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Published: September 16th 2012
La Paz - Wrestling
I have already flossedStraight out the door today to get the first available bus to La Paz, we were lucky to get an 8.30am bus. The only downside was it was packed with people and their belongings, the local women always carry their large packs onto the buses and then struggle to get themselves the kids who have not paid for a seat and hubby into the two seats. Unfortunately today they all boarded together blocking the isle and squeezing and shoving till it all got too much for me and I had to force my way off the bus, my face must have looked scary because one of the older women moved everyone so I could pass. I waited outside with Scott minding the seats till they all settled and the bus was about to move and I calmly walked back on, well still a little shaky, it seems to hit me worse some days. The bus was packed and kids were sitting in the aisles so they could see the great movies, two Mexican comedies from the late 1960’s which were slapstick to the extreme. We once again had to hop off the bus and get
a boat across the narrow straits before reboarding the bus and slowly headed towards La Paz, but as we wound around the road there was a large bang and everyone jumped. Thankfully it was only a blown tyre everyone started to stand to get off but the bus driver instructed us to remain seated and went out to change the tyre. This would seem like a good thing a new tyre, but in fact it was bald and had a lump in it so the rest of the trip the bus had a bad vibration and noise which was very annoying as I could not hear the movie I know I cannot understand Spanish but still you know I was really getting into it. I wonder if I can get these movies on DVD?
We arrived in La Paz about 12.15pm and got a taxi straight to the El Dorado Hotel they sure throw this name around and I am yet to see a gold lining. The hotel is very out dated and wouldn’t look out of place in “Mad Men” except it is original and faded. We dropped our bags in the room and I went
La Paz - Wrestling
One of the Cholitas to reception to ask about tours to see the Lucha Libre the famous wrestling matches in La Paz which include the Cholitas the female wrestlers wearing traditional clothes and bowler hats. The lady at reception rang Coca Travels and confirmed there were seats available, so we grabbed our stuff and walked up to the agency. After finally organising the tickets we had a few hours to kill so we walked around the Witches’ Markets and don’t worry we have not put any curses on anyone.
At 4.00pm we met back at the agency and onto the bus which had two ladies dressed traditionally and we suspected may have been Cholitas. On the way to the stadium we stopped at a great spot for photos looking over the city, only problem it was raining, damn Scott who has been saying “When was the last time we saw rain?”. We arrived at the stadium and were a little disappointed we had expected the place to be full but only one side had grandstand seating but we were in the VIP section on plastic chairs at the front. They must have been waiting for us to arrive as it did not start
La Paz - Wrestling
Lucky I have all these petticoats till we were all seated. The first wrestlers were newbies and although they tried it did not come off that well, but you have to start somewhere. The show reeved up as it went on and the first of the Cholitas came out and her opponent was a man as we soon found out these women gave as good as they got. The show had the same theatrics as a WWE show with the goodies and baddies and all the staged grudges between them. One of the women on our bus came out and encouraged all of us gringos to cheer her on against her opponent, but we soon discovered that nice lady smiling at us on the bus was evil and a cheat. The whole crowd was soon booing her as she chased her opponent into the crowd and smashed her against the concrete columns. The whole night was fun with the matches often being taken into the crowds and the locals running from them and the spare chairs near us being knocked over and thrown. A mental note always smile and be pleasant to the local women as you don’t know if one could be a Cholita. On
La Paz - Wrestling
You wait till later the way home we again stopped for photos over the city but now the rain had stopped and the city was lit up and pretty. We stopped at a café near our hotel and I was served the biggest salad I have seen.
Day 335 Monday 10th September Yesterday was a very big day for us so it was nice to sleep in till 8. On our arrival at this hotel we were given a choice of a room at the front of the hotel or the rear, and as the hotel was on a busy road we opted for the rear. In the morning we were woken by the construction/demolition site at the rear of the hotel, which once again there is no escaping the noise of South America. It was interesting watching a team of 5 guys tearing down a 4 storey building with hammers, chisels and picks with no fall protection what so ever.
When we went down to get breakfast we were greeted by a near empty buffet and staff that were too busy talking to each other and chasing patrons for their signature rather than filling empty trays. Ended up
La Paz - Wrestling
Down for the count only having a bowl of fruit and half a stale croissant with some cold coffee as others demanded eggs with little success.
