La Paz: It's high!

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Arriving in La Paz

La Paz has always had an air of craziness about it as far as I was concerned. I’d heard about people dropping like flies due to altitude sickness, extreme temperature variations depending whether you are in the shade or not, a few years ago the Bolivian Soccer team crushed the mighty Argentina 6-1 in a world cup qualifier in this city, then there was the infamous San Pedro Prison on which I had read an amazing yet wacky story; add in Cholitas, The World’s Most Dangerous Road, a Witches Market, wild nightlife, road blockades, even a cheese factory and a whole load more random goings-on and you’ve got the makings of a crazy story. So here it is, and remaining true to the locale, in no particular order….

Getting in There!

We arrive in La Paz from Sucre by bus which was about a twelve hour ride. Coming this way you drive across El Alto, the Altiplano, with snowcapped mountains in the background. From here you can look down into the valley and see La Paz sprawling everywhere. As we stop at the station I see that it’s just after 7am and it looks nice and sunny outside so I’ll just leave my jumper in my bag – mistake! It’s Baltic! La Paz is 3,650m over sea level – 12,000 ft and the climate is slightly bizarre. In the shade the temperature is like Tampa during a cold winter – dry but coooold, although overhead there is a scorching tropical sun. This makes it hard to dress appropriately - in the sun you can wear a T-shirt and shorts, yet a metre away in the shade you can shiver in a fleece. Sarah and I agreed that La Paz is one of the most visually stunning cities we have seen. Just as we agree on this point, we notice that across the street a woman is punching a man in the face repeatedly as he tries to hold her off - Welcome to La Paz.

Nacho

Our friend Ignacio is from La Paz and living here again. I worked with Nacho and Sarah went to University with him in Tampa, so we were looking forward to catching up with our pal in his hometown. We initially arrived in La Paz on a flying visit, as we would be connecting to go to the jungle. So arriving in the morning we popped over to a hotel and dropped our stuff before arranging to meet Nacho for lunch. In the morning we accomplished booking our trip to the jungle – five days on the river, through La Selva into the jungle town of Rurrenabaque which we’ll write about soon.

We arranged to meet Nacho for lunch with his lovely girlfriend, Dakota. It was great to catch up after a few years and find out that our mate is now a restaurateur. Along with his friend, Rodrigo, they own a cool new restaurant in La Zona Sur called Destapa. (Tell ‘em Bref sent ya😉 Because they focus on evening tapas, dinner and drinks, we swung by a nearby lunch spot and then back to Destapa for a few drinks after and to watch a Manchester United game. It was also great to meet Nacho’s family – the Carranzas are a fun crew! They were so hospitable and kindly let us stay at their lovely house for the ten days or so that we were in La Paz. After settling in, Nacho brought us on a tour around his neighborhood and in the evening we watched some NBA basketball until midnight or so and then hit the town for a bit!

San Pedro Prison

I like a good book although my taste in a decent read can differ from the norm. One of my favorites is based on and from within the San Pedro Prison in La Paz. I’m not going to spoil the story for anyone who may read it, but basically the prison functions as a crazy mini-society: depending on their standing (and financial resources) the inmates may either live in a penthouse style hotel room with TVs, music systems, books, even their families! Others can get out on day releases, or arrange for company from lady-friends for a price. On the opposite end of the spectrum, poor prisoners may have to literally fight for their life on a regular basis. Internal shops are owned and run by prisoners, and going back to the cells; they have to be bought, too – some costing thousands of dollars. There are so many crazy things going on around this place that I could write a book about it…oh wait someone else already did. Check out ‘Marching Powder’ by Rusty Young. Author, Rusty, first entered the jail as a guest to a prisoner called Thomas McFadden and for years some prisoners provided ‘tours’ to whoever could pay the appropriate people for it which was mainly tourists passing through who’d heard about the place. Unfortunately, in the last 6-9 months the ‘tours’ have ceased due to increased pressure coming down on the prison and the guards. But we gave it a go anyway! Cutting a long story short, we managed to speak with an inmate at the gates who tried to pass his phone number but was intercepted and then we spoke to a couple of inmates in the plush section via telephone. Our friend Martin also got inside the waiting area by delivering a bag of food that we bought and he spoke to an inmate and the head warden in person. But tours have been stopped indefinitely at this time of writing.

Cholitas

Looking for something wacky to do on a Sunday evening? Always! Try heading up to El Alto in La Paz to catch the Cholita Wrestling. We made a bit of a day out of it, by heading for lunch with our friends, grabbing a few brewskies and then making it to the event. Check out our specific post for a bit more and some fun photos and video.

Sarah also fancied herself a Cholita, as you can see! The girls who worked in the house - the lovely Yolah and her daughter Maribel done Sarah up proper one night. I am sure that the howls of laughter could be heard for miles.

The World’s Most Dangerous Road

Does exactly what it says on the tin. The affectionately named WMDR or ‘Death Road’is a treacherous long stretch of road leading from outside La Paz to Coroica. We’ve posted a separate section on this too, so check it out.

