La Paz

When I arrived in La Paz I only had the hostel name (Loki). I asked about 10 taxi drivers, nobody seems to have an idea where it is ... strange, it's one of the most famous hostels. After a while the police approached me, since they saw a very concerned look on my face, and they knew where it was :) They stopped the cab and gave driver the directions. As a safety, they ask for the license and write down the plate number. The driver didn't have the license, and they told me to get out. I don't know what happened to him afterwards, they seem to have a very long discussion with him. Loki is huge, again, full of teenagers. Tried to get some food. I walked around for an hour, and couldn't find any food places, I guess I'm not in the food section of the town, and what I managed to find was closed, so came back to the hostel and had the food at the bar. The food is good there, but expensive. Had chicken pesto, yummiii :)) In the evening went to the bar for the "girls like guys, guys as girls" party. Everybody was dressed up, it was crazy. My head turned every time I saw some muscular legs on a girl ... oh wait, that's a guy. What a turn off it is to see feminized guys :S There was nobody to talk to, it was too loud, and too much smoke, and everybody was drunk. So I stayed there for half an hour and went to sleep. In the morning at the breakfast area got talking to one guy who studies to be a programmer. It was an interesting conversation, since he seemed to be so brainwashed by the university and it's standards, and had such an unreal expectations. "What do you mean there is no documentation????" um ... I worked in 7 places and none of them had any! "So you could choose the language to work with to make it more efficient, right?" .. No ... you work with the software that the company has. Anyway, it was funny.
That day just went to a bunch of museums. These museums are not about ancient cultures, so they were actually ok :) One painting interested me because it didn't make any sense to me. It looked like the artist just painted anything that came into his head. Other than that saw some carnival masks, and important events with miniature statues. Next day was a holiday, that's not good. It means everything in town will be closed and there would be nothing to do. Luckily I read a bit of the guidebook during lunch, and what do you know, in the ruins beside La Paz there would be a New Year celebration due to 21st of June, the winter solstice. Found an agency that provides transport, since the ceremony starts at sunrise, and need to get out of La Paz at 3am. And I don't want to walk around town looking for buses at 3am, so I'd much rather to pay more for convenience and safety. The hostel with the agency is located in a very artsy/touristic/market area, a much much better and more interesting area than where my hostel is. But they were booked. I walked around all the hostels in the area, but didn't like any. There is a witches market there. They sell a bunch of herbs and dolls and the most interesting is corpses of llamas. But that's only for middle class people. If they build a house or open a business, they buy the llama as a sacrifice, and burry it beside the place to be blessed. Rich people however are expected to sacrifice a whole live llama. In the evening got an email from Sarah and Murray, they're in the hostel beside me, so we had a dinner together. It's very cool to meet friends on the way!! Wake up time 2:40. I couldn't sleep a minute. First the noise from the bar until 12, and then just people running around drunk, opening/closing doors, leaving the lights on, fighting, playing guitar and just repeating the same chorus 10 times non stop, and howling :( In the car, couldn't sleep either. Got there at 5am. The line up to the gate was about 1km, and it was freezing. I wasn't that cold in a long long time. Some people were complaining that they would get hypothermia. When we got in, there were lots of fires, so I joined one. Put my feet over the fire, so I could finally feel them again. There were too many people, so we couldn't actually see what's going on. Even the president was there, got there in his helicopter. Most people got drunk, especially Irish tourists. Some local yelled at them, asking them what are they doing here. The point the the ceremony is to wait for the first rays of the sun which didn't really come out, there were too many clouds. When it finally did come up, everybody put their hands up to absorb the energy of the sun through the hands and to all the body. Everywhere you could hear "offerings plates plates plates, for fortune, health, happiness, job, plates plates". They would consist of fake money, candies, llama dolls, some plastic stuff. And in the middle of it all, there was a big fire where all of these plates would be thrown in to burn, thus giving back to the mother earth and make your wishes come true. There were musicians playing on some sort of fluits and drums, shamans with no teeth telling fortune on coca leaves, some weird dude almost with no cloths, no shoes (in this cold!!), and we was dressed like the Sipan king or something. With a big gold nose ring, gold bracelets, and a stick in this hand decorated with some toys and a rock on top. He started to read people, and I was sitting right beside him. It was very funny. He would feel the head, look and the hand and with a very sorry face and tone would say "oh you're sick... tsk tsk tsk, and no doctors can help you, oh poor you tsk tsk tsk ... AAAALLLEEEXXXX !!!! Give this lady my phone number, here is my business card, call me in La Paz we would heal you. Remove all the devils from your head, your soul and your house ... " :)) Some people would bring offering plates for him to approve. He would look at them and to most of them say that they have plastic in them, and mother earth doesn't appreciate it, so they should buy the plates that they sell.
