La Paz 3,650m and El Alto 4,150m

Day One: Crossing the channel

We leave Copacabana after a final breakfast feast and board a rare day bus destined for La Paz (The Peace). Snaking along the hills above Lake Titicaca for around one hour, we stop and need to depart so we can cross a stretch of water. For safety reasons, we take a small passenger boat across the 200m wide lake while our bus is loaded onto a makeshift raft. We patiently wait on the other side and appreciate this odd spectacle.

Once back on the bus we soon come across what looks like a large protest blocking the main road, the highway full of stationary cars, trucks and people. However as we pass down the back roads it appears all of these people could just be watching a local football game! A large storm cracks overhead and under dark skies we pass through El Alto (The High). This new city sits above the bowl of La Paz and is essentially an area of poverty hovering above the main city at an altitude of 4150m. Amused by the amount of pollerias (chicken shops) and slightly alarmed at the equal amount of funerarias (funeral homes) we slowly pass through streets choc full of collectivos (minibuses) fighting for an inch of space. We descend pas a large monument of what I assume is a local hero (which Alex later informs me is infact Che Guevara) and we’re into La Paz proper.

We’re dropped off at the main bus station and cross the road to our nearby Rooftop Hostel, ideal! However, it becomes clear something is wrong with our booking and we realize we’ve booked the wrong dates and have arrived a day later than planned, doh. We find another hostel a bit further into town and trek 15 minutes with our heavy backpacks to Incas Room Hotel. Alex works her magic and gets us a room upgrade after the twin room they initially gave us resembled something from The Shining and had a wonderful view of a brick wall.

Exhausted from the day’s travel, hostel cock-up and the big dirty city we’ve just arrived in, we seek refuge in the Lucky Llama Irish Pub. Drinking a couple of questionable beers we enjoy a few games of pool and feel a bit more relaxed.

Day Two: Discovering La Paz

As Alex has already been to La Paz a number of times we decided to take separate walking tours, I will do the general city tour while Alex will take the Cholet tour (more on that later). We head to the chairlift station(!) where Alex will start her tour. Yes there is an entire network of modern chairlifts connecting La Paz and El Alto, with several lines similar to the London Underground. I note the manufacturer is Doppelmayr the Austrian cable car company logo I’ve seen many times on skiing holidays in The Alps.

Leaving Alex behind I head to San Pedro Plaza for my tour. The instructions are typically vague, so I wander the square and identify some other confused looking gringos, before long our group is formed and Denise from Red Cap Tours greets us. Below I’ll summarise each stop on the tour.

San Pedro Prison

This dilapidated structure, just off the main square in the San Pedro district, does not look like your typical prison and a huge line of locals are queueing to get in:

The building was a donation from the Spanish, intended to be used as a monastery and house up to 400 residents. However the Bolivian government saw an opportunity to save money and converted it into a prison, it currently houses over 3000 people!

A few years ago, due to rife brutality and corruption from the prison guards, the prisoners offered a deal to the government: let us run the prison ourselves and you can save money by not needing prisons guards. Amazingly the government agreed and the prison is a self-governed city, complete with its own restaurants, cafes and other businesses, all run and managed by the prisoners. Another creative job is to work as a “taxi” for prison visitors, essentially acting as their bodyguard and taking them to who they want to see, for a fee. Today the entire prison is guarded by only 27 police officers, mostly they just operate the incomings and outgoings at the main gate.

Another deal was made with the government, the male prisoners argued they could not afford to pay for their own cells (which is required in Bolivia) as well as paying for their families on the outside. The solution… the prisoners’ wives and children are allowed into the prison and can stay in the cells with the inmates. They can leave twice per day. In this self-governing prison, anyone foolish enough to assault these women or children will be punished by being beaten to death. The prison has a president, vice-president and “dispute settler”, the current president is a serial killer who murdered 7 people, so probably not someone whose resolve you’d test.

Unbelievably up until a few years ago, it was possible for tourists to visit the prison! However, due to a few unsavory incidents (two people were stabbed and one person was raped), plus pressure on the government, this was eventually abandoned. Of course this birthed illegal prison tours and there was one harrowing tale of two gringos paying an excessive amount of money to a local to take them into the prison for a tour. Once inside, their “guide” abandoned them and they had to beg the police officers to let them out. After making them sweat for a few hours, the police officers took them round every nearby ATM, rinsing them for thousands of dollars for their stupidity.