Witches Market

Yes indeed; for all your witchery needs you need go nowhere else but here. The streets of this part of La Paz are lined with funky little shops where you can buy from a range of alternative shopping items including a plethora of natural herbs, vitamins, super-fruits, sexual enhancers, all kinds of good charms- even Llama fetuses or stuffed frogs! Cash only please.

Getting Around

Sarah and I acclimatized quite well in La Paz. We had already been at high elevation for quite a while. Many tourists fly from sea level, or close to it, right up to La Paz and suffer from the altitude, but we didn't have that problem, thankfully. We walked the streets quite a bit, but if heading longer distance we would use local transport, where there are loads of options. You can take either a taxi, collectivo, minibus, big bus, or bigger bus! The difference being a taxi brings you wherever you want for highest cost (still peanuts), then the cost goes down and the proximity of ending closer to your destination decreases slightly with the other modes. But there's nothing like cramming in a collectivo with the locals to get a feel for the place and a chance to practice some Spanish!

Cheap

One of the best things about La Paz, and Bolivia in general was that is was much easier on the pocket. On a spectrum of $ - $$$$$, you could say that where Brazil was a solid $$$$$, Argentina $$$, Chile $$$$, then Bolivia comes in at $. To put it in perspective, McDonalds doesn’t work here because why would one spend $3 on a Micky D’s combo meal when you can eat better street food for half the price? Ah yes; beers for a buck, good food for a couple of quid, cheap clothes, bargain buses, etc, etc. Me gustas tu, Bolivia!

Food

Another great thing about La Paz and Bolivia in general was the food, surprisingly. Really good food for really low prices. We loved the saltenas (kind of a sweet and spicy breakfast empanada), menus del dia (cheap local menus, simple food), the soups were tops, and especially the fruits – we tried so many new fruits including chirimoya, tuna (yes a fruit!), tumbo, granadilla, pacay, maracuya, and a few more that I can’t remember.

Golf

Of course La Paz also the highest golf course in the world. So Sarah and I took to the fairways and for the first time in my life I could hit ‘em over 200 yards…..felt like Tiger Woods for a minute - minus the women problems. Check out our separate post for more.

Cheese Factory and Moon Valley

On one of the days that Nacho and Rodrigo showed us around, we went for a drive up through some of the hills in the area. The lads live in the Zona Sur, so close to their neighborhood you have the Valle de Luna, or Moon valley, that we got to check out. True to its name, you could imagine that you were looking at segments of the moon or another planet as the landscape is all pillars of jagged rock. A bit further on we continued to a rural area outside town with a lake, pigs, sheep and even a cheese factory – stark contrast from the craziness of La Paz. Nacho and Rod buy their cheese from ‘Flor de Leche’ so we were even able to have a guided tour of the boutique cheese factory and finished up by sampling the end result with some tasty beer, too!

Nightlife

You have no shortage of options for places to go out in La Paz. The ‘Gringo Trail’ beats a well defined path towards La Paz and with it there are loads of restaurants, bars and clubs to check out. In the Zona Sur you can head to many places that have a western feel and even a mall that could be plucked right out of the US, complete with bowling alley and cinema. There’s every conceivable type of restaurant, karaoke bars are popular, and there’s also many cool music lounges and different theme bars. It gets a bit more gritty but lots of fun in the centro, with more local spots, and different bars and clubs including Blue House, the Wild Rover Bar is fun, Mongo’s, Diesel, Route 36 and many, many more. Don’t expect to be tucked up in bed before sunrise!

On one night out with our German friends I was grabbing a drink from the bar at Blue House when I noticed a girl who was a ringer for one of my college friends from Limerick. On closer inspection, it was indeed Emma Keating! It was so funny to run into her after five years or so. We caught up that night and Sarah and I actually visited Emma a few weeks later when she was in Arequipa, Peru.

Performing Arts

As you all know, I enjoy nothing better than keeping up with the performing arts. So one of the first things I did was check out when the symphony orchestra was performing in La Paz. Okay so that’s not entirely true, or even very true at all, but Sarah and I did enjoy going to the orchestra with Nacho and Dakota.

Getting Ready to Leave La Paz…and Bolivia

Not as easy as it sounds. There were series of blockades between Bolivia and Peru that had hampered many travelers’ plans and Sarah and I were about to have to go that way ourselves. We were meeting friends from Tampa in Cusco, Peru on Saturday to embark on our group trip to Machu Picchu so we needed to be there. The three roads leading to Peru from Bolivia were blocked because of a dispute in the Peruvian border town of Puno (read more in our Fleeing Across Lake Titicaca blog) and we weren't exactly sure how things were going to work out. So it was Wednesday night when we said goodbye to our friends and to Bolivia. Nacho’s restaurant, ‘Destapa’, was launching its new menu and we were invited to the soiree. We had good laughs, food and drinks with a great group of people before getting an early bus the next morning and seeing what was in store for us next...

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Photos

Destapa
Nacho's cool new restaurant

Llama Feutus
Yes, you read it right.

Hello there!
I hadn't seen Emma since college, but we randomly bumped into each other on a night out..