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If you’re in La Paz and looking for something wacky to do on a Sunday evening, you could try heading up to nearby ‘El Alto’ to catch the Cholita Wrestling.
El Alto is a high suburb of La Paz about 25 minutes by bus from the city center. The bus journey is spectacular as you can take in some amazing views of the city. When your bus arrives and you get where you are going you’ll be slap, bang in the middle of mayhem - the wrestling event is located in a local community sports centre, outside of which is a fun carnival atmosphere with a band, street stalls, food, drinks and the hustle and bustle of family and friends enjoying a Sunday afternoon. We made a bit of a day out of it, by heading for lunch with our friends earlier in the day in the Zona Sur, grabbing a few brewskies and then making it to the event. As the Cholita Wrestling had already started when we got there, we just bolted inside after presenting our tickets.
One of the first things you’ll probably notice in Bolivia are the Cholitas. Like the general population of El Alto,
which consists almost entirely of Aymara and Quechua residents, the Cholitas are indigenous. As you can see in the photos they have quite a distinctive look; they wear braided hair, bowler hats and multilayered skirts in everyday life and in the ring too!
When we got inside the venue, it was going off! There was a bout underway between a luchador and a cholita, accompanied by a frenzied crowd who were screaming and throwing popcorn and drinks at the nastier contender. We eventually managed to get a ringside seat, and one of our friends even got us luchador masks -thanks again Javier!
The fighting itself was insane; imagine WWF with Cholitas, complete with body slams, flips, props punching, slapping and even fighting over the barriers into the crowd. All the wrestlers were dressed up in costume, and most of the fights included male lucha libres - the Cholas fought towards the end of the evening when the crowd was at its most frantic. The crowd itself was about 50% tourist and, surprisingly for us the other half were locals – many of them Cholitas themselves! People were screaming at the wrestlers, throwing popcorn, rotten fruit, crisps, and bottles of
soft drink! On a few occasions the wrestlers threw stuff back at the crowd, spat soda at them and eventually one luchador was thrown over a barrier into the crowd! Incredible!
Cholita Wrestling is definitely worth checking out for a few laughs….but if do don’t happen to be in the vicinity of La Paz then you can also check out our photos and video. There’s even a video clip of someone you might recognize trying the Cholita look for herself!
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I'm sure you had the best time of your lives,the cholitas wrestling and the Horse back riding were AWESOME if you are reading this and you are going t o La Paz probably you'll like to have the "bolivian experience with locals", there's a page in Facebook that is useful and the owner is a local that speaks English Spanish French and Italian and will take you through paths that lonely planet or other guides wont, It's called "Tours and something else" Hope this is useful for travelers. https://www.facebook.com/ToursAndSomethingElse