We are now in a small town in southern Bolivia about to embark on a four day tour of the salt flats. Our Internet connection is too slow to upload photos, so I decided to choose a topic. On our tour, we will only have electricity for an hour a day, so I think it's safe to say there won't be wifi.
The weirdness of this country is apparent from the moment you cross the border. We planned on buying our visas at the border crossing, but didn't foresee that they only accept US dollars: a federally run operation that won't accept Bolivian currency. Once across the border, the next thing you notice is these fancy traffic lights on the streets with countdown timers: the poorest country in Latin America and they chose to splurge on the traffic lights. There are lots of "peculiarities", but I have chosen to write about some of the most popular attraction for tourists that we have no intention of seeing.
The Worlds Most Dangerous Road
Biking down this road outside La Paz is the number one attraction on TripAdvisor. It got this name because of the insane number of fatalities that happen along this narrow cliff clinging road with 600m drops. They even sell tshirts stating that you did it. From what I can tell, the main reason for its popularity is so people can tell their friends that they biked down the most dangerous road in the world. Actually, in the last few years, guard rails have been put up but I'm sure the tourists can chose to over look that.
Visiting the mines in Potosi
Potosi is a pretty mining town and one of the highest cities in the world at 4070m. It's nice, but the altitude makes even short walks tough (I was there last time I was in Bolivia). There are of course functioning mines all over South America, but for whatever reason, taking a tour of these has become a big attraction, probably to see first hand the awful conditions the miners work under (many of whom die young). Some tourists give them little gifts like flashlights perhaps to assuage their guilt for essentially doing little to help their situation. Those sorts of photographs I don't need in my collection.
Tinku
Potosi is also known for this bizarre (at least to the outsider) event which takes place in early May, around when we would be in the area. My guidebook politically correctly describes it as "ritualized means of discharging tensions between indigenous communities." It starts with singing and dancing and swigging "puro", aka rubbing alcohol to the point of being seriously wasted. At this point, the men essentially start beating the crap out of anyone they think may have slighted them in the past year, but in a "rhythmic" and "choreographed" way. Stones are also thrown and serious injury and even death can occur. It's not a popular tourist attraction, but apparently two tour companies do make the visit.
San Perdo prison
I have to admit, this really does fascinate me. It's a famous prison in La Paz because it is essentially a self governing little city. At some point, the authorities just left the prisoners to their own devices and what they created is quite interesting. It has its own governing body with elected officials, stores, restaurants, you name it. The prisoners' wives and often children live within the walls too. I recently finished an autobiography about an English drug dealer who ended up there for a number of years called, Marching Powder: The True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jail. He started tours of the jail which apparently continue, but besides being illegal, are not always welcome, and are unsafe.
Of course all this said, there are plenty of "curiosities" we will witness and hope to write about.
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