La Paz Day 2

Today Allan and I did different things. I stuck around La Paz, and he cycled the Death Road.

Kaitlyn: After Allan left, I did some admin in the morning and washed some clothes. Just before noon I headed out to The Lucky Llama to meet a group for a walking tour. The flyer mentioned a few places we didn't make it to yesterday and it came with a cocktail at the end.

Once I arrived at the pub, I began to worry I was either in the wrong place or it was going to be only me. Shortly after I arrived, my suspicion was confirmed: I was the only one on the tour. We started the tour at the Witches Market where she told me about some traditions that the witches and warlocks can help people with. She also showed me some of the potions which ranged from cleaning evil from your house, to love potions, to humiliation for your neighbor. There really is something for everything. After the Witches Market she showed me the San Francisco Plaza explaining that it's being renovated and she showed me the nearby market. It was a big place with a lot of stalls, but a lot of them weren't open.

We then went a bit further afield into what is the Spanish colonial side of the city. We went to the Mamani Mamani Art Gallery and we walked up Calle Jaen. She did point out a green cross at the start of the street I didn't notice yesterday. It was installed to ward off spirits that were haunting the street. We continued the walk to Plaza Murillo where she talked about La Paz being the center for government after a civil war in Bolivia. While we were in the plaza, a pigeon landed on my head and then another on my shoulder 🤢😖.

The final stop on our tour was the San Pedro Prison. She told me all about how the prison earned its notoriety after a British inmate started selling tours into the prison. What also blew my mind, was how it just looks like any other building, no fence, not heavily guarded, nothing. The building is built for 800 male prisoners, but about 2,500 people inhabit it because male inmates can bring their families with them. The mothers then tend to go out and work leaving the children with the father for childcare. There's even a school in there! And the poor kids never really leave so grow up grossly unsocialized.

We went back to The Lucky Llama and I had my cocktail. It was made with a Bolivian liquor distilled from white grapes with lime and ginger ale. It was really refreshing and it was relaxing to sit near the window and drink it. After my cocktail I went and did a bit of shopping on the Calle de Las Brujas before heading back to the hostel for a bit. I went back out to visit the National Gallery, but while I was headed there it looked like a protest was beginning to brew so I just went back to the hostel and did some admin and scrapbooking while I waited for Allan to get back.

Allan:

Once Allan was back, we went to dinner at The Lucky Llama. They had a special on for Burger Week. The burgers were incredible. They were huge, messy, and delicious. The red bun had burgers with beef chilli, cheese sauce, and salsa. The green bus had burgers with hibiscus bacon, fried cheese balls, and salsa. They were so good. And the Huari local beer was pretty nice too, especially the honey beer. It was a great dinner!Läs mer