Back in La Paz, they burned another big fire right on the street. Overall, La Paz is crazy, it's like a huge market where everything is sold, mostly by indigenous people. Nobody is really dressed nice, a bunch of people either don't have teeth or very bad teeth. They fix them in a very strange way too. I guess they don't have much money, so they only fix what needs to be fixed, so sometimes they would have a gold crown going on a circumference of the tooth, instead of a whole tooth, or have a gold spot in the middle of the tooth. Nobody is really walking around enjoying themselves, just the tourists, the locals hurry somewhere all the time.
Since I was tired and was still 2pm, decided to see another museum. Went to the coca museum, and what do you know, they give you a 50 page handout to read about it :S I wrote down some interesting stuff:
- Traces of coca leaves were found in mummies in Peru as early as 2500 BC
- 1200-1475 Incas extracted oils to treat brain tumors
- Used with doctors for disinfections and healing of bone fractures
- Coca is used to communicate between life and death; in marriages, to cure illnesses, to predict future; central symbol of all offerings
- When a couple unites, it must build 2 things, a house and a coca field.
- Coca condemned as diabolic and was forbidden by Spaniards, but later on reversed when observed to increase the output of indigenous people who were working in mines
- In the mines, the workers consumed equivalent to the price of 450 kg of gold. Spaniards limited coca, so it was valued more than gold.
- 1886 - Coca extract is used in Coca Cola (with cocaine in it)
- 1895 - production of cocaine (legal)
- 1950 - study - coca leads to mental retardation and is the cause of poverty in South America.
- Another study found that coca leaves are rich in nutrients like nuts.
- The indigenous people worked 48 continues hours without adequate breaks or any food, other than coca leaves to chew
- Coca was first held by Spaniards, then by corporations and illegal multi-billion cocaine industry. Bolivia has been blamed for western world's drug addiction problem.
- U.S. represents 5% of world population, yet consumes 50% of cocaine produced on the planet.
- Cocaine was considered to be one of the medical profession’s greatest discovery.
- Today there are 36 countries that can legally produce cocaine (presumably for medical use) US (Owned by Cola Cola) 500 Kg/year, Britain 365, Peru and Bolivia are not in the club.
- Sigmund Freud, the first known cocaine user - later developed nasal cancer.

Tomorrow going to death road!!! Yahooooooo !!!! :))))
It's 5 hours downhill from about 4700 - 1200 meters altitude. First 20 kms are on a highway. I was first from the group, it was nice and fast. The buses slowed us down. We would finally pass them, the guide would stop us for something, so all the work would go to waste :) Got to the death road. It's called the death road or the most dangerous road in the world, because it's just a vertical cliff without anything to stop the cars, so over 20 cars a year would go over. And since the tourist attraction was opened in 1990, also over 20 cyclists have died. That's the only road in Bolivia where you have to drive on the left side, which is the side of the cliff ! :S It was pretty scary going on a gravel sometimes not more than half a meter from the cliff. We were not supposed to look down, but sometimes I just couldn't help but glance there. There were no cars thank god. Passed a few waterfalls and crosses where people have died. On the way back, we returned on the same road in our van, that was much scarier than on the bike. The driver was going pretty fast for that road, and turning on the turns without beeping. If I were to do this road on the car first, I don't think I would've done it on the bike later.
In the evening went to look for eggs for breakfast, 2 hours later, no eggs. Even restaurants didn't have them.
I'M MOVING HOSTELS !!!! Finally !!! I can't stand something like Loki anymore.
Beside the hostel there are some people dressed like zebras controlling traffic. It was so funny. They're so enthusiastic, jumping between cars, doing different poses, all the time non stop :)
I finally slept !!! :))
In the morning the search for eggs continued. Go 2 blocks to west, 1 block north, 1 block south, 2 hours later I see nothing but eggs. Ok, now that I'm here, how do I go back? 2 blocks to the right, 2 blocks to the left ... ohhhh ... here we go! :) Found veggies, but everybody sells just 1 type of vegetables, so it was weird. 1 tomato, 1 avocado, 1 pepper, too many little bags ... I broke the eggs!! :S :)) In the evening went to Japanese restaurant, I had miso soup and chicken in teriyaki souce, ohhhh sooo goood !!! first time in 10 months!! :)) Also went with Sarah and Murray to Shutter Island movie. What a great movie !!
