So after hanging out in Chile for a little while and draining my money on the rediculously overpriced things I needed to leave. I headed back for Peru to visit some of the cool cities that I never got a chance to before. After heading to a little town on the boarder of Chile and Peru but still in Chile, I boarded a train to head across the border into Peru. I was chatting with some Chilean women on the train and she told me that in the town where I was headed just across the border there was a bunch of protesting and a civil war going on, so I was a little sketched about arriving. After I did arrive at the bus station I booked an overnight bus to the city of Arequipa in Peru. The only problem was it was about 7 in the morning and my bus wasn´t until 8pm. After leaving my bags with the bus company, and having a disgusting shower in the bathroom at the bus station I headed into town. I didn´t see much of anything going on except a bunch of old people hanging out in the town square feeding some pigeons. After being completely bored out of my mind i had a nap in a park and read some of my book and sat around doing a whole lot of nothing. After finally getting on my bus I made it to Arequipa the next morning.
I thought it would be a good idea to walk to my hostel instead of taking a cab and after about 45 minutes of walking i gave up on that idea and took a cab for a measly 3 soles which is about $1. I heard that my friend Drew from LA who I met in Ecuador a few months earlier was in town also and after trying to arrange a meet up, but failing a few times I basically just hung out around the city and explored some cool markets and made some wicked ham sandwiches in my hostel. The next day I finally met up with Drew at this really cool hostel he was at along with some other really cool dudes from England, Ireland, and the states. I was planning on hanging out in Arequipa for a little while and then heading to this town called Huacachina just outside of Ica where you can sandboard and stuff, but Drew told me that he was heading for Ica the next day and I decided it would be way more fun to just travel with him and go sandboarding and stuff rather than going by myself. After catching up for a bit and exchanging hilarious stories of things that have happened to us since Ecuador we all headed to the best go-karts I have ever been to in my life. There was this really cool indoor go-kart track just around the corner with these super fast go-karts that had completely bald tires on a super slippery floor, so you can have some super wicked drifting around corners and get the karts completely sideways and have the wickedest drifts ever. It was like fast and the furious peruvian drift. Oh and the other thing about these go-karts were that there were no rules, you could basically crash as hard as you want into anyone or ANYTHING haha, and the guys running it would just smile and fix your kart if it was backwards or anything. So basically if someone took a drift too hard around a corner and got sideways and stuck,theperson behind him could t-bone that sucker at full speed haha, and we didn´t even wear helmets. The best part is they were only about 75 cents a go. So after spending hours having the best go-kart experience of my life we headed back to the hostel and play a game of giant jenga with huuuge blocks as the pieces. Wearing a hard-hat is neccesary sometimes. After completely owning everybody we all headed to the club which was actually pretty fun. I´m not a huge clubber but Ispent the entire night on the dance floor not getting back home till about 4am. The next day Drew and I headed to this museum of an ice mummy that was super cool, (literally). Basically it is this super preserved child that was sacrificed on the top of one of the highest summits in the area. After watching a video documentary about her you walk around, see all the cool items, and then you get to see her which is really creepy. We didn´t leave the museum without playing a super childish game called the penis game which involves one person saying the word penis quietly, and increasing the volume with each turn. After winning the game we headed back to the hostel to cook up an insanely awesome barbeque before heading on our bus to Ica. Oh yeah did I mention that I saw a guy taking a dump in the middle of the road in broad daylight.
After a grueling 12 hour overnight bus to Ica, and having the bus driver forget to let us off about 30km out of the way. We finally made it to Ica and headed to the village of Huacachina. Huacachina is this tiny little town surrounded by an oasis, surrounded by giant sand dunes in the middle of the desert. we hung out around the pool in our hostel most of the day and got lunch with one of the barkeapers in the town. We had the Peruvian national dish which is called ceviche, Which is basically raw fish, cut up and served with onions, lettuce, lime sauce and hot sauce, and is DELICIOUS. We headed back to Huacachina to start a dune buggy/sandboarding trip in the nearby sand dunes. When we started our driver was pretty wild pulling some crazy maneuvers over these sand dunes and stopping in some sweet spots to sandboard. Being the only one with snowboard experience I headed down on my feet a few times carving through the soft sand down to the bottom before hopping back on our buggy for the next wicked spot. After seeing my friends going down head first and getting some INSANE speed I decided to try it and wow, I have never gone that fast in my life without some sort of machine. Our driver took us to this crazy spot over looking these sanddunes as far as the eye can see to watch the sunset. When we were heading back our driver started pulling out the crazy that he was hiding before. Getting some sweet air over these dunes and pulling some rad fish tails in the sand before returning back. Some of the most fun ive had in a while.
