Getting Acquainted with La Paz
Comparable to any large city, La Paz is always full of people and energy. We spent most of our time exploring the plazas and districts - some of which could have could have easily been in the US, and, of course, browsing the bustling local street markets and the mercado de brujas (witches' markets). More things to buy. Oh dear. Yet our dollar does go extremely far here. Yay for nice dinners for two that cost about $13 total!
Fresh juice made right in front of you all over the streets:
So hard not to pet all of the stray dogs! Christina just feeding a dog the rest of our club sandwich after seeing it unsuccessfully dig through the garbage bags for food:
Gigantes!
The beginning of the local market that goes on FOREVER! So CROWDED with people, stalls and cars all fighting for space and so easy to get lost!
Just hanging out on the outskirts of the city!
Traditional dress everywhere among the young trendy city:
Dried llama fetus from the Witches' Market. Symbolize good luck and prosperity for a new home. Monica really wanted to bring one home but thought she might have a bit of trouble getting it through customs.
Saltena, local specialty:
They dripped everywhere! Had to bend over to eat it while the juices spilled out.
Vendors selling giant popcorn everywhere:
We gathered with the locals on Sunday evening to watch Bolivian men and women fight in bizarre costumes and dodged the Coca Cola, wrestlers and various items getting thrown over the railing and into the audience. The Cholitas Wrestling Match, just outside of La Paz in El Alto, seemed the place to be and we were front and center of the packed gym to witness the chaos. While the male matches weren't all too shocking, comparable to Mexican Luche Libre or the WWF, the women in their full skirts, braids and bowler hats were just plain weird. Nonetheless we threw popcorn, cheered for our favorites and tried to mimick the shouts of locals to take in the experience.
Please please please don't hop over that railing onto us!
The most intense woman-fight and finale featured the crazy "Loca," in Blue. Must of been a crowd favorite as the audience continuously chanted her name"
Chasing Loca around with a bucket:
We Love Fedex...kind of
A simple task: send home all the extra kgs weighing down our backpacks (and those that didn't even fit inside) via FedEx. Expected time: 15 minutes. Actual time: 2 hours.We headed to the closest FedEx, extraneous items in tow. Once we finally got there - after the usual perilous drive - we found out that they had no boxes larger than 8x11x2 inches. An issue, considering we had about a combined bulky 25kgs to send home.
No boxes? No problem. We could head down to the local supermarket and purchase a few cajas de carton. Once we finally got there, they directed us downstairs to the basement and recycling area. They shooed us off to a dark corner filled with old boxes. Aka a dumpster. Aka we would be dumpster diving. Sweet. We gingerly tiptoed into the unlit space, half expecting rats to come shooting out as us. Using the light of our cell phones, we carefully picked up and examined boxes. Bingo: 1 vegetable oil box for Christina and 1 diaper box for Monica.
Great, we were good to go! Wait, no. We had to pay. For the cardboard boxes. That we just dove in their dumpster for.
After our small fee we headed back to Fedex through a nice neighborhood towing cardboard boxes, looking homeless and, again, attracting unwanted attention to ourselves.
To top it all off: it took a series of three cabs to get us back to our hostel - each of which would only drive us so far and drop us off on a random corner. This added an additional hour making our task a total of 3.
Nevertheless we feel 10 pounds lighter and can now put on our backpacks by ourselves.
HUGE thanks to Amado Beltran! We love you and so do our backs!
Monica dumpster diving in the Supermercado basement:
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