On the plaza there were a bunch of people doing readings for $1.5, where else would I get it for so cheap, so I got one. It was all good. He said that I have good fortune with everything and he sees nothing bad :)
Met some hippies in the restaurant, they were so drunk and so dirty and strange. One of them sat at my table and just stared at me, I was curious so started asking him questions. He said that they're always at that restaurant because everybody else and all the world discriminates against them ... I wonder why!
Sooo ... In La Paz there is as a guide book calls "the most buizzar tourist attractions" which is the San Pedro prison. Before anybody could visit it, but there has been some cocaine trafficking going on, and now it's illegal. You still can get in, but you have to pay 550 Bolivianos for it. 500 goes to security to let you in, and 50 for all the inmates to do with it what they want. There are 2 sections to the prison, and the one we've been to is the best, the richest with high profile criminals. For ex, there are 2 ex presidents in there. The inmates have to pay $500 to get in, pay or rent their cell, and pay to get out. One simple cell goes for $100/month, or you could buy it for $4000. They have to pay for everything except water and electricity. That includes food, and once a wall fell down, so they had to pay to restore it too. The first thing that I noticed once we got in is how happy they are. Their eyes are shining, and it just looks like they're very happy to be there. One of the inmates said that it feels like a youth hostel. And why won't they? They're allowed to have as many visitors as they can. Some actually live with their wives and kids in there. In total there are 10 kids who always live there, and they're allowed to have pets too. We were escorted through the prison to a "cell". We walked through a gym, church, library, ping pong table, pool table. For the tourists money now they're building a sauna, and just bought a flat screen tv for fifa world cup. When we got to the "cell", which btw closes from inside, it had a living room, cable tv, computer, nice king size bed we were offered a beer for 40, a joint for 35 and cocaine! Prisoners who know English lead the tours. Our prisoner was a 48 year old drug dealer from Germany. He told us that he's been dealing drugs for 30 years, and that was the first time when he wanted to transport it on a plane to Amsterdam, and in the first airport he was checked and caught with 8kg of cocaine. He said that he wanted to be a drug dealer since he was 14! Normally he made $10k/month, which doesn't look that much to me considering the risk. But as he said every job has a risk, if you're a builder you can break something, if you're a driver you can get into accident, and if you're a dealer you can go to prison. His family is pretty normal though, all his brothers and sisters are teachers, or owners of some big companies. Most of his clients he met while travelling, so he knew them personally before offering them to buy something, so it was pretty safe, he said. In prison they have a 2X1 rule. If you work or study 2 hours, you get 1 hour off of the sentence. So now he's faking some papers saying he's been working all this time, and expects to get out 2 yeas earlier. But they don't have to do anything, not work, not study, and if they work, they get time off plus money. The only thing they have to do is be at the courtyard at 7:30am for a check. The prison has guards only outside, the only reason they get in is to eat in a restaurant or to play football with the inmates. The inmates rule everything, if there is a problem with somebody, they can have meetings and vote them off to the other side (the bad side). Problems like causing damage to the property, harm to yourself or others, or if you talk to the guards about other prisoners. That way 1 of the ex cops was voted off, because he told the guards who sells cocaine, while he himself was using it. So he's thrown out, but now he paid to someone inside to cause problems to these people. If they do something bad, they're sent to some awful area, as he called it the little dark tunnel, where there are no windows, it's dirty, and some people from there tell you to give them money, or otherwise they'll stub you. They showed us some home made knives and screwdrivers. And if that doesn't kill you, they usually cover it with stuff, so if a cut won't kill you, the infection will ... although they have doctors 24 hours/day in there. They can have checks from the government, but they're well knows in advance, so by the time they get there, the prisoner hide everything, and it is never found. Once the authorities got in without a search warrant, and were kicked out. The other side of the prison is overcrowded, for more regular people, they are more violent in there, and hence everything is cheaper. So a lot of prisoners from the good side go there for shopping and some cocaine, since it's actually produced in there! When they tell the stories, they actually made us feel bad for them. Oh, that guy stubbed somebody because of some rumors and spent 3 months in isolation cell ... "ooooh poor him", and in other prison one guy was in his cell for half a year because he was afraid of going out "ooh no!! that must have been so hard!"
:)

pix at http://picasaweb.google.com/evadikushin501/LaPaz#