Today the whole group, except Bianca and I, went to do the famous "Death Road" (which is the most famous attraction in Bolivia) where they got to ride a bike from way up high down the hill on a deadly road with a cliff on one side... Zero interest in it!
Instead, I took a free city tour of La Paz.
The tour started at the San Pedro prison where our two local guides gave us more info about it. So San Pedro prison is the largest prison in La Paz and is inmate run!!!!
It was amazing to hear about the history of this prison! Many of the inmates have their families living in there with them and they all have jobs inside the prison!
In addition, all inmates in San Pedro have to pay rent for their prison cell. Many of the prisoners make money by selling drugs and the tour guides said that many times they snuck out the drug by tossing it on the street inside a diaper... So never ever pick up a diaper from there!
A while back inmates used to make money by running a tour visit for tourists. People even spent the night there partying but it got really dangerous, tourists were robbed and even raped so they decided to stop allowing people in! Anyway... What kind of coo-coo person would like to spend the night partying in a prison with delinquents?!? Crazy!
After the prison we were taken to the local market. The tour guides said not to take pictures without the woman's permission (the cholitas, the women who sell) because they believe that when a picture is taken they lose one of their 7 souls (but somehow it is ok if you ask) and they would also throw stuff at you such as a tomato, a fish, fishy water, or anything within proximity if they catch you taking a picture of them!! The market was pretty much the same as every other market we have been to with the only difference being that these ones where on the street.
Then we made our way to the witches market, or el "mercado de brujeria", where they sell all kinds of potions for whatever people need.
The thing that catches most people's attention is the dried llamas. Most of the stands have tons of dried llamas hanging; some of them have fur and some of them are complete dehydrated.
The story goes that here in Bolivia before starting construction people need to dig a hole and put a dried llama, sprinkle some coca leaves and wine and then have a party to start the construction and if that is not done construction can't start! .. Strange!
There is an urban legend that says that for big buildings a bigger sacrifice is needed! So they need to sacrifice... A human!!! Apparently the amauta (or witch doctor) will go look for someone who won't be missed. The amauta will offer alcohol to homeless people and once they are very drunk they start saying that they don't have families etc so that person will be the victim! The witch doctor then gets him/her very drunk and takes the person to the construction site and throw the homeless in a hole and immediately they poor cement over him/her and the construction can start... So the lesson being: DO NOT accept any alcohol from strangers in Bolivia!! Haha
The girls also explained some of the potions that can be found in the witches market:
Follow me follow me dust: a white dust to be put on somebody's neck for him/her to fall in love with you!
Come to me come to me: dust for those in 2nd or 3rd base... Sprinkle some on their underwear for a little extra fun! Haha
The punisher: drops to put on your partner's tea if he/ she has misbehaved and it will turn that person into your B!tcH! Haha
And... Vigoron: bolivia's version of Viagra in a syrup form.
After so much witch talk we moved to a centro commercial (a shopping mall) that looked more like an organized local market. There, we had some time to try some Bolivian delicacies and some fresh juice... Yumm
We finished the tour by going over to the old quarter. We stopped at Plaza Murillo where there is the presidential palace and there are 2 guards guarding the remains of the 7th president of Bolivia. While sitting there listening to the girls they told us that Bolivia has 2 Guinness records: one for having the most presidents in the least amount of times and two, for being the country that has had the most strikes! (Apparently farmers during the off season have boing better to do so they protest!)
The last visit was to the top of a hotel where we got a pretty great view of La Paz!
We quickly left the hotel and got into a shared taxi... Direction: Calacoto... Purpose: a good lunch!
It was almost impossible to get our own taxi to Calacoto since it was 25 mins away so we got into a taxi that displayed "calacoto" in the front. Bianca and I were the first two in the taxi and then we grabbed 3 more people on the way. I didn't know exactly where the restaurant was, I only knew it was en calle 10 so we were dropped off in the intersection with calle 10. From then, I asked around how to get to GUSTU!
We walked rather quickly since they stop sitting for lunch at 3 and it was already 2:30pm. By 2:50 we were in the restaurant and were ready to eat.
Gustu is supposed to be a very high end restaurant and it did not disappoint!
I loved the decor of the place, especially the rustic touches.
To begin, we were given some delicious home made potato chips with a cheesy dip on the bottom.
Then came a plate with cheeses and butters. The first butter is a coca infused with some sprinkled coca on top, next we have some with toasted quinoa, and finally a delicious creamy cheese.
For lunch we had: trout with pickled cucumber covered by a thin layer of frozen yogurt with fish eggs on top, creamy potatoes, and a zapallo purée with peppers and honey.
I loved that every time a dish (or drink) came out the chef would explained what we were having!
For dessert we ended up having a spicy ganache with chocolate ice cream topped with orange peels and chocolate cake... Delish!!!
The service was also phenomenal! Our server was very attentive and very nice despite us being there until late!
Once we were done with our lunch we walked back another 15-20 mins to the Main Street in hopes to get a taxi back to the cathedral.
We had no luck!
We didn't see any taxis and all the shared taxis were taken so we decided to hop on a mini bus!!!! Hahaha it was hilarious because at home I would never ever in a million years get into a "microbus" but when I'm traveling anything goes!
The mini buses cost 2.40 bolivianos ($0.34) and people come in an out. Ours had 4 rows plus the front so if the last person in the last row wants to get out then half of the mini bus has to get out, let the person out, and then pop back in... Hilarious!
Here's our mini bus:
We finally got to our destination and nothing bad happened! Yeay
Tonight we had our change of tour guides and we met our new guide for the next two weeks, Daryl. To be honest I was disappointed that it wasn't a Latin American person! Daryl is an Aussie who has been traveling for the last 7 years, learned Spanish a year ½ ago and now is a CEO in South America. I feel kind of bad that the whole group is disappointed about not having a local as a guide but in all honesty I do believe that in South America having a gringo tour guide will be a little more challenging for the whole group. The good thing is that we will appreciate Ricardo a little more!
No comments:
Post a Comment