theater near
you sooner or later.
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| Crazy Dave |
My time in La Paz had come to an end… the adventure
continues.
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| homeless neighborhood |
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| shoe shine teens |
It's strange how out of date "shoe shiners" have become in a country like the USA. They seemed plentiful just two generations ago. Known as Lustabotas in Bolivia, the job is highly stigmatized because one is touching the dirtiest part of another person's body and getting paid less than .50 cents per shine. But extreme poverty doesn't give two cents about the shame one carries. So it's common for teens and even men who shine shoes to wear ski masks to hide their identity. Sadly, many are abandoned with virtually no prospects for a better living, so turn to cheap highs. Most commonly, sniffing glue.#worldkannotravelblog
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| shoe shine kids watching bootleg movies during a break |
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| shoe shine tribute to the boys of La Paz |
Four more time for the traffic zebra of La Paz!!!! Seriously, not only are they useful for traffic control, but they just provide so much free entertainment and a reason to lighten up in a city that sees a lot of chaos. Big Ups to the Zebras of La Paz 😝 #worldkannotravelblog
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| SI! SI! |
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| The US political involvement here hardly without scrutiny |
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