New Heights
Anushka here!
Standing tall at 3,640 meters (11,940 ft) lies the unofficial yet kind of official capital of Bolivia - La Paz. Our time in La Paz was split between enjoying the city’s splendors with our new crew of friends from our recent journey through Bolivia’s Altiplano and sitting in quiet comfort in our randomly modern hostel, Selina La Paz.
Winding our way through La Paz. We were out of breath within minutes!
Bolivia has a tumultuous history accompanied by a rocky current day. The country lost its access to the ocean to Chile in 1884 after losing The War of The Pacific and has now found itself landlocked and paying taxes for its trade through Chilean ports, resulting in a lackluster economy (among other things - corruption, political vanity, etc). It is also one of the few South American countries that have a large and proud indigenous population. This makes it one of the only places on the trip, so far, with a very unique non-western culture.
Today, La Paz houses a notorious “democratic” jail and is the part-time home of an extremely...err...misinformed president. But the city is also known for its intriguing Cholitas, fascinating markets, and the coolest public transportation of all the major cities we’ve visited to date in South America.
A walk through Mercado de las Brujas, or Witches Market, can be a little jarring. It’s common to find potions, medicinal herbs, and even llama fetuses (that died from natural death, not killed) being sold. Some of these items are used as part of Bolivian rituals for offerings to Pachamama, the Earth goddess.
One of the highlights of our time in La Paz was the walking tour with Red Cap. Our band of new friends took the tour through center city and found ourselves in front of a nondescript pale pink building. Little did we know this was the San Pedro Prison. Infamous for being prisoner run, this jail literally has no guards inside and is instead run by a hierarchy of inmates. The prisoners are allowed to live in the jail with their families, and their wives and children are able to come in and out as they please. The prison runs like a small village (the poor suffer much more than the rich) and it apparently houses its own cocaine factory. We were warned a couple times that if we see diapers on the surrounding sidewalks, we should not pick them up. Apparently, the diapers serve as vehicles to “sneak” cocaine out of the jail and to the masses. At one point, our tour guides claimed, the inmates running the prison worked well. Today it’s not an ideal situation but unfortunately a poorly run jail, and diapers of cocaine, is one of the smaller issues Bolivia has to deal with.
Walking tour through the streets of La Paz. Don’t worry, we didn’t pick up any diapers.
Our tour guides also walked us through several markets. The majority of stalls in these places were run by indigenous women (also known as Cholitas) wearing traditional clothing - a small top hat, puffed skirt, and long braids. We learned that hips on a woman and long hair were signs of beauty and fertility, and traditional wear was meant to highlight these attributes. As for the top hat, it seems British hat makers came to Bolivia to sell the hats to men but found that they didn’t fit their heads so they told (well, lied to) Bolivian women that small hats were fashionable in Europe and sold the too-small hats to the women instead. Yes, it appears the Bolivian women were originally conned into wearing the hats but the Cholitas got the last laugh because the look stuck, and today they adorn small top hats proudly.
Cholitas aka Bolivia’s badass women
Another unique Cholita tradition is wrestling. Yes wrestling. No need to rewind, you read that right. They wrestle. Like braid-pulling, skirt-slapping, full contact wrestling and our brave group of comrades had the chance to see it in action. The event we went to was a major tourist trap and apart from feeling super awkward at the overall display, it was pretty entertaining and slightly uncomfortable watching these young (and sometimes not so young) ladies flip each other upside down. It seems Cholita wrestling really is a popular local activity. We, however, did not experience that version.
Did I mention how badass these Bolivian women were?
So what do you do if you have paid for a tourist trap to watch women fight each other...? Drink! A must-do in La Paz is go out. If you are passing through like us, you don’t drink in any old bar or club. You drink at a party hostel. Gotta get the full backpacker experience in at least once, right? You know the kind where no one sleeps and the pool table is growing some kind of disease. Luckily, one member (that’s you Anoop) of our crew braved staying in one and we are so happy he did. Our group spent the night drinking too much beer, pretending we were in college again, and making the most of ladies night.
Aside from the nightlife and quirky prison, the one thing that can’t be missed in La Paz is Mi Teleférico, the city’s public transportation and aerial cable car system. Soaring overhead, the Teleférico masterfully connects the peaks of Alto to the valley of La Paz. It is clean, easy, affordable and can be seen from almost anywhere in the city. While Bolivia has a lot of hurdles - historically and in present day - getting the Teleférico running has really taken the city and its people to new heights.
Soaring over La Paz in Mi Teleférico
La Paz was a nice reminder of other cultures, the reality of politics, and the fun of being with both old and new friends. Because of that, we will always remember the city fondly.
Now, off to Lake Titicaca and Peru!