First day in La Paz and our first priority was to get some laundry done and as we hadn’t got any done for a while we had a huge bag. Discovered a laundry around the block from us and when we put it in we were told it wouldn’t be ready till Wednesday. I knew our clothes were dirty but two days to clean them, that’s just plain embarrassing. After dropping the clothes off we went off to look into getting a Visa for Paraguay. Paraguay hadn’t been on our original plans, but back in January we had thought of crossing over from Argentina but time was against us so we put it on the back burner. Now we thought rather than pushing East through Bolivia to Brazil we will scoop down through Paraguay to Brazil, and although this may mean a few extra long bus journeys we are hoping experiencing Paraguay will be worth it. Before getting to Paraguay we need to get a Visa and so we walked the 1 kilometre south of our hotel
La Paz - Wrestling
And we thought you were a nice lady to the Paraguayan consulate. Found the building with the huge coat of arms and flag out the front and was directed around the back to a small shopping centre where on the third floor we found a tiny office. A policeman in the office was able to show us what we needed to get a visa which was 2 photocopies of our passport, our Bolivian entrance card and our credit cards. We were able to get those from a place across the road and then had to fill out a form in duplicate (of course), give a thumb print along with 2 passport photos and then the final piece of the puzzle was to pay. Couldn’t just hand the US$130 to them we had to go to deposit it at a bank. The policeman was a really friendly helpful guy till it came to him directing us to the bank where we got a sort of vague wave of the hand, but luckily for us we are getting used to vague directions and we found the bank without too much hassle. We deposited the money in the bank and got back to the consulate by 11.30 with our slip of
La Paz - Wrestling
Taking this one to market paper and handed over our original passports where our friendly policeman gave us the thumbs up but that we wouldn’t get our Visas till 3.
To fill in the time we went for lunch and then had a walk around the nearby shops. This is sort of the “richer” end of town but there wasn’t too many flash shops and most were closed for lunch, but Shelley did manage to pick up another top to replace the many that have been destroyed over the last 10 months. The last hour of our wait was sitting in a lovely park people watching, the weather here is warm and you only need light long sleeve shirts or if you are Scott a T-shirt. At 3 we returned to get our passports complete with our new Paraguayan Visa, yahhoooo. Walked back up the steep hill to our hotel where we took a breather before heading out for dinner at 7.30. It was amazing how busy the streets were at this time of night and it seemed as if there were double the number of people out now than at lunchtime. Most of the food joints near out hotel are fast food places
offering fried chickens and burgers and so we ended up back at where we had dinner last night. Whilst eating our restaurant window gave us a good view of the madness on the streets and how bad the public transport options are in La Paz, which doesn’t have a Government train or bus system but relies on thousands of privately run minivans. The streets seem clogged with minivans that are packed to the roof with passengers and seem to pick up and drop people off anywhere, causing even further traffic chaos.
Day 336 Tuesday 11th September Today for breakfast we were greeted once again by the kitchen staff from hell. You know the sort of people that were never suited for the hospitality trade due to their complete lack of hospitality and then somehow they seem to keep their jobs for way too long and become bitter and nasty about their jobs….well that sort of profiles the breakfast staff at the El Dorado Hotel. Once again most of the trays at the buffet were empty and when we enquired about eggs we got the dirtiest looks and they then proceeded to serve eggs to everyone but
us. It is such a shame as all the other staff in this hotel are so lovely and helpful, but the breakfast staff are a bunch of lazy witches.
Having started the day with a good dose of agro we had to then had to sort out our other Passport problem. Being Australian, on entering Bolivia we are only entitled to 30 days in the country but we can apply for more days free of charge. We reckon we will be in the country for probably 36 days so we needed to get an extension so we headed up town to find the migraccion office. It was fairly easy to find and inside was a confused jumble of counters and packed with people holding paperwork. The staff were really helpful and we once again had to photocopy our passport and Bolivian entry card at a shop across the road before we could get an extra small stamp in our passports. Had expected that we would need to fill out reams of paperwork and spend all day sitting in the office but in the end it took less than 30 minutes all up to get it sorted.
From here
La Paz - Wrestling
Don't back answer or you will get the same we wandered further up town to check out the La Paz Cathedral, which is a huge although rather plain looking building. The Cathedral sits in front of the Murilla Plaza that is named after a former President that was lynched by a mob in the plaza back in the 1810. Funny/unfunny enough in 1949 President Gualberto Villarroel met the same fate in the same park, which may be a good way to keep politicians honest, and maybe could be applied to CEO’s and mining billionaires….just a thought. The other buildings around the plaza were all beautiful old colonial era style government buildings, with guards stationed at the doors. The streets around the plaza were closed to traffic and there were lots of riot police around but we were unsure if this was usual or something special was going on today.