After leaving Ica Drew and myself headed for this national park called Paracas and wanted to explore. After checking into the nicest hostel I´ve been to on my trip, we had the idea to explore it on our own. But luckily our taxi drive offered to act as a guide instead and drove us around the entire day in the park showing us cool spots to swim and stuff. After realizing this park is in the middle of the desert and we would have totally gotten annihilated on our own we were thankful this taxi driver was super cool. He even took us fishing on this cliff. All we had was a fishing line and a hook with some bait and after 20 something minutes of catching nothing we started reelin in some mad fish. BAM, fish after fish every like 30 seconds, it was insane. After exploring some more, seeing beuatiful scenery like red sand beaches and stuff we headed back to our super beachfront hostel which was only about $5 a night and partied with some cool people from France and Spain.
Drew and I left Paracas to head back to the capital city of Lima because we both have flights pretty soon to return home. After checking into our hostel we were randomly greeted by some friends we met in Arequipa like I mentioned before. We all headed to the club that night which was super lame. First of all we were supposed to get into for free but ended up having to pay about $7 to get in which is super expensive for Peruvian standards. The music was cool at the beginning and there were guns that shot out conffetti, but after a few hours all it was, was shitty salsa music. This club was soooo packed you couldnt even move and we didn´t end up getting back till about 5 am in the morning. Drew left to head back to LA, and the rest of my time I have here is going to be spent hangin out doing a whole lot of nothing because I am broker than a joker except making the best fruit salads ever. you can get about 4 mangos, 5 bananas, 3 apples, a box of strawberrys for about $1 here.
I am actually kind of excited to be heading home to see everyone again after soo long. Its definetly going to be super weird leaving this continent after getting so comfortable with it. I am definetly going to miss the cheapness of it the most. I love the fact that you can get a whole meal with some good hardy food, like a giant soup for a starter, followed by a huge plate of rice, veggies, and some chicken, and finished off with some desert, all for $1. I am bummed that I am going to have to pay tons of money for something totally not filling, when I get back home. I am stoked to get back for winter cuz I have definetly had my fix of sunshine here after spending the last 3 weeks around desert cities. I stocked up on alapaca wear for the cold winters of Vancouver. Also it is going to be Christmas soon and I am super stoked for that because I have finished ALL my christmas shopping down here, so I have nothing to worry about. I am stoked to give all my presents to people, because they will like all the cool things I got them from south america, as opposed to boring normal things from Canada. Well that is all that is new in my life, maybe something crazy and exciting will happen to me that I can write about before I head home. guess I will see everyone soon.
Thanks!
I love you all!
- Justen Ortiz
Friday, November 21, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Driving across Mars
From La Paz Bolivia i made my way down to a little down in the desert called Oruro where after doing my research found out that i could take a train from the town of Oruro to another town by the name of Uyuni to where i was trying to get to. After hearing horror stories of people doing the same route but via bus which is about 12 hours and on a dirt road (barely even) which is insanely bumpy the entire time, i figured it would be a better idea if i took the train which is cheaper, faster, and more convenient. I arrived in Oruro a day earlier to buy a ticket in advance cuz i heard they sell out fast. after buying my ticket i checked into my hostel which was probably the worst i have ever been in during my life. It was about the size of a large bathroom with no windows and an old rusty bed. When i was in the prison in La Paz the jail cells were alot nicer than this. I didnt want to hang out there long so i decided the wonder the streets of Oruro, where i found a cool black market thingy selling everything from clothes, electronics, food, and shoes. After relentlessly trying to convince some of the vendors that they should trade me my old shoes for some nice new ones i headed to my jail cell to sleep.
