I've recently been reading the book "Marching Powder" about a guy who spent 5 years in San Pedro, a prison in La Paz. He was an Englishman who was busted trying to smuggle cocaine out of Bolivia. What he reveals about San Pedro is absolutely amazing. The inmates have to buy their own cell, their families can live there and come and go as the please, there are restaurants and stores all run by the inmates (Coca-Cola even has an exclusive deal to only sell coke products in the prison), and most shocking is that some of the best coke is produced inside the prison and smuggled out and sold. Basically the prisoners can do whatever they please at a price - the place is the epitome of corruption.
So anyway, this guy Thomas McFadden decides that in order to make a living in prison (they have to buy everything, even food) he would conduct tours of the place. For something like three or four years he conducted tours of the prison; bribing the guards to let tourists in, even letting them stay over night to party. It became such a popular tour that Lonely Planet even mentioned it in it's La Paz chapter of it's tour book.
Apparently, after Thomas was released in 2000 the tour continued, run by other inmates. The tours should have stopped alltogether when his book was published in 2003 but I've heard from some that you can still get in. Last night Alex and I spoke with a taxi driver who was certain we'd get in so today we had a go at it. An Aussie guy staying in our room was also intersted in going so we set off this morning to walk the five blocks to the prison. About half way there the Aussie goes white and says to me, "mate, I've got like 3 different illegal drugs in my pocket, do you think it will be a problem?" Uhhhhh, fuck yea I think to myself, we're trying to get into prison! He decides that hiding them in his sock was sufficient. So we get to San Pedro plaza which is quite a nice little city square park and on the far end is the prison. We walk up and Alex asks if we can go inside. They ask who we are visiting - no one of course we inform them, we just want to get in to see the place. "No Touristas, Muy Peligroso," they say, but also inform us we can go ask the warden. They take our passports and we head up to the wardens office. The guy is accomodating in every way but one - he wont let us in, the government won't allow it. I keep thinking how much do we have to bribe this guy to let us in but its no use, we can't get in. On our way out we take a few pictures and this guy in a black suit approaches us and make us delete them all.
I probably made it seem like I'd get into the prison, and I really wish I had, but regardless it was still pretty sweet to see the place and get close. Read the book, it rules. I should be outta Bolivia in a few days then off to Peru and Maccu Piccu. Can't wait.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Australia Day!
So there I was, sitting in the bar eating breakfast - groggy, tired, exhausted - when a bearded uber-traveler looking fellow says to me, "do you speak German?" Not entirely understanding why this question would be asked in English or why I get asked this so often when I travel, I explain to this fellow that despite my kraut-like looks I am American and in fact speak English and very, very poor Spanish. "What day is it," beard-man asks. "Saturday," I say, quite excitedly - for once I'm certain of the date, "January 26th." I get a blank stare. "It's Australia day!" Is this guy blind or dumb? There are Aussie day flyers all over the hostel and shit, the place is full of them -- who else wears boardies (swim trunks) and thongs (sandles) in a city that likely never gets over 50 degrees? "Austalia," the confused uber-traveler says, "no, I'm from Austria." ughhhhh....
Anyway, it's Australia day and I'm in La Paz. I've spent all morning trying to upload heaps of pics onto this stupid blog. But alas, blogger is a pretty shit site for uploading photos...these two pics are of the Salar de Uyuni, one of the coolest places I've ever been...really messes with your perspective. I'll try to keep this up and load some more pics but my patience is at an end...
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Bolivia
Been a while since an update. I´m in Sucre, Bolivia now. Too much to write about...
We left Mendoza and headed to Salta, our last stop in Argentina. Salta was quite a change from the rest of the country - far less European, most of the people are indiginous not white. Anyway, we had to stick around for a few days to wait for Alex´s cards so we rented a car and drove around the countryside. It was insane driving to say the least. Being with a few wrong-side-drivers (english, aussies), I had to do nearly all the driving. Out of the city was all windy mountain roads - certain death if I fucked up; and city driving was all cross-town-manhattan-fight for every inch bullshit. But it was serious fun, we got to go to many small towns that see few gringos, and saw some great natural beauty.
