The Peace?

Trip Start Aug 16, 2006

Trip End Apr 30, 2007

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Where I stayed

LOKI Backpackers Hostel La Paz

(La Paz hotels)

Flag of Bolivia La Paz, Bolivia
Wednesday, April 4, 2007

So La Paz means 'The Peace' in Spanish. And the funny thing is that usually it is anything but that, being a pretty crazy city with the centre built in a crevice surrounded by steep hills adorned with houses that look like they're barely holding on. What a strange place for a capital city! And it's pretty high. 3600m or something like that. The airport is the highest commercial airport in the world at 4100m. Bolivians are very politically motivated people and not a day would pass here without some type of political demonstration or strike or roadblock.

I guess even stranger then was that when we were there it was very peaceful. Dead in fact. It was Easter. The whole city shutsdown from the Thursday to the Monday Literally nothing is open, noone is allowed to sell alcohol and there is nothing to do! Not surprisingly then we sniffed out the Loki Hostel here and the bar within that was illegally selling alcohol! Can't keep an Irishman from drinking, or 50 thirsty gringo backpackers for that matter!

Well, actually... the Bolivian police can. They raided the place and everyone had to do the quickest stash you've ever seen to hide their drinks. It was just like what I imagine a Speakeasy would have been like in the 20's during prohibition! They wanted to take the owners to jail, but in typical Bolivian fashion they were able to 'sort it out', which really meant offering them a bribe. Apparently you can't offer it to them straight out, cos of course they're not supposed to take bribes. You have to say something like 'is there any way we can come to an agreement where we're both happy' type of thing. Hilarious really.

So they got out of it, not sure how much they had to pay, but it meant that the police did come back for all sorts of pathetic excuses later in the piece... wanting more money of course!

Given the lockdown status the city was in while we were there we didn't do much else except go the Witches Market, which wasn't all that amazing but they do sell Llama foetuses! EEEW!

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