After arriving in Uyuni from the super nice train, i booked a 3 day jeep trip across the desert for the next morning. So the next morning i got up fairly early to have a shower and organize all my stuff because i was going to get dropped off at the end of the tour and hop over to Chile from the tour. As i went to have my shower i closed my door and walked to the shower only to realize i forgot something in my room. As i go to get it i realized that the door locked with the key still inside of my room, leaving me outside wearing only a towel, no shirt no shoes nothing only a towel. It being about 7:ooam the owner of the hostel was still sleeping and i had to wait around for about an hour in my towel until finally he came and opened my door. After a bad start i headed 0ff the where we were going to start our jeep journy. I soon met the other members of the group which were a few people from New Zealand and a guy from Germany and one from Isreal. We set off with our driver/guide/cook, whose name we couldnt pronounced, so we ended up just calling him Pablo. We soon realized that our new friend Pablo didnt speak any english, and me being the only one in our group that could speak spanish, i got to act as a sort of second guide/ translator which was actually really fun.
The first day of the tour we first stopped in an old train cemetery located just outside of town where we stopped to take some photos and mill around. Then we set out for the salar de uyuni or salt flats, which Bolivia is most known for. The salt flats were actually really stunning and alot of fun. For miles as far as the eye can see is just white salt for the ground, it is the biggest salt flat in the world. After taking alot of cool photos in the salar we headed through the desert into a little area called isla de los pescados where there were giant cacti and really cool terrain where we trekked around for a bit before heading to our hostel for the night which is a building almost entirely made of salt, where we had a nice sleep and awesome food from our man Pablo.
The second day we headed through the desert more, where the landscape started to change dramatically and in my opinion and mind is what i think Mars would look like. I was just stunning landscapes of redish dirt and volcanos, with lagoons the colour of greens and reds, with mountains that were greenish blues and whites. It was really cool. After driving through the Mars terrain for a few hours we arrived to this really cool rock tree thingy where we got out to take some photos. Photos for me just werent enough and although it was well posted saying please dont climb, I just had to climb it. After a very tricky climb, my rockclimbing skills prevailed as i reached the summit which was an amazing 15 feet from the ground. I know, i am amazing. Ok, and then we stopped at a couple cool lagoon with a ton of flamingos just loungin around where i got to practice m awesome photography skills. After a really cool day of exploring Mars we arrived at the place where we slept but this time it wasnt made of salt it was only concrete, how boring. After meeting a couple really cool Israeli people (one whose name is DOOR which i thought was hilarious) i hung out playing cards with them for most of the night, and after a few hours i finally learned how to count to 10 in hebrew. For the next morning we had to get up at about 4 am to catch these really cool geysers in the morning, and after Pablo relentlessly explaing to us that we NEED to get up and its super important blah blah blah we headed to bed.
Being the super morning person i am i was the first up and dressed and had the role of waking everyone up. After hanging around for a bit with everything it soon became 430 and no sign of Pablo. Me and my friend Lincoln headed for Pablos room where we could hear probably the loudest snoring i have ever heard in my life. We gently knocked on his window, "Pablo", no answer so i knocked a little louder, " amigo!" Still no answer. So i knocked really loud, " Illadion!!" (which was actually his REAL name) and still no answer. It was like a bear in hibernation, this guy just couldnt wake up. So finally we banged super loud on his door and we could here him stumble up and mumble something and ask what time it is. after 5 minutes he came out smiling and we were off. We started at these really cool geysers for a bit and then arrived at thes really nice hot springs where we hung out for abit because it was insanly cold in the morning in the desert. after that we cheked out some more lagoons nothing too exciting and then we got transfered to a buss where we headed for the Chilean border.
