We had heard a lot about La Paz not being the nicest of places so we were a bit apprehensive on arrival. The taxi journey from the airport to our hostel was spectacular, the airport is very high up in the hills so coming down and getting a whole view of La Paz was pretty impressive. Our hostel was on a nice pedestrianised hill with cafes and restaurants, so we headed out to find some food. We actually ended up stumbling across the witches market, full of artisanal crafts and more. Each stall was filled with so much colour and so many souvenirs Rachel wanted to take home!! We spent a long time wondering and taking it all in before deciding what we wanted to buy. We managed to haggle with a couple of items which we were both quite impressed with and left very happy with our goods. We were only here for two nights leaving very early with Bolivia hop on the third day. We went out to a lovely but great priced restaurant for dinner the first night.
On the second day we went for a walking tour. We met in San Pedro square which is home to the famous San Pedro prison. The stories they told us about this prison just seemed unimaginable. Built with a capacity of 400, nowadays it’s home to around 1500 because the families of the inmates all live with them. We were told of a book Marching Powder documenting the life of an inmate which we have since downloaded and Josh is thoroughly enjoying. We made our way through many street markets, here it’s more common for people to sell and buy on the streets than in stores or indoor markets. We stopped for a little lesson on the cholitas - the woman in Bolivia. Cholitas all wear traditional dress, hair in very long plaits, and a top hat too small for their head. The traditional dress involves lots of layered up long skirts which make their hips look bigger. Depending on the way the hat is worn indicates their martial status. We were taken through the witches market and the use of sacrifices in Bolivian culture was explained to us. We ended up heading back to the same restaurant for dinner as there was annoyingly no kitchen we could use at the hostel, but we weren’t that annoyed as the food was delicious.