It is well known that there is a cocaine factory within the prison walls, our guide explains the prisoners would not risk their wives or children snuggling the goods out. Instead they throw the cocaine out of the makeshift roof into the street. Their choice of wrapping paper? Dirty nappies.

If you want to read more about the prison there is a famous book written by an inmate called Marching Powder.

Rodriguez Market

A huge farmers market with produce brought from the surrounding countryside sold by female vendors known as cholitas. There are pyramids of tomatoes, stacks of peppers, cabbages, avocados, onions, various types of squash, plenty of potatoes in all shapes, sizes and colours and many more fruit and veg unknown to my eyes. Supermarkets are a rarity in La Paz with locals buying from this market and street sellers all around the city.

Local people will have their favorite cholita, known as a Caseta, who will act as their vendor, friend and therapist. If these ladies spot you are not in your usual mood they will take you aside for a cup of tea and discuss what is wrong. They’re a shoulder to cry on or a friend to confide in as well as selling you your favourite food at a decent price. Their currency… Gossip. These women work the market 6 days a week from 6am to 5pm, they want something to talk about with the other cholitas! It was not uncommon to see a cholita fast asleep lying amongst the piles of veg, or even catching a nap sat up straight on their stools. 

Cholitas are the famous women of La Paz and beyond. Originally they were known as cholas (a now derogatory term) and were generally looked down upon, even barred from entering some public places. However they now enjoy a status of respect and honor, now known as the female diminutive Cholitas. 

They will most likely be wearing small pumps for shoes, a large puffed out dress (inspired by the Spanish corsets) and most obvious of all, a bowler hat! The hats came about when the British (of all people) were over in Chile and Bolivia building railways. A mistaken order to an Italian hat maker lead to dozens of small bowler hats turning up. The cholitas of the time thought it was the perfect item to compliment their outfit and they remain to this day.

Not my image:

If a cholita is wearing her hat straight it means she is taken or married. If the hat is at an angle on the side, it means they are single or perhaps widowed for the older ladies. The most attractive part of a cholitas body is their… Calves! A sign of a strong woman who can work hard and carry a lot for their potential suitors. Their long hair, often tied at the end in knots, is a sign of their wisdom.

How do you spot a wealthy cholita? Make them smile. Some of these women are millionaires and will often showcase this with their gold teeth.

Witches Market

There are in fact two Witches Markets, one in La Paz and a bigger one up in El Alto. We walked around the La Paz version. The “witches” have their stalls set out selling natural remedies, items like ginger, aloe vera etc; they often sell various medicinal sweets, herbs and spices, trinkets, statuettes of pachamama (Mother Earth) and most bizarrely of all, llama fetuses.

The curious purpose of these fetuses is to bury them in the ground along with candy, coins and other precious items when building a new house. This offering to pachamama within the foundations of the house is intended to bring good luck to the occupiers and ward off evil spirits. The size of the house determines the size of the fetus, a couple of stories and a small one will do, four or five stories and you’ll need the biggest fetus available.

But what do you sacrifice if you are building a skyscraper or a bridge? You’ll need something bigger than any llama. There are not only rumors but evidence has been found of human sacrifices in the foundations of large buildings. It is thought that in times past, homeless people were lured to construction sites with the promise of food, water and shelter. Here they would be plied with strong alcohol and when they passed out, they were laid down with the candy and coins, while the first layer of concrete was poured on top of them. Horrific and brutal but the Bolivians are a very superstitious bunch and clearly didn’t want to take any chances.

Plaza Murillo

Our final stop was the main square of La Paz. There was a heavy police presence with a mix of ordinary police and military enforcers with riot shields and automatic rifles. This square has seen many protests over the years, often they turn violent so now the police take a no nonsense approach. There is one building sprayed with bullet holes while what used to be the presidents house has been burned down 3 times. It is now known as the burnt palace.

A giant new presidential palace towers over the plaza, built to “represent the people of Bolivia”.

Many coups and uprisings have happened here. One of the most famous was when a left-wing president was elected and abolished a 70% income tax, at first he was very popular and much loved. However, the opposition planted seeds of doubt that his intentions were for the people to save money to buy land and houses that he would then confiscate from them. An angry mob formed outside the palace and spurred on by the right wing party, they stormed the house and twice shot the president cowering behind his desk. Believing the rest of the mob would want their pound of flesh, they tossed him from the second story onto the square. Here he was dragged around the plaza twice while everyone got a turn to spit at, kick and beat him. Savagely he was then hung from a lamppost on the square. A new right-wing president took his place and the people rejoiced…until they realized they’d made a huge mistake. Regretting their actions, they decided to build a statue to honour the president they had mercilessly shot and beaten to death. Their location of choice… next to the same lamppost they had hung him from.

