La Paz, Bolivia

This journey to La Paz was far less stressfull than our previous attempt. After a 40 minute flight, we jumped in a taxi that gave us incredible panoramic views of the city, before taking us through the choatic center...

This was the city we felt most apprehensive about visiting in South America thanks to guide book warnings and stories from other travellers. However we were pleasently surprised by our plush hostel and went straight out to hit the shops selling "genuine fakes" and to find some food. We went to a recommended British curry house, but it turned out to be an insult to the word curry. We've had more flavoursome cardboard than the Bolivian attempt at Indian cuisine!

Whilst in La Paz we had planned to cycle ´The World's Most Dangerous Road', but our plans were scuppered when the companies offerering this tour refused to take us due to a local festival that meant the road's traffic would treble and would likely be full of drink drivers. Even by Bolivian standards 'The World's Most Dangerous Road' had become too dangerous!

As an alternative, we signed up to see the local Cholita Wrestling league that evening. We didn't know what to expect other than the cartoon images of Bolivian women strangling each other! The arena was no more than a rundown sports hall filled with plastic garden chairs and a wrestling ring. Over the next two hours we saw a variety of opponents take each other on; including, gimp v cat, clown v overweight woman, cheeky camp man v overweight woman and the tag-team finale, two overweight women v men in gold spandex! The crowd went crazy for it, as locals and tourists threw bottles, food and chairs at the wrestlers! This was an evening like no other and one that we won't forget in a hurry!

      

The next day we visited the infamous San Pedro Prison. On our travels we had both read ´Marching Powder´, a book about a British drug traffiker who is thrown into Bolivian prison and describes how crazy the prison system is. It didn't look too daunting from the outside, but there was a huge queue of women and children waiting to see their husbands. We visited the main tourist plazas and spent a lot of time wandering around La Paz's vibrant street markets. Around every corner plump Bolivian women could be found sat surrounded by their wares - flowers, fruit, vegetables, meat and more. Most traders didn't have a stall, but simply laid out their produce in the road whilst cars flew inches away from them.

Close to our hostel was the famous Witches Market where you can pick up a llama fetus to bury underneath your house for good luck; unsurprisingly neither of us made a purchase!

     

We did, however, go shopping for alpaca jumpers...