Yesterday was a pretty chilled out day. As I mentioned, I went to the witch's market. Here is a bit of a longer explanation and some photos.
Those are llama fetuses. Here, when you build a new home, a ceremony must be performed and then the fetus must be buried under the house for good luck. I learned today that if you have a big house, ideally a human or two is to be buried under the home. Apparently, this rarely happens, but is more an urban legend. The market also had fortune tellers, love potions, and cold remedies.
Do you think Carrie Underwood knows she is on vaginal disinfectant boxes?
Anyway, today I got up, finalized my plans and started packing for my trip today. Living out of a backpack is exhausting. Basically every place you visit, you need to dump everything out of your bag and restart packing. Definitely one of the lows of traveling. But to put a positive spin on it, living with less items is refreshing. After that, I was off to do a 3 hour walking tour. The walking tour was not as fun as the one in Medellin, but it was free (well with a tip) and gave great insight into the city.
We started at Plaza de San Pedro. If you have ever read the book Marching Powder, you will have heard of the infamous San Pedro Prison. If you haven't read the book, read it, and here is some insight into the prison. To live in the prison, you must pay rent. The inmates have several businesses inside the prison such as renting other cells, cafes, barbers, restaurants, crafts, and making cocaine. There used to be tours inside the prison, but have stopped for the last 6 years. Additionally, Coca Cola sponsors businesses inside the prison.
Another interesting thing about the prison is the wives and children of the inmates live inside. Since in Bolivia the men tend to be the breadwinner and they are paying rent for the cell, it is hard for the woman to support themselves and hard for the families to pay a second rent. The families also face less discrimination by living inside the prison as well. The wives and children can come and go as they please. Often, the wives leave to sell goods their husbands make inside the prison. Lately, the prison has been in the news as the daughter of an inmate was allegedly raped and is pregnant. Right now the prison is in the process of being shut down. No new inmates are being admitted and I believe it is in process to release some and move others to different prisons.
After visiting the prison, we visited some markets, the Presidential Palace, the Spanish side of the city, some churches and a great look out point. Here are some photos from the day:
Presidential Palace in La Paz (fun fact: Sucre is the capital of Bolivia, not La Paz. La Paz is just where the action is.)
You can buy anything here!!
Spanish architecture
This is sad - Bambi meat store :-(. Poor Bambi's mom
Traditional Bolivian woman selling items.
One sad thing I learned on the tour was about the shoe shine people. The shoe shine people wear face masks here (like winter ski hats that cover your face). I assumed it was due to fumes. I learned today that it was due to embarrassment. They don't want anyone to recognize them. Several of them are young children and others are family men who hide from their very families what they do. I can't imagine being so embarrassed. This was another moment that made me feel grateful.
Some shoe shiners playing soccer.
After that, I had to run some errands. I needed a new purse as mine broke (30 bolivianos or $4.50 usd), a head torch for the jungle (40 bolivianos or $6usd), and a postcard. I think one nice thing to do in every place I visit is to send myself a postcard. One, it is a nice way to document the trip, two, the stamps are fun, and 3, it is always a nice challenge to look for a postcard, stamp and mail it all in a foreign tongue.
Tonight, I enjoyed a nice American style cheeseburger, some Bolivian wine, and great conversation with a French guy who spoke French, Spanish and English that was similar to my Portuguese. I speak what I would call conversational Portuguese, basic Spanish and of course English. It was fun trying to decipher what we were trying to say and a great reminder of why I love studying languages.
Well, I'm off to bed. It is 10:15 here and I have to get up at 4! Eek!! Adios!
Buenos Noches!
Kendra
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