Cholet Tour (Alex)

From my many, many journeys into La Paz back in the day, I would admire the amazingly diverse and unique building designs up in El Alto. However, back then, El Alto was supposedly a no-go for gringos, a city for true Bolivians. So, I was super excited to now see a walking tour option to go and see these amazing buildings. My guide was Max, and it turned out I was the only one on the tour so I got a private tour for the price of a shared one!

Max is from El Alto, and my tour isn’t just of the amazing buildings I was so curious about, but also about the Aymara culture that is alive and well in Bolivia, particularly in La Paz and El Alto. Max does advise me to be respectful and not take photos of people or some buildings, and I’m also a bit nervous still up here so I’m afraid my photos are few, but certainly Google cholets to see the best examples.

We jump on the cable-car straight up into El Alto and our first stop is to visit the area of witch-doctors:

Out front of each of these doorways is a concrete bowl for burning the required combination of ingredients your witch-doctor prescribes to give you your blessing/cure. Max explains that you typically have a doctor your whole life who you know and trust and ‘vibe’ with. This is about the energy between you, rather than your postcode! So, if I were to come for a spell, I would talk to them and see who I bonded with and that would be the key. Energy is an important aspect of Aymara culture and this is just the first example. They would then support you with all your needs from health, protection and guidance. No ‘specialisms’ here, except for specialising in being your spiritual guide. He teaches me about the key concept of ‘Ayni’ that is effectively about reciprocity and understanding and appreciating how we are interconnected with nature (as it is in Quechuan culture, so there are a good few crossovers with what I learnt from Odi on our Inca Trail, although some fascinating differences). Of course I like this concept very much!

To expand on what James has written about above, Max tells me more about the llama fetus offerings when you have your new build. That the fetus must have died from natural causes, because this is about the transference of energy. If you were to kill the fetus directly, you take away its energy, and therefore what is your offering to pachamama? (Which might explain the cruelty of James’ buried alive urban myths). What you plant and burn in the ground is to transfer the energy from those objects into your building. Your building then carries this energy with it, and is believed to be ‘alive’. When you hear the creaks and cracks of the building, they believe that is the building stretching and getting comfortable, just like we do.

We jump back on the cable-car and move further into El Alto proper. On the way, Max points out some cholets and defining features. The reason for the name is because of the Cholita culture up here alongside the houses of varying sizes seemingly plonked on top of multi-story buildings. Some of these look like actual alpine chalets, and the name was coined (apparently much to the disdain of one of the first architects who wanted to give it a more grandious name, a bit like The Gherkin I imagine). Max walks us around and chats with confidence whilst I feel like a panicked and lost child completely beholden to my guide.

He takes me to our first cholet (that I’m instructed not to photo as apparently the owners don’t want people copying their style) and explains the key designs of a cholet. As mentioned above, you have your home designed as though someome plonked it on top of the building, this means you are closer to the sky, important for their culture. The main bulk of the block below the house is a ballroom/event space, where you party and feel alive and connected to those around you and the wonders of life, another key aspect of the culture, the present. Partying is protest here. Underneath this ballroom are mini-markets and stores of people selling their wares, the level of provision and prosperity from the ground. Where Aymara differs is that there is a fourth level, this is about your ancestors that runs throughout the building. It’s fascinating to see how this culture modernises, from offerings to growing more corn to being more prosperous is your tenant selling their wares.

Aside from these fundamental concepts of the design is the facade of the building that reflects you and explains why they are so unique and distinct. Some incorporate their trade in their designs (a shoe, a guitar, Asian influenced), and this might explain the protectionism some owners have of not wanting their style copied, they’re meant to be individual after all.

You also get the ones that are clearly just having fun:

These buildings are anything but cheap, some apparently cost into the millions of dollars. I’m told there are mixed theories as to where the money comes from for people to afford to be able to build them. What I like is that the people here who have prospered haven’t moved to the rich areas of La Paz, they’ve stayed in El Alto, they invest in their city and the addition of a cholet to an area can bring prosperity as people need to buy presents, drinks, supplies etc, a bit like a Waitrose increasing the value of an area in the UK, a cholet brings up the area around it too. They don’t make their millions and move to Surrey, they stick around and improve the lives of those around them. I guess that’s the benefit of being able to build a huge mansion on top of a big building block!

