Yes I know my title is again a little pessimistic, but here me out before you judge! La Paz is not the capital of Bolivia (that is Sucre) but it is probably the most famous city enchanted with history, witch craft and stunning views (which we did not see). But what it is most famous for is taking your breath away LITERALLY! It is at 3,650 metres about sea level so I felt like an old lady hobbling along the cobbled streets. The setting of La Paz is wild, as it is surrounded by mountains covered with houses upon houses, so driving in at night you’re greeted with what looks like a perfect starry night. This is why they have the most spectacular transport system on the planet, ‘mi teleferico’. The gondolas were introduced to transform the lives of commuters living in the favelas up in the hills and make it easier to commute into the heart of the city. Sadly we never got a chance to go up one due to time but I can only imagine the views!

As soon as we woke up in the city, we knew our first mission was to find some warm jackets. Kate’s cousin had already told her we could get some good fake North Face jackets in La Paz and that they would be necessary for the Salt Flats and our Salkantay trek. We ended up finding some which were perfect and paying £14 each, which I’m sure we could have got for less if we tried harder. Miserable and wet, but happy with our purchases, our next stop was food. Kate was in charge of the map and the weather made it hard to come accustomed to our surroundings but Jesus she was shit at directing. However, she had an excuse. BAM first one to be hit by the altitude. Everything took her about 1000hours and she had a dazed look in her eye and complained of a headache. After a while we managed to direct ourself to an Australian run restaurant and both ordered some comfort food, “two bacon and avocado bagels and a side of nachos please”. Annoyingly, the waiter thought we had only ordered one bagel between us, but Kate let me eat mine first as I complained of being hangry…

Full bellied, we went back and slept. But then we were suddenly awaken by the receptionist who was frantically apologising as she got the time wrong for our trip to see the cholita wrestling, which Kate was desperate to see. I felt a little smug as I had told Kate the receptionist had said a different time to the poster … Rushed out of our room with another girl from our room, Lily, we were plonked on our bus and off we went. On the journey Lily proceeded to tell us a story that I pray to God won’t happen to us! Lily is 24 and went to Leeds University, and she was travelling with her friend Alicia when disaster struck. Alicia lost her passport during her trek in the Colca Canyon and so was stuck in Peru until she got an emergency one, which had completely ruined their plans. So Lily was now independently travelling- I couldn’t imagine the stress. Lily seemed to be dealing with it alright and I think perhaps it was a good thing. Being pushed into these situations out of your comfort zone allow growths and when she bumped into a guy on our bus you could tell she had been successful. This made both Kate and I think whether we could handle solo travelling if something (fingers crossed) happened to the other. Kate decided no but that’s just because she talks too much so I think she would go insane due to the silence, but I really do think I would continue. I would probably change my plans around and do a 2 week English course in Medellin or something. I wish we had done this anyway…

Right, I honestly don’t even know where to begin with describing the cholita wrestling, so I am going to have to insert a video for you guys to understand. I was expecting to be smuggled into a huge dark arena, crowds cheering, rowdy members fighting… basically I was imagining wrestle mania , but it was nothing of the sort. We were bought into a light hall which reminded me of somewhere you’d do scouts or guides with a wrestling ring in the middle and some metal chairs scattered around. The one thing they did have similarly to WWE was the walk out music. Honestly this was a one of a kind event and the history behind it is really interesting. It has become super popular with both locals and tourists alike and the women wrestling really do captivate the crowd with their colorful outfits and antics even if it completely and utterly staged. I think a good comparison would be a pantomime. ‘Cholita’ use to be a derogatory name for indigenous Aymara women and their traditional style of dress but they are empowering themselves, reclaiming their culture and promoting female empowerment. Overall, I do recommend going to see it, perhaps by the 3rd round it is a little repetitive, but you’ll never see anything like it and the popcorn and Coca Cola doesn’t go amiss.

The next day the weather got a little better and so did our moods. We began the day by going on a free walking tour, which I’ve said before I love! The guides were great and we finally got a better sense of the city! As interesting as the city was La Paz still has a bad and ugly side… under every small building there is supposedly a animal sacrifice and building will only begin when this is done. For small shops and houses a dried up llama foetus (yum) will suffice, and for slightly larger buildings and adult llama is sometimes used. But what about your 5 star, multi-story hotel or office? Huge buildings need something more, and this is often a human sacrifice. The unsuspecting humans are primarily homeless alcoholics. They are lured by the promise of food and more alcohol and then unconsciously buried alive… When our guide was speaking of it he seemed very accustomed to it and didn’t seem the issue as homeless people “have nothing and no one” so “nothing is lost”… but I couldn’t tell whether this was a try at sarcasm. Finally, our tour finished with nothing better than a shot of some weird alcohol!

On a lighter note we finished our day with a night out. We were meant to go the night before but we were just so exhausted and mutually agreed to just stay in bed. The night started slow with Kate forgetting her card and money, so we went back and forth from our hostel a few times. Finally, we settled and guess where … ! Who’d have thought we would go back to a WildRover! The night was fun, we played this game called cups which was good, but it was definitely a way for the bartenders to get free drinks as the loser had to buy a round of baby Guinnesses. I had to do this once because Kate rambled me into a game but she felt bad and split the cost for the round haha. Now Kate and Pisco sours really is something but I’ll get to this when we get back to Lima. Let’s just say she doesn’t drink them anymore! As the night was drawing to an end everyone wanted to go to an after party and as it turns out our boring unsociable Selina Hostel was hosting a techno night. Here we met two of our friends and stayed up to the early hours. I think around 5am Kate decided she was hungry so she order Uber Eats. I think she should have been curious when it was charging her Soles instead of Bolivianos… it turned out she ordered it to Lima.

The next day we literally did nothing! Hungover and bored, we sat on a sofa all day watching Netflix and Youtube, waiting for our 9pm bus to the Salt Flats. We filled the day with Saltenas, crisps and fizzy drinks.