After Salta we headed to the Bolivian border. The bus drops you off at the border and you have to walk across to Bolivia. Due to our stellar relations with the Bolivian government I had to pày 100 American Dollars to enter the country. But whatever, this country is dirt cheap: hostel bed $5-7, buses under 5 and stellar street food for under a dollar. After the border crossing we headed straight for Tupiza where we set out on a four day jeep tour through South West Bolivia.
From what I can tell, Bolivia is nearly all moutains. It is wicked high and you can really feel the altitude (hard to breath, get drunk after 2 beers etc.). In order to fight altitude sickness many people chew coca leaves. It actually works pretty well; they don´t taste too bad and work great for an upset stomach. Also, because the country is so high, it is terribly cold. I was not at all prepared for the weather up in the mountains - it even snowed one day (remember it´s summer here). (side note: these Bolivian kids in this interent cafe are being bastards, they keep asking me for money, getting in my face and shit saying "chupa, chupa, chupa.") Anyway, the jeep tour ranged from amazing to absolutly miserable. We saw geysers, red lakes and of course the Salar de Uyuni - probabally the coolest place I´ve ever been.
After the jeep tour we headed to Potosi (the highest city on earth, I believe). Somehow, in Potosi, I was convinced to climb around a mine that was supposed to collapse four years ago. It was terrifying, something I´m glad I did but will never do again. We also got to blow up some dynamite. Anyone can buy the stuff, it´s great.
Yesterday, in Potosi, was the miners Carnival. All the miners came down from the moutains and partied like there is no tomorrow. All the kids arm themselves with water balloons and shaving cream. Being the few gringos attending the party we were absolutly massacred - shaving cream to the face, water balloons, buckets of water - no mercy for the gringos. After a while (and a few beers) we took to arming ourselves. After that, things get a little blury due the the Bolivian moonshine we were drinking. I remember catching someone with their hand in my pocket trying to steal my camera and then, of course, someone stole my camera outright a few minutes later by slashing open my zipped pocket in a massive crowd. Just my luck. I lose all my pictures halfway through my trip, again. We were obvious targets though, we were essentially the only white kids there and really stood out. Most people were fantastic, though; they were showing us around and were very proud that white people would come so far to see their little carnival (even if it was a coincidence). Bolivians, in general are extremely hospitiable and nice. We´ve had many people go out of their way to help us. Except this kid next to me, he´s a little bastard.
Anyway, in Sucre now, going to La Paz soon. I´ll try and keep up the blogging (and will try and get some pics of Uyuni up cause its absolutly amazing).
And I can´t believe I´m rooting for the Packers to beat New York!
We left Mendoza and headed to Salta, our last stop in Argentina. Salta was quite a change from the rest of the country - far less European, most of the people are indiginous not white. Anyway, we had to stick around for a few days to wait for Alex´s cards so we rented a car and drove around the countryside. It was insane driving to say the least. Being with a few wrong-side-drivers (english, aussies), I had to do nearly all the driving. Out of the city was all windy mountain roads - certain death if I fucked up; and city driving was all cross-town-manhattan-fight for every inch bullshit. But it was serious fun, we got to go to many small towns that see few gringos, and saw some great natural beauty.
After Salta we headed to the Bolivian border. The bus drops you off at the border and you have to walk across to Bolivia. Due to our stellar relations with the Bolivian government I had to pày 100 American Dollars to enter the country. But whatever, this country is dirt cheap: hostel bed $5-7, buses under 5 and stellar street food for under a dollar. After the border crossing we headed straight for Tupiza where we set out on a four day jeep tour through South West Bolivia.
From what I can tell, Bolivia is nearly all moutains. It is wicked high and you can really feel the altitude (hard to breath, get drunk after 2 beers etc.). In order to fight altitude sickness many people chew coca leaves. It actually works pretty well; they don´t taste too bad and work great for an upset stomach. Also, because the country is so high, it is terribly cold. I was not at all prepared for the weather up in the mountains - it even snowed one day (remember it´s summer here). (side note: these Bolivian kids in this interent cafe are being bastards, they keep asking me for money, getting in my face and shit saying "chupa, chupa, chupa.") Anyway, the jeep tour ranged from amazing to absolutly miserable. We saw geysers, red lakes and of course the Salar de Uyuni - probabally the coolest place I´ve ever been.