After arriving in a little desert town in Chile by the name of San Pedro de Atacama we soon realized that everything is insanly expensive in Chile, this was definetly not cool. We basically hung out a little for the first day, got some food that was really overpriced, and slept in our hostel which was super overpriced. My friend Nick from Germany said he had a friend that lived here and she said me and Nick could spend the night at her place which would be awesome and save us some money. So after we called her she said that she was gonna be back tommorow morning and we can call her then and it was no problem that we slept there, and maybe she could show us around. The next morning came and we got some breakfast, then called her but no answer. We thought maybe it was busy or she was in the shower so we figured we would call her back later. Couple hours later still no answer. Couple more hours still no answer. So we came to the conclusion that this girl was gonna be a no show and figured we should just go on with our day. Me Nick and our friends from new zealand rented some mountain bikes and headed out for a nearby oasis into the desert, where we could have a nice swim. After heading out into the desert with the blazing hot sun on us we rode for about 45 minutes only to realize we were heading in the complete opposite direction. Coming to the conclusion that once we found thsi oasis, it was going to be well worth the effort. So a bunch of kilometers later we finally arrived, exhausted to this oasis, which turned out more like a well developed pool, rather than an oasis. It was still nice but just not what we pictured. After heading back me and Nick tried "Ms. says we can sleep there than ignore our calls" once more and what a surprise, still no answer. Nick and I really did not want to pay for another night at our hostel especially because i am starting to run really low on my cash. So we decided that we would just stash our bags there and take our sleeping bags and just camp in a random alley or behind a building or anywhere. We found a good spot behind a hostel and set our sleeping bags up ( with no tent might i add) and just slept there for the night which surpisingly wasnt that bad at all.
Tonight i have a night bus up to a little beach town right buy the peruvian border, because i am gonna get the heck out of Chile because it is waay too expensive and i really need to preserve my money. So thank you all for reading about my stories and i will update as soon as possible thanks!
- Justen Ortiz
After arriving in Uyuni from the super nice train, i booked a 3 day jeep trip across the desert for the next morning. So the next morning i got up fairly early to have a shower and organize all my stuff because i was going to get dropped off at the end of the tour and hop over to Chile from the tour. As i went to have my shower i closed my door and walked to the shower only to realize i forgot something in my room. As i go to get it i realized that the door locked with the key still inside of my room, leaving me outside wearing only a towel, no shirt no shoes nothing only a towel. It being about 7:ooam the owner of the hostel was still sleeping and i had to wait around for about an hour in my towel until finally he came and opened my door. After a bad start i headed 0ff the where we were going to start our jeep journy. I soon met the other members of the group which were a few people from New Zealand and a guy from Germany and one from Isreal. We set off with our driver/guide/cook, whose name we couldnt pronounced, so we ended up just calling him Pablo. We soon realized that our new friend Pablo didnt speak any english, and me being the only one in our group that could speak spanish, i got to act as a sort of second guide/ translator which was actually really fun.
The first day of the tour we first stopped in an old train cemetery located just outside of town where we stopped to take some photos and mill around. Then we set out for the salar de uyuni or salt flats, which Bolivia is most known for. The salt flats were actually really stunning and alot of fun. For miles as far as the eye can see is just white salt for the ground, it is the biggest salt flat in the world. After taking alot of cool photos in the salar we headed through the desert into a little area called isla de los pescados where there were giant cacti and really cool terrain where we trekked around for a bit before heading to our hostel for the night which is a building almost entirely made of salt, where we had a nice sleep and awesome food from our man Pablo.
The second day we headed through the desert more, where the landscape started to change dramatically and in my opinion and mind is what i think Mars would look like. I was just stunning landscapes of redish dirt and volcanos, with lagoons the colour of greens and reds, with mountains that were greenish blues and whites. It was really cool. After driving through the Mars terrain for a few hours we arrived to this really cool rock tree thingy where we got out to take some photos. Photos for me just werent enough and although it was well posted saying please dont climb, I just had to climb it. After a very tricky climb, my rockclimbing skills prevailed as i reached the summit which was an amazing 15 feet from the ground. I know, i am amazing. Ok, and then we stopped at a couple cool lagoon with a ton of flamingos just loungin around where i got to practice m awesome photography skills. After a really cool day of exploring Mars we arrived at the place where we slept but this time it wasnt made of salt it was only concrete, how boring. After meeting a couple really cool Israeli people (one whose name is DOOR which i thought was hilarious) i hung out playing cards with them for most of the night, and after a few hours i finally learned how to count to 10 in hebrew. For the next morning we had to get up at about 4 am to catch these really cool geysers in the morning, and after Pablo relentlessly explaing to us that we NEED to get up and its super important blah blah blah we headed to bed.