After our bit of sightseeing we went for a long, long walk around the market area looking at what was on offer. Had to stop at 1 for lunch after we were getting a bit fatigued and a little tired of seeing the same, same. After a feed we felt a bit better and managed to pick up quite
La Paz - Wrestling
The kids will have nightmares tonight a bit, so sorry Mum another box maybe heading your way soon. Checked into getting a tour out to the nearby historic site of Tiwanaku, which is one of Bolivia’s major tourist attractions but discovered that miners have blockaded the road leading to the site and so no one can get through. Had heard this is a regular occurrence in Bolivia so we were not surprised that we eventually fell foul of one, but we may get to see the site on Thursday but will need to check tomorrow.
Late in the afternoon we stopped for a beer at a bar before heading back to the hotel carrying all our great purchases. For dinner we got a feed at a nearby Alexander Café these are a chain and do a good doble cortado (a strong coffee) and decent food plus the staff are really nice.
Day 337 Wednesday 12th September Another capital city, another hair do. Today we thought we would see if Shelley could get her hair done and as we had passed a few places down south we headed in that direction first. Because we had major issues with the kitchen staff at
La Paz - Wrestling
Oh God the foot odour our hotel we opted to avoid the place and get breakfast at another Alexander café, which was a far better option. After a great coffee we went in search of a hairdresser and discovered one only a couple of blocks away. Milton Spa and Hairdressers was a great choice especially as Shelley had Milton himself doing the job and as an extra bonus he could speak English. While Shelley had her hair done I picked up our laundry and dropped it at the room and then eventually came back to the hairdressers and waited. Milton did a great job and was far better than the crap job done on Shelley’s head at Lima.
On the walk back to our hotel we passed a driveway where a guy was cooking a huge pile of meat on a barbeque. We stopped to take in the great smells and discovered it was in fact a restaurant and the guy invited us in so how could we resist. The restaurant was in fact just the front room of the family home with the kitchen being the BBQ in the drive but we got an amazing feed of meat with salad and soup for
less than $10 for both of us.
After our feed we wandered up the road to Coca travels where we booked our tour to Tiwanaku tomorrow. Apparently the road out to the site is cleared but the rest of the town is in lock down by the striking miners. From what we have read on the BBC website, the Government has nationalised a nickel mine that was owned by a Swiss company and now the miners want them to hand it over to them. To complicate issues two competing Co-operatives are demanding the mine and to press their claim they have blocked most roads leading in and out of La Paz. Blockades are the standard method of getting attention in Bolivia and we just knew we would hit them at some point. We wanted to get a bus out of town on Friday but because of the blockade no one wanted to sell us a ticket but we did eventually get tickets, and providing the blockade is lifted we will be on our way on Friday.
We spent the afternoon shopping once again before getting a feed and heading back to the hotel.
Day 338 La Paz - Wrestling
Shelley hanging with the Cholitas Thursday 13
th September
We faced our cheery kitchen staff today and got the same reaction, today I noted that none of the foreign tourists were offered eggs. At least the fruit salad is nice just avoid the stale croissants. We were picked up at the hotel at 8.45am for our tour and slowly made our way out of the city back in the direction of Lake Titicaca on the southern side to the ancient city of Tiwanaku. The civilisation of the Tiwanaku rose around 600BC till about 1200AD when they disappeared possibly due to drought, and their self named city is believed to be their religious capital. There is evident and similarities we saw that maybe they dispersed and influenced the Incas but little is known of them. The site is interesting but again much has been destroyed and tampered with, even the famous Sun Gate is now considered to be in the wrong position so it has been moved some time in history. The large bulk of this city now lies under agricultural fields and only the large temples and the remains of a pyramid remain. The museum is very interesting in itself and not for the reasons
La Paz - Wrestling
Scott being very polite to the Ladies it should be, it was built only 10 years ago and now just crumbling rapidly in decay. The ceiling is falling in and all the exhibit rooms are closed but one, and this is the one that contains the huge statue found on the site. I think this room is not closed as it would be too much effort to remove this relic and of course you can’t take pictures so you will have to imagine the size. We only spent about 2 hours here before we were taken to a nearby restaurant for lunch a few of us declined and wandered around for the hour. After lunch we went to the site of Puma Punka which is an extension of this morning’s site. All over these areas there are further excavations revealing more of the Tiwanaku civilisation. It was now back to La Paz and we were dropped off near the travel agency we brought our bus tickets about 4.00pm. We were told the roads are now opened so we will be leaving tomorrow.
For dinner tonight we were not sure to go back to Alexander Café or the one we went to the first two nights, but
La Paz
La Paz loomed over by Nevado Illimani the decision was made for us. The first restaurant was all boarded up with signs on it we think that the bank may have foreclosed but not sure.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
The wrestling looks interesting
While in Thailand we went to Thai boxing and it was an education and fun. Looks like the same it true for this.