After the jeep tour we headed to Potosi (the highest city on earth, I believe). Somehow, in Potosi, I was convinced to climb around a mine that was supposed to collapse four years ago. It was terrifying, something I´m glad I did but will never do again. We also got to blow up some dynamite. Anyone can buy the stuff, it´s great.
Yesterday, in Potosi, was the miners Carnival. All the miners came down from the moutains and partied like there is no tomorrow. All the kids arm themselves with water balloons and shaving cream. Being the few gringos attending the party we were absolutly massacred - shaving cream to the face, water balloons, buckets of water - no mercy for the gringos. After a while (and a few beers) we took to arming ourselves. After that, things get a little blury due the the Bolivian moonshine we were drinking. I remember catching someone with their hand in my pocket trying to steal my camera and then, of course, someone stole my camera outright a few minutes later by slashing open my zipped pocket in a massive crowd. Just my luck. I lose all my pictures halfway through my trip, again. We were obvious targets though, we were essentially the only white kids there and really stood out. Most people were fantastic, though; they were showing us around and were very proud that white people would come so far to see their little carnival (even if it was a coincidence). Bolivians, in general are extremely hospitiable and nice. We´ve had many people go out of their way to help us. Except this kid next to me, he´s a little bastard.
Anyway, in Sucre now, going to La Paz soon. I´ll try and keep up the blogging (and will try and get some pics of Uyuni up cause its absolutly amazing).
And I can´t believe I´m rooting for the Packers to beat New York!
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Happy New Year!
A bit late I know, but to say I've been lazy the last week would be an understatement. All the hiking and go-go-go in Tierra Del Fuego and Patagonia wore me out and I feel I've earned the right to be a bum over the holidays. I'm currently in Mendoza - wine country in Argentina. It's definetly my kind of place; wine is dirt cheap and it is quite nice to be in a proper city again. New Year was a blast. We had a party at the hostel, big grill-out with like 30 steaks, two whole chickens and a bunch of chorrizo for about 15 people. Unfortunatly, later in the night, Alex, the dude I've been traveling with, decided to take a drunken walk around town late at night and was jumped. He lost some money and all of his bank cards. Not cool. We're both heading up to Salta (our last stop in Argentina) tonight and hopefully his new cards will meet us there. I'm not terribly optomistic that they'll arrive soon which leaves me with some tough decisions to make. I'd rather not head into Bolivia alone but I certainly can't affort to stay in Salta for an extented period of time -- I've got too much ground to cover in the next 3 months.
Anyway, this is likely to be my last Argentinian post (unless I get stuck in Salta). It's a great country and seems to be on the upswing. Since the Peso fell tourism has expanded drastically, new hostels are opening every day and small towns are now seeing the money in the form of gringos with packs wandering down their once deserted streets. It's still somewhat cheap to travel the country but I feel this will soon change. As of now you can get a hostel bed for around $10-13, a liter beer at a bodega for $1 or less, a nice meal at a restaurant for $5 and ride the subway in BA for about 27 cents. Apparently, last summer it was even cheaper -- prices will continue going up as more and more find out about this great place. Seriously, if I hadn't moved all my stuff to NYC this entry would likely read: screw you guys I'm moving to Buenos Aires. Seriously....
Anyway, this is likely to be my last Argentinian post (unless I get stuck in Salta). It's a great country and seems to be on the upswing. Since the Peso fell tourism has expanded drastically, new hostels are opening every day and small towns are now seeing the money in the form of gringos with packs wandering down their once deserted streets. It's still somewhat cheap to travel the country but I feel this will soon change. As of now you can get a hostel bed for around $10-13, a liter beer at a bodega for $1 or less, a nice meal at a restaurant for $5 and ride the subway in BA for about 27 cents. Apparently, last summer it was even cheaper -- prices will continue going up as more and more find out about this great place. Seriously, if I hadn't moved all my stuff to NYC this entry would likely read: screw you guys I'm moving to Buenos Aires. Seriously....
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