On tour with Estelle and Jean-Marc: La Paz

After the memorable border crossing, we continued our way through water and across the mountains, heading to La Paz.

The city of La Paz lays surrounded by mountains in a cosy valley. It offers a lot of historical buildings as well as some strange curiosities such as the 'Witches market' or the 'El penal de San Pedro', a self-run prison that functions like a society in itself. In this prison, the inmates have to rent a 'room' (for them and their family if they wish so - the rent varies between 6 and 900 US dollars/month) to have a roof over their head. If they don't possess enough money, they have to sleep in the court yard, which is very dangerous and can cost their live. Initially, the prison was built for 250 inmates but as of today, it contains more than 1500 people (without the wives and kids).

There are some companies that offered organized tours (with the help of an English inmate) through the prison but they were abolished very quickly (due to the lack of safety for the visitors) after the Englishman bribed himself out. The prison is run by annually elected leaders (inmates too) who created laws on their own. There are no guards inside the prison, solely 6 policemen at the front gate. The only company that agreed to deliver groceries to the prison is Coca-Cola (profit goes beyond safety).

In addition to those oddities, the district 'Alto' organizes every Thursday and Sunday a unique sport event: Cholita Wrestling, popular with both locals and tourists alike :) Cholitas are female wrestlers wearing traditional Bolivian dresses and showing excellent acrobatic skills (even though their physical appearance wouldn't suggest so).

On our way to cross the water. All the passengers had to leave the bus because the additional weight would have been too heavy for the simple ferries.

A rustic ferry transporting a truck from one shore to the other.

Everything is mixed up in the city.

A lot of dead Llama embryos and babies are sold on the Witches market. The high amount of dead embryos and Llama babies can be explained by the fact that there are a lot of miscarriages/infant mortalities due to the very cold temperatures and the lack of oxygen in high altitudes.

Llama embryos are burned with some other artefacts (plates with pictograms of people's desires) so that the wishes may come true.

Most Bolivians have a firm belief in superstitious ancient traditions. Before constructing a house/building, it is necessary to bury a corpse underneath it (as a sacrifice to mother earth). The higher the building, the bigger the body. In 2003 for example, they found the skeleton of a dead person under a building constructed in the 1970s. The respected 'white witches' often used homeless or drunk people to burry them alive (proven by scratch marks on the foundation concrete). Most recently, the Bolivian government voted a law to prohibit this tradition.

The central Plaza in La Paz with the presidential palace on the right. Bolivia is the only nation that had apparently more than 150 Coups d'état (or attempts) since their independence in 1825. Holding a high position in Bolivia is often a guarantee to have a short life span.

The cursed street: According to the legend, the ghost of a betrayed wife haunts through this alley and seduces unfaithful husbands to revenge her own breach of fidelity.

The view on the city with its surroundings.

Our bus to the Cholitas Wrestling.

Sitting in the VIP section, next to the ring makes you feel like being in the ring. Every drop of the used water/coke bottles is spilled upon you during the matches.