La Paz
Arrived in La Paz at 7:00am and again took a taxi a whole unnecessary 300 yeards to the hostel. Joy of joys, there was a pancake breakfast!! afterfeasting we cought up on a few hour kip and then headed out to explore.
La Paz is a crazy city, from driving along a relatively flat landscape you plunge down into the huge crator that the city is built in, and its busy and noisy and crazy all the way down. Organised and pushed for time as we were we diligently hit the museums on our first afternoon, the coca museum which was suprisingly informative and well done – I will never drink coka cola in the same way again now. NB this also reminds me we went to a really good weaving mueum in Sucre which I would recommend, but make sure you have a few hours as it is definately thorough!
Anyway, back to La Paz. After the museum we took the Lonely Planet’s suprisingly good city walking tour around the witches market with llama foetuses, the black market with every king of cheap goods you could ever want, through some tourist streets and cobbles alleys, some churches and squares, followed by a cultural meal in the Hard Rock Cafe Bolivia. Despite the noise the bustle and the dirt I really like La Paz, my favourite city so far, in all of SA.
Feelinh cultural that night we went to the theater, for a phole pound in the circle seats, and went to watch a local folk dancing production – I can hear you mocking! it was hilarious, truly the most amateur production I have ever seen and this was the national theater, that they need is a bit of GUernsey Youth Theater discipline. The other great thing was the seats which turned out to be wooden benches. Needles to say it was a very long three hours but good fun, and thankfully sitting in the circle spared us the audience participation at the end when one old woman publically fell and exposed her knickers!! We also got chatting to some locals sharing our benches so at tyhe very least we practiced our spanish. We were forced to leave the theater that night by employing a crouch and dash manouver as some national celebration meant that it was OK for kids to through fireworks at passersby, we kept a low profile the rest of the evening!
The following day extending our cultural experience we took a city tour on a truly gringo red open top bus. The tour was really good, three and a half hours with loads of information, definately recomended. They informed us all about Bolivias social reforms, how the age of retirement had dropped to 65 and that this also entitled the elderley to free healthcare. They also addred that the average life expectancy is 61.
But the cultural enrichment had yet to be completed, that night we went, together with a tour bus of white faced gringos, to a Cholita wrestling match. A “Cholita” is the traditional name for a traditional bolivian women, google for some pictures, big skirts, pigtails, funny hats. Sunday night, and we watched them wrestling, in a ring coverred in fruit and water and bottles, bones and dead fish, anything the crowd could throw. And the gringos, in the front row, line of fire. I honestly can’t describe how bizare this event was, I will post photos soon though. It was three hours of meyhem, which deteriated into utter chaos whent he ring colapsed, kids and crown swarmed the stage, chairs were thrown and someone sat on a water mellon. nuff said.
Tags: Bolivia, La Paz, Travel
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