Welcome to the Jungle - La Paz

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The bus ride to La Paz was very relaxing. Having only caught night buses for quite some time, it was lovely to be able to listen to music and watch the landscape of dry mountains, giant lakes and alpacas spin by. And then suddenly we realised we were in El Alto, the poor upper region of La Paz, when we saw a giant sprawling city of chaos and filth spread before us. It was crowded and frenetic, filled with rubbish, cars and Cholitas (women who wear traditional dress) in fantastic tiny bowler hats that they inexplicably were able to keep on their heads.
One favourite sighting was of a public mini bus absolutely jammed full of locals, including a bride complete with white frothing wedding gown! And then soon we could see down into the bowl of the mountains where the main part of La Paz sits. Its just an endless sprawl of buildings ringed by giant, dry, snow covered mountains. Listening to Van Morrison as our bus descended into the city I couldn't help but smile, I had a feeling I was going to like this city.

That night I checked into the infamous Loki hostel (talked continually about by Emma and Arpen who worked there). However we went to meet our Copacabana friends in round-the-corner rival hostel Wild Rover (also talked continually about by Holly who worked there). A few quiet drinks soon turned into a raucous good time, and I ended up losing my friends after being adopted by a group of Australians. We played numerous games of pathetic pool and danced along to songs that were from home! We spun out into the cold night to try and find the infamous bar, Route 36, but got taken on a long pointless ride by taxi drivers and were far from where we wanted to be. Eventually we met a local who started work there at 2am and would take us there, but in the meantime wanted to take us to a reggae bar down the road. It was small and smoky but there was a brilliant two piece live band playing all the Bob Marley classics that we boogied away to happily. Eventually we were led to the strange little secret den of Route 36, where all kinds of strange and not totally legal things occur. We danced more and more to lots of golden oldies, like Elvis and The Beatles and had long, involved, hilarious chats. Eventually we caught a taxi home and crawled into bed when the sun was well and truly up. Oh dear.

The next day I somehow managed to find myself taking an unprecendented trip to the famous San Pedro prison. It's a high security prison right in the middle of La Paz, made famous by the book Marching Powder. You have to loiter outside until a woman comes out to get you, then pay at 400 Boliviano bribe to the guards and you are inside. It was the most surreal experience of my life. The prison is unlike anything I have ever seen. Firstly, your guide is an inmate (ours was an armed robber) who shows you around their everyday life. The prisoners aren't locked in their cells and just wander around everywhere. It is a mens prison, so when alot of the prisoners get locked up, their families have no income and nowhere to go. So they move in to San Pedro. The women set up empanada and DVD shops inside to make some extra money and little kids are running around everywhere. Chatting to one little child just stunned me, when I realised that this was his home. The prisoners also have to purchase or rent their cells, so some whole families are living in a cell the size of a double bed, and some single prisoners are living in giant cells with kitchens and cable tv. Our guide showed us the infamous swimming pool from the book and the rapist kitchen. It was only once we were in the kitchen that he revealed that all the rapists are kept locked in there, both for the childrens safety and for their own protection from the other prisoners (everyone despises them and often try and beat them up). He even showed us a rubber tube whip that was kept in the corner to keep them in line. After learning this we then had to walk out past this group of men and try not to look scared when they said "Ciao!". At the end they take you into the "room where you can do what you want" which is where they try and sell you cocaine. We left the prison stunned, exhilirated and totally incredulous!

The next couple of days were a blur of lovely long meals, shopping and partying. One day I visited the Coca Museam which gives a history of the ever important coca leaf (used both legally and illegally in Bolivia). Then I spent many hours wandering around the Witches Market, buying lots of cool trinkets and souvenirs and trying not to look too closely at the dried llama foetuses. I also spent a number of minutes chuckling incredulously at the people dressed up in full body zebra costumes to help you cross the "zebra crossings" on the busiest roads. Hilarious.

There were a number of very fun nights out with a group of lovely Australian guys I met and various other people from Loki hostel. People go extremely hard at this hostel and I could no way keep up the pace, but did take advantage of the free jelly shots being thrown off the bar and one more trip to Route 36 (where I saw a guy set his afro on fire while bending over near a candle.) Eventually I was too tired to keep it up and booked a flight out to Rurrenabaque to go to the real jungle. Almost every experience in La Paz had been extreme and surreal and amazing, a little like a jungle in itself. I would be returning in about a week and was half looking forward and half dreading it. But for now, a little break in the Amazon.

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