Being the super morning person i am i was the first up and dressed and had the role of waking everyone up. After hanging around for a bit with everything it soon became 430 and no sign of Pablo. Me and my friend Lincoln headed for Pablos room where we could hear probably the loudest snoring i have ever heard in my life. We gently knocked on his window, "Pablo", no answer so i knocked a little louder, " amigo!" Still no answer. So i knocked really loud, " Illadion!!" (which was actually his REAL name) and still no answer. It was like a bear in hibernation, this guy just couldnt wake up. So finally we banged super loud on his door and we could here him stumble up and mumble something and ask what time it is. after 5 minutes he came out smiling and we were off. We started at these really cool geysers for a bit and then arrived at thes really nice hot springs where we hung out for abit because it was insanly cold in the morning in the desert. after that we cheked out some more lagoons nothing too exciting and then we got transfered to a buss where we headed for the Chilean border.
After arriving in a little desert town in Chile by the name of San Pedro de Atacama we soon realized that everything is insanly expensive in Chile, this was definetly not cool. We basically hung out a little for the first day, got some food that was really overpriced, and slept in our hostel which was super overpriced. My friend Nick from Germany said he had a friend that lived here and she said me and Nick could spend the night at her place which would be awesome and save us some money. So after we called her she said that she was gonna be back tommorow morning and we can call her then and it was no problem that we slept there, and maybe she could show us around. The next morning came and we got some breakfast, then called her but no answer. We thought maybe it was busy or she was in the shower so we figured we would call her back later. Couple hours later still no answer. Couple more hours still no answer. So we came to the conclusion that this girl was gonna be a no show and figured we should just go on with our day. Me Nick and our friends from new zealand rented some mountain bikes and headed out for a nearby oasis into the desert, where we could have a nice swim. After heading out into the desert with the blazing hot sun on us we rode for about 45 minutes only to realize we were heading in the complete opposite direction. Coming to the conclusion that once we found thsi oasis, it was going to be well worth the effort. So a bunch of kilometers later we finally arrived, exhausted to this oasis, which turned out more like a well developed pool, rather than an oasis. It was still nice but just not what we pictured. After heading back me and Nick tried "Ms. says we can sleep there than ignore our calls" once more and what a surprise, still no answer. Nick and I really did not want to pay for another night at our hostel especially because i am starting to run really low on my cash. So we decided that we would just stash our bags there and take our sleeping bags and just camp in a random alley or behind a building or anywhere. We found a good spot behind a hostel and set our sleeping bags up ( with no tent might i add) and just slept there for the night which surpisingly wasnt that bad at all.
Tonight i have a night bus up to a little beach town right buy the peruvian border, because i am gonna get the heck out of Chile because it is waay too expensive and i really need to preserve my money. So thank you all for reading about my stories and i will update as soon as possible thanks!
- Justen Ortiz
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Going to jail in Bolivia
Only visiting...haha i bet you were concerned for a second there, or at least i hope you were concerned for me. But that story comes later. Firstly, as I was leaving Cusco Peru I heard from alot of sources that there were a lot of protesting going on and that the roads from Cusco to Puno, where I was headed were blocked by protesters placing huge rocks and trees in the roads closing all traffic to and from the city of Puno. I heard alot of stories about these buses getting attacked by protesters who would throw stones and objects at the buses and smashing the windows and all kinds of crazy things. Being a daredevil risk taker i was i decided to go anyway. As i was leaving the bus terminal from Cusco i saw alot of buses arriving from puno that had tape over the windows that were smashed. The bus company told me that they were going to take a different route that would take 12 hours instead of the standard 5. Luckily i had a first class seat that fully reclined into a bed and I slept the entire bus ride to Puno and nothing at all happened to me. I dont know if i got lucky or the protests were over but it was probably the easiest bus ride ive ever taken. I woke up only 8 hours after we left and asked the pasenger next to me where we were and he rosponded with Puno. After arriving in Puno i set out to check out the cool different islands of the lake next to Puno called Lake titicaca. Lake titicaca is the highest navible lake in the entire world and is just massive. First i checked out these really cool floating islands of the uros people, which are basically made from these reeds found on the shores of the lake and constructed together about 100 yards long and host several families. These floating islands can also be maneauvered to other areas of the lake. After the floating islands me and the group I was with set out to another island by the name of amantani where we met up with a host family for which we stayed the night, and partied with the local indigenous people. The next morning we set out to check out another island by the name of taquile where we explored a bit had lunch and returned back to the shores of Puno for halloween. At first i thought my halloween was going to be really boring this year because i didnt even know if people in south america celebrated halloween. But as soon as night came the streets were soooo packed with people and little kids in costumes going trick or treating. But instead of saying trick or treat they say halloween! halloween!. My friend Tim and I saw these little kids going around to all the stores and all the tourists saying halloween halloween asking for candy, so we decided to join in on the fun and say or ask halloween halloween to all the little kids and store owners. Within an hour we had handfuls of candy and then started giving some of it out to other kids. All in all it was a pretty fun halloween.
