Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Today I had a bit of sleep in and then cooked some of my favorite Irish pancakes for my host. I also tried some of these tasty puffed grains I had brought in the market yesterday - it would take a lifetime to taste all the snacks and treats they have in this country. We had planned to go to a famous nearby site called Valley del Luna so after a very sluggish start to the day we headed off. Unfortunately when we arrived and were about to pay it started to rain and as it is all outside and built on the edge of a valley they kick everybody out as the paths become very dangerous. Not to worry I have plenty of time here and I could easily spend the day out here visiting the nearby zoo and doing one of the quad rides on offer. Nyzrah's older brother and his wife live about 500m up the hill from Nyzrah's place so we had instead organized to go and have lunch with them. No cooking today though we went to there favorite takeaway/restaurant and ordered takeaway. The restaurant made speciality pork dishes and so I could try a bit of everything we ordered Chicharon: deep fried pork cooked in chicha (local maiz beer) and local spices; this had to be my favorite with a rock hard exterior with a slight sweet taste to it. Next up was Fritanga: slow cooked pork in a delicious mildly spicy sauce and the meat incredibly moist. The final dish was Lechon: oven roasted pork with a sweet marimate and the meat incredibly soft and moist - so once again i was in food heaven and knocked off 3 more Bolivian foods on my list. With the various dishes came an array of salads, sauses, mote (boiled maiz), chunos (freeze dried potatoes) and steamed bananas. The amount of food was unbelievable and the serving sizes ginormous - what was 3 plates was enough for 6 and the four of us could not finish it and had to give the rest to the four dogs. I would have really liked to stay and hang-out in Nyrzha's brothers home but I had organized to go to the Cholitos le Libros: Comical wrestling similar to the WWF however with Bolivian women in their traditional dress. I had to take two minivans and go to the city of Al Alto where the stadium was; most tourist had purchased their tickets as a part of a tour and got a bus from Centro out, however I had thought to save money and doing it myself. When I got in the second minivan the people couldn't tell me if the van was going to the stadium as no one in the van new what the hell I was talking about - eventually someone on the bus was able to recognize my bad Spanish and confirm I was on the right bus. Arriving near the stadium I realized why they don't recommend travelling here alone (specially at night) a very poor area with a huge congested population. There was a big line that took me about 45 minutes to get through - only to find they would not sell me a ticket, I tried to argue but they refused as I wasn't Bolivian. I was going to give up and proceeded to ask people in line if they would buy a ticket for me, eventually one guy agreed and got me my ticket however walking into the stadium they refused my ticket and forced me to go back and buy the tourist ticket at 2.5 times the price. Initially I was pretty annoyed at this but I did end up with front row seats, some snacks/souvenirs, bottle of water and a bus back to the city. The place was fairly empty until 4:30 when 3 bus loads of tourists arrived from the centre. I sat next to a nice couple from Melbourne who are on a 3 month trip of South America. The show started very slowly and I couldn't help but think that I had wasted my money but by 30 minutes in the whole atmosphere had changed and everyone was really enjoying it. It was very comical and used a lot of crowd interaction from the wrestlers throwing each over the barriers into the crowd - literally knocking onlookers over, to smashing up the snack stalls and dragging people from the crowd into the ring. The quality of wrestling was pretty high class but what made the show were the costumes (from clowns to horror movie figures) and the comical nature of the show. They had a midget that ran around punching everyone in the balls, a clown that blew a whistle every time he got hit, a fat gay wrestler who kept kissing everyone and a horror movie figure with a massive chain that in the end smashed up the place and forced everyone to leave. I have to be honest and say one of my favorite things so far in Bolivia and I had not expected much so was more then pleasantly surprised. I even managed to get a photo with the two stars of the show. Another great day and tomorrow should be the same.
- comments