It's been an interesting six days in La Paz, living at 3600m above sea level with a cold. I can now climb the three flights of stairs to the hostel's restaurant without stopping!
Bolivia is known for it's protests, I think this one had something to do with keeping milk production natural. There was also a transport workers strike that day.
Public transport consists of old American school buses and minivans. I love how the buses are all painted differently but are all blue.
By chance I discovered the yarn market just up the hill from my hostel. Mostly acrylics but I found one shop selling llama and alpaca.
On Thursday thanks to a friend of a friend I was able to visit a drug and alcohol rehab centre in El Alto (the city above La Paz). I was lucky to visit on the one day a year these amazing ladies bring an enormous lunch for everyone.
On Saturday I headed to the south of Lima with a fellow Aussie traveller and checked out the Valle de la Luna. It really does look like you might be on the moon. On the way back we travelled two lines of La Paz's public transport system, a cable car system. It was a great way to get a perspective of how big the city is and see the contradictions between different areas.
Arriving back at the hostel there was a random parade coming down the street.
Street performers are a regular part of traffic downtown. This guy particularly impressed me, as do the people dressed up as zebras stopping people crossing against the lights at peak hour.
Tonight I wasted four hours attending Cholita wrestling. Probably the only wrestling that begins with the women taking off their bowlers hat, shawl and earrings. Supposedly it began as entertainment in an area with not much happening and then women wanted to participate to. Best described as WWF Bolivian style, though I'm still not sure about the food that was thrown. There were more locals than tourists in attendance but the tourists left when the men's performance started. At least it is generating income in an area which normally wouldn't get tourist income.
Bolivia is known for it's protests, I think this one had something to do with keeping milk production natural. There was also a transport workers strike that day.
Public transport consists of old American school buses and minivans. I love how the buses are all painted differently but are all blue.
By chance I discovered the yarn market just up the hill from my hostel. Mostly acrylics but I found one shop selling llama and alpaca.
On Thursday thanks to a friend of a friend I was able to visit a drug and alcohol rehab centre in El Alto (the city above La Paz). I was lucky to visit on the one day a year these amazing ladies bring an enormous lunch for everyone.
On Saturday I headed to the south of Lima with a fellow Aussie traveller and checked out the Valle de la Luna. It really does look like you might be on the moon. On the way back we travelled two lines of La Paz's public transport system, a cable car system. It was a great way to get a perspective of how big the city is and see the contradictions between different areas.
Arriving back at the hostel there was a random parade coming down the street.
Street performers are a regular part of traffic downtown. This guy particularly impressed me, as do the people dressed up as zebras stopping people crossing against the lights at peak hour.
Tonight I wasted four hours attending Cholita wrestling. Probably the only wrestling that begins with the women taking off their bowlers hat, shawl and earrings. Supposedly it began as entertainment in an area with not much happening and then women wanted to participate to. Best described as WWF Bolivian style, though I'm still not sure about the food that was thrown. There were more locals than tourists in attendance but the tourists left when the men's performance started. At least it is generating income in an area which normally wouldn't get tourist income.
posted from Bloggeroid
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