Next comes Bolivia. When i arrived in La Paz Bolivia the first glimpse of the city is just astonishing because you come in from high up in the mountains and get a clear view over the entire city which is situated right in a valley in the Andes. After spending a day of exploring i found the black market and a place called the witches market which sells everything from aborted llama fetuses to dried frogs and different kinds of weird potions. the next day i went to a local wrestling event called cholitas wrestling which was like a bolivian version of WWE which was actually really fun with lots of crowd participation. The next day i booked a mountain biking tour on a place called the worlds most dangerous road. At first i thought this was just a lame marketing slogan but after starting it i realized that it actually is classified as the worlds most dangerous road and that they are not joking about it. You start off pretty high up in the alititude and start a 64 km journey all downhill on a road that is only one lane wide and all dirt and gravel roads with straight cliffs on the corners that were about 1500ft down. Sometimes we would reach speeds of about 65km an hour and some corners were insanely sharp and the dirt road didnt help either. Our guide told us that he has seen alot of people die and that he takes people to the hopsital on a weekly basis. Every 20 minutes we weould stop and he would tell us things like oh this is the corner where a girl fell off the cliff and it was too far for us to rescue her with a safety rope so she suffered a long painful death. Or things like this is where a guy bailed and need facial reconstruction. Even while your flying down this super steep and winding road you would see tombstones on a bunch of the corners. But everything was fine and we all made it to the bottom where we arrived at a really cool animal rescue center which had a bunch of monkey that you can play with and even a swimming pool. On our way back on the bus to La Paz we encountered a huge bus accident where the bus flipped over and almost went off a cliff. We stopped for a bit to see if everyone was alright and then gave a ride to some of the victims to the hospital in our bus.
As for my prison story. Me and some people at the hostel i am staying at got in contact with a prisoner from the San Pedro prison and set up an illegal tour of it with him. After arriving to the prison we realized that there were huge protests going on in the section we were supposed to be going into which was known as the gringo section, Where alot of tourists can come to visit. After sitting out front for awhile we were approached by a guy by the name of kennith which was a former inmate and told us we can get into the Bolivian side of the prison which was actually more authentic and a better experience where not alot of people get to see. So after giving the guards a bribe of about $30 we got into the prison and were met with a different prisoner guide by the name of Manuel and 2 body guards which were other prisoners also, one of which was a murderer and reminded of, and kinda looked like the bad guy in no country for old men except a Bolivian guy instead of a white guy. My first impression was a little shocked and intimidated because we were surrounded by all these crazy Bolivian prisoners who have killed people and stuff. Oh and also our guide Manuel was super hopped up on cocaine too, but a really nice and friendly guy. He started the tour by showing us different sections of the prison like the hospital which only had a few beds for the entire prison, and the doctors are other inmates. Manuel then explained to us that you have to pay for EVERYTHING in the prison including a room and bed and food. And if you cant then you sleep on the ground and die. For this reason everybody in the prison sets up there own little business which might include a restaurant, or dealing drugs. They even have a cocaine factory inside the prison which produces a majority of the drugs found in bolivia. All the guards except bribes or drugs from the prisoners for things in return like allowing there family and children to come stay with them inside the prison. Therefore there were a bunch of little kids wondering around this prison, I thought ahead to buy a bunch of lollypops and handed them out to the kids and every kid i gave one to had a huuuge smile on his face. Manuel then showed us other sections of the prison like the part they put prisoners to punish them and showed us a bunch of peoples cells. Some were pretty decent and some were really terrible, I guess is all depends on how much money you have and the type of business you do in there. One guys room was this little storage space under the stairs that looked even too small for a midget, and manuel explained to us that he has lived there for 21 years. Walking around this prison talking with some of the inmates and even sharing a laugh with some known murderers was a really strange experience for me and something i wont forget. Well i only have one more day in La Paz then i head down more south of Bolivia and then over to Chile. Thanks for reading
Justen Ortiz
