La Paz - Day 3 Had Fat Calves, Gold Teeth and Dried Llama

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(Post by Mike - Sorry for delay in posting, was in a region of Bolivia with no internet and minimal electricity for the last 4 days - will catch up shortly!)

Today started with extreme celebration as we learned finally how the showers work in Bolivia! A surgeon's hand is required to carefully manipulate the water flow in order for the electric water heater to work its magic. After hearing Abba for what felt like the hundredth time during breakfast, we hustled over to San Pedro square for a free English walking tour of La Paz. We got to observe the outside of the San Pedro prison, where guards only patrol the perimeter and allow the inmates to run their own mini-cities with their families inside. Prisoners can run businesses inside to generate money to purchase nicer cells or amenities... Coca-Cola also reputedly has a distribution agreement to exclusively sell their soda inside the prison walls. Children live with their parents inside but are allowed to leave each weekday to attend school. Typically, someone arrested will spend about 8 years inside waiting for their trial... overall reminded me a bit of Midnight Express.



We then walked over to the massive street market in La Paz. The Aymara women (called cholitas), a traditional cultural group, all have different stalls in this football field-sized market, mostly selling the same stuff (potatoes, onions, fish). What was interesting is the Aymara themselves. These women dress in bright colors and many fabrics (emulating the dress of the Spaniards who colonized the region), and typically wear 8-10 layers of clothing to make themselves look as large as possible (traditional Bolivian men like larger ladies). The more gold teeth you have, the better off you are - and the most acceptable way of 'giving back' to their local community is by hosting massive parties where everyone gets drop-dead drunk.


We also got to see the Witches' Market in La Paz. Jess and I had walked past this street before but never stopped to examine the stalls. We were surprised to see that these stalls in this market were proudly selling dried llama fetuses! Supposedly, it is such a common belief that a llama fetus is needed to begin construction on a house (as part of a mystical Bolivian ritual) that construction workers won't start work on your home until they have seen a video of the ceremony being performed.

After finishing our fascinating tour of this amazing culture (highly recommended - with Red Cap Tours), we went with 4 of our walking tour buddies for a "traditional Bolivian meal". We walked into a food market and immediately cholitas were ordering us to sit down. Once we picked a suitable stall, we were fed a fried lake trout on rice, with potatoes and bread ( Bolivians prefer three types of carbs with their meals, Atkins beware). It was actually delicious.


This busy day continued with a visit to three of Bolivia's national museums in La Paz. In the 'Museum of Gold', we saw how the Tiwanaku people (an ancient culture) fished gold from the river that runs through La Paz, and melted it together to create extensive gold jewelry and clothing. In other museums, we learned about about Bolivia's declaration of independence, and saw some of the national artwork (which seemed to revolve around cyborg half-robot llamas, and fairies).

Feeling the effects of the winter, we stopped at a stall on the way back and bought two wool hats, a pair of gloves and warm socks for $10 Canadian (Bolivian prices remain ridiculously affordable). We then grabbed dinner at a Mexican place called La Cueva (food was average, 3/5) and tried to plan forward some of the coming weeks of our trip. Busy day!

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Photos

Our "traditional Bolivian meal"
Price = $2.00USD