Max now takes me inside of a cholet to see a ballroom for myself. After all, only people from the culture would get invited to a party here, so it’s a privilege to be inside and imagine what goes on at night.

There are two more fundamentals to Aymara culture for me to learn and share. One is that even numbers are key, they equate to balance, compared to the rules of 3 we found so much in Quechua. This means that there aren’t many weddings this year as people will wait for an even year, and if you were given an odd number of presents, the “present-counter” (a job bestowed on someone close to you) is charged with evening out the number by quickly finding you an extra one. Back to reciprocity, you are expected to bring at least two crates of beer with you to the party/wedding/celebration etc. (you couldn’t just give one crate of course), and then at the next event the previous host would have to bring you at least 2, 4, 6… crates to reciprocate, depending on how much they wanted to show you up.

The second key identifier of a true Aymara venue is that there are small drains in the ground. This is because, before each drink you have, you give your offering to pachamama (ch’alla), by pouring a bit of your drink on the ground. You do this every single time you or anyone around you takes a drink, so the floor gets soaking real quick (it’s tile at least, not like a Wetherspoons carpet!). At one point in the night the music will slow down as the cholet staff will mop up the offerings and push them down the drain. To not give your ch’alla is seriously poor form, and so for Aymarans to be in a venue without these drains means they don’t feel they can truly celebrate. It makes me feel akin to the innate comfort I felt in the Irish pub the night before, an indescribable feeling that is most notable when you are taken outside of that comfort, and that Aymarans have had to feel for so long until they could build their own spaces that worked with their way of life.

My last lesson is that the way people display their wealth here is at these huge parties. They don’t wear fancy clothes in the street, or own ridiculous cars, or handbags. As James says above, there’s money in their teeth, but otherwise their attire out and about is purely workwear. At the parties you may see the same cholita dripping in solid gold jewellery, a fine vicuña shawl, a bowler hat worth hundreds, and a skirt worth tens of thousands. This space is where they show off their status and success, through clothes and gifts, this is where they keep up with the Jones’.

Day Three: In sickness and in health

Sadly on the third day, I (James) was wiped out by a nasty bout of what we assume was food poisoning. I’ll spare the details but I didn’t manage to make it out of the hotel room all day, only eating some dry crackers and drinking a Powerade in the evening when I started to feel better. Alex felt fine and was an excellent nurse for me throughout the day.

Day Four: On the ropes

24 hours later I felt better and we decided to carry on as planned. After breakfast we ran a few errands, caving in and buying a SIM card and booking the bus for the evening.

Next we went to what I’d been looking forward to doing since we’d arrived, riding the cable car! We boarded at the bottom of the Red Line in La Paz and ascended above the city, noticing some unusual buildings and passing over a very colourful section of the city. At the top we briefly visited a huge street market in El Alto and quickly jumped onto the Silver Line with our belongings intact. From here we went sailing above El Alto and changing onto the Purple Line descended back down into La Paz.

Our final bit of entertainment in La Paz was heading back up to El Alto in the evening to watch Cholita Wrestling! Yes these feisty and strong women want to show you what they’re made of and every Thursday and Sunday they put on a show of strength.

We sat through four intense but comical and tongue-in-cheek matches, often with the crowd invited to get involved in various ways. The first match was actually between two young men but the rest were all cholitas. One would side with the referee to make an unfair 2 against 1 matchup but after taking a (staged) beating, the underdog would rise up and conquer both of them. The contestants certainly seemed to enjoy themselves as much as the audience and there was a friendly and fun atmosphere throughout the night.

We headed back down to La Paz and boarded the night bus, heading for the land of the dinosaurs….

James

….

Adventure – Exploring El Alto as a gringo, doing separate tours for the first time, ordering a table/meal without Alex’s help

Excitement – Seeing the streets of La Paz come alive in the evening with anything and everything being sold kerbside, James’ first taste of salteñas, Alex realising she still knows her way around La Paz. Cholita Wrestling crowd dancing, cheering, booing and even getting in the ring.

Trauma – Finding our way back to the hostel in the dark quiet backstreets, tummy bugs, Loki no longer being open, minor altitude sickness