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Mission Impossible ? <br />To travel the world and give you all a run down of adventures, experiences, things to see and the best bars in town! I may even stop here and there and earn a few bob... but after this who would have me...<br />

South America, part II: Bolivia

Richard Rosss
2006-04-03 12:30:09

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monkey!)

After checking in, we went for brekkie and met three new guys joining us...boy, did we tell them some stories! Then we walked thru the witches market. Its a market that sells potions and occult stuff. They also sell Llama foetues and dead ones. So I got the obligatory foto kissing one...I ran away from the group and headed further into town as they were too slow. Got down to the main plaza here, and there was a massive protest going down. (I think it was about the economy) there were heaps of guards/police/soldiers and traffic wardens about in full riot gear...something was going down. There was several loud bangs from fireworks and guns reverbrating round town. So I follwowed the protest round for a bit and got some great fotos of the army dudes.

The main Morillo Plaza here is really nice, with the presidential palace, Congress and Cathedral on three sides of it. I bumped into some of the others and SAS for some lunch before the hail storm started. We were all surprised, it was really wet but warm!

In La Paz there is a prison where the inmates conduct the tour round it, so I met some other folks and we went there. There was 15 of us overall (safety in numbers). Nick from SAS negotiated with one of the prisoners for about 8 quid in. We sat around till 3 thinking what a stupaid idea it is to walk into a Bolivian prison, vountarily. But we did...

Met the "tour guide", an Bolivan born but NY educated guy who was serving 8 yrs for smuggling 4 tons of coke into NY, and then deported back here. We had three "bodyguards" as well and the number 1 man in the jail accompaining us. So we saw the prison quarters where they spend there time and live. Money is king there - cells are rented or bought for about $150-500 a month, and some cells have computers, saunas, cell fones and TV´s. Its crazy, but the richest guy there and the most powerful (he got caught smuggling 25 tons) built himself a penthouse ...