Alison: After a very full on 24 hour journey from Cusco, we arrived in La Paz fairly late in the evening. We had heard that La Paz is a very dangerous city so we were grateful that Bolivia Hop drops you off at your hotel. The hotel we chose was a little more expensive than some of the others but the reviews said it had good WiFi, a big breakfast and hot showers - sounded like heaven to us after not really having any of these things in Peru! The first night we just collapsed into bed but we were soon to have our dreams shattered when we got up the next day and discovered the WiFi was down, the gas was off so we had to have a cold shower, and the breakfast buffet was the usual bread, jam, and sugar puffs! Some eggs did arrive eventually though so this cheered us up a bit :) Fortunately the gas was fixed later that day so we were able to have a powerful hot shower but the WiFi remained off for the duration of our stay.

On our first day we did the 'red cap' free city walking tour which runs on a tips system....if you liked the tour then leave a tip but if you didn't, don't leave a tip. The walk started in a square next to San Pedro prison which is a famous prison located in the central part of town. We were told that the prison has many drug dealers in it and it is considered to produce the purest cocaine in the whole of South America. The prison is very low security and it is pretty easy for visitors to go in and out with minimal searches as the guards are so corrupt. They welcome bribes and it is easy to slip past them with anything if the price is right. The prisoners are then able to do some sort of processing with the cocaine ingredients and they then organise a pick up. Since they are allowed mobile phones and they also have WiFi connection from the hotel across the road, this is easy to do! Apparently a common way to deliver to their customer is to wrap the drugs in a diaper (nappy to you and me) and throw it out of the window to someone waiting in the square below. A bribe will ensure the guards don't see a nappy flying from the window! Inside the prison there are shops and cafes which the prisoners can go to and some of the prisoners also have their own businesses which they have set up so they earn a good wage from the other inmates. Over time a rent system has been set up so some prisoners have to pay other prisoners rent to stay in the cells! Somehow coca cola has got involved and they pay a fee to ensure exclusivity of their products inside the prison! In the past it was possible for tourists to go inside and take a look around but the government have stopped this now as the corrupt guards were letting them in but then refusing to let them leave unless they paid a huge bribe. I think most people would prefer to cough up rather than spend a night in there. It looked a pretty scary place.

Next we went to a couple of markets. One had the usual sort of stuff like fruit and veg, household goods etc and the majority of the women running the stalls were what are known as cholitas. These women are the ones that wear traditional dress with big puffed out skirts and bowler hats (that look too small) perched on top of their heads. We were told that when the British came over in the times when bowler hats were all the rage, they thought it would be nice to introduce them into Bolivia. The Bolivian men are smaller than the Brits so they made the hats smaller but when they shipped them over they realised that although the Bolivian men are smaller, their heads are actually the same size as ours and so none of the hats fit! Rather than waste them they convinced the women that all the ladies in Britain were wearing the hats and they were very fashionable. The Bolivian women really liked them and so a new tradition was born!

The other market was a little more unique.....the witches market! This market has lots of different herbal remedies and other bits and bobs but the things that really stood out were the llama foetuses. The foetuses are used as sacrifices to pachamama which is mother earth. It is very common to make sacrifices to pachamama and the rituals occur for a whole host of reasons. It all sounded a bit strange to us but things got even more creepy when they said that when a big construction project is beginning e.g. building a new shopping centre, there needed to be an even bigger sacrifice to pachamama so that she will keep everyone safe throughout the construction - they needed to sacrifice a human life. They told us that there are people that go out and drink with the tramps to try to find one that has no family or friends and so wouldn't be missed and they then get him really drunk so he passes out. He is then taken to the construction site where they place him in a hole and fill it with concrete! At this point there was a very uncomfortable silence as everyone absorbed the information and started to plan how to get the hell out of Bolivia alive and then they told us that the story is an urban myth which may or may not be true! Obviously it is a taboo subject because nobody can admit to this happening but they are really serious about these rituals so who knows??

We did visit a few other places on the tour but nobody was really listening because at this point some local tour guides decided to protest against the free walking tour as they believe that the tips are like a payment and the guides should pay tax. They were really angry and followed us and were shouting at us not to support this illegal tour! It spoiled the end of the tour but it did provide a bit of a different kind of entertainment! After a long walk around the city we were ready for lunch and we headed to the first Indian restaurant that we had seen in a long time.....yum :)

All in all we didn't find La Paz to be as scary as we had been led to believe. We stuck to the main tourist sections and didn't go out late at night though so it might be a different story if you do these things!