Next comes Bolivia. When i arrived in La Paz Bolivia the first glimpse of the city is just astonishing because you come in from high up in the mountains and get a clear view over the entire city which is situated right in a valley in the Andes. After spending a day of exploring i found the black market and a place called the witches market which sells everything from aborted llama fetuses to dried frogs and different kinds of weird potions. the next day i went to a local wrestling event called cholitas wrestling which was like a bolivian version of WWE which was actually really fun with lots of crowd participation. The next day i booked a mountain biking tour on a place called the worlds most dangerous road. At first i thought this was just a lame marketing slogan but after starting it i realized that it actually is classified as the worlds most dangerous road and that they are not joking about it. You start off pretty high up in the alititude and start a 64 km journey all downhill on a road that is only one lane wide and all dirt and gravel roads with straight cliffs on the corners that were about 1500ft down. Sometimes we would reach speeds of about 65km an hour and some corners were insanely sharp and the dirt road didnt help either. Our guide told us that he has seen alot of people die and that he takes people to the hopsital on a weekly basis. Every 20 minutes we weould stop and he would tell us things like oh this is the corner where a girl fell off the cliff and it was too far for us to rescue her with a safety rope so she suffered a long painful death. Or things like this is where a guy bailed and need facial reconstruction. Even while your flying down this super steep and winding road you would see tombstones on a bunch of the corners. But everything was fine and we all made it to the bottom where we arrived at a really cool animal rescue center which had a bunch of monkey that you can play with and even a swimming pool. On our way back on the bus to La Paz we encountered a huge bus accident where the bus flipped over and almost went off a cliff. We stopped for a bit to see if everyone was alright and then gave a ride to some of the victims to the hospital in our bus.
As for my prison story. Me and some people at the hostel i am staying at got in contact with a prisoner from the San Pedro prison and set up an illegal tour of it with him. After arriving to the prison we realized that there were huge protests going on in the section we were supposed to be going into which was known as the gringo section, Where alot of tourists can come to visit. After sitting out front for awhile we were approached by a guy by the name of kennith which was a former inmate and told us we can get into the Bolivian side of the prison which was actually more authentic and a better experience where not alot of people get to see. So after giving the guards a bribe of about $30 we got into the prison and were met with a different prisoner guide by the name of Manuel and 2 body guards which were other prisoners also, one of which was a murderer and reminded of, and kinda looked like the bad guy in no country for old men except a Bolivian guy instead of a white guy. My first impression was a little shocked and intimidated because we were surrounded by all these crazy Bolivian prisoners who have killed people and stuff. Oh and also our guide Manuel was super hopped up on cocaine too, but a really nice and friendly guy. He started the tour by showing us different sections of the prison like the hospital which only had a few beds for the entire prison, and the doctors are other inmates. Manuel then explained to us that you have to pay for EVERYTHING in the prison including a room and bed and food. And if you cant then you sleep on the ground and die. For this reason everybody in the prison sets up there own little business which might include a restaurant, or dealing drugs. They even have a cocaine factory inside the prison which produces a majority of the drugs found in bolivia. All the guards except bribes or drugs from the prisoners for things in return like allowing there family and children to come stay with them inside the prison. Therefore there were a bunch of little kids wondering around this prison, I thought ahead to buy a bunch of lollypops and handed them out to the kids and every kid i gave one to had a huuuge smile on his face. Manuel then showed us other sections of the prison like the part they put prisoners to punish them and showed us a bunch of peoples cells. Some were pretty decent and some were really terrible, I guess is all depends on how much money you have and the type of business you do in there. One guys room was this little storage space under the stairs that looked even too small for a midget, and manuel explained to us that he has lived there for 21 years. Walking around this prison talking with some of the inmates and even sharing a laugh with some known murderers was a really strange experience for me and something i wont forget. Well i only have one more day in La Paz then i head down more south of Bolivia and then over to Chile. Thanks for reading
Justen Ortiz
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