I approached La Paz as a scary town. This is the problem with reading travel guides sometimes.
With experience from the mean streets of Rio, I was prepared for the violent/crazy streets of La Paz, and honestly... It wasn't that bad! I'm not saying it's a safe place either, kidnappings are not uncommon... but "pivetes" aren't a danger here!
I stayed at Pirwa hostel, which is a couple of blocks from the bus station. The hostel has squeeky loose wooden plank floors and nice beds with duvets. Yet, you get woken up everyday at 730am, with new comers that arrive from the overnight buses!
Contrary to what I had thought, the main part of the city actually has a lot to do. You got the San Francisco church 
that has an interesting facade with native pictures in the rocks of a lady giving birth to a flower and guys chewing coca. It's also the centre of all activities of street performers at night. Beside it it's the market with a variety of shops and juicebars!
It has a street with a bunch of souvenir shops, that is near Santa Cruz (witches market) and a bunch of hair salons and places that plastify documents... Hahaha which I saw a cabby hand over some papers and whilst he sat there in traffic he got it back in time.
After the "Yungas Death Road" biking experience, my favorite activities were the walking tours! (I will do a separate post, with photos eventually!)
After a day of adapting, I woke up acclamitized and decided to go out and explore! The first tour I did brought me to "El Alto", which is where the city is growing to: the tops of the cliffs that surround the city. There 1000m difference.
They recently (in May!) built cable cars to go up and it's awesome! There will be 3 lines this year: like the flag... Red, yellow, green. It's so well used that he plans to build 5 more next year! Going up you get a great view of the city and snow capped mountains! On the way up, you can see a car that fell and got squished and stuck between the cliff. I couldn't get a photo in time! :(
Also, most of those photos are on the camera!
El Alto is heavily populated and has a huge statue of Che Guevara, which they adore, because he was anti-capitalism... It has little stalls where witches read your future (usually done with coca leaves!), it has another witches' market and these suitcases infront of stands that say jobs like: "carpenter", "painter", "plumber"... So they advertise their jobs. I really wish I had taken a photo, it was quite interesting!
On the ride back down to La Paz, you can smell the breaks...
The second tour I did was a city tour. It was done by the number one tour operator on tripadvisor. The tour guide was 25yo English girl. She was very good at talking about Bolivia!
We got explanations of a few things:
-San Pedro prison, as the tour began at the San Pedro park, which has the prison directly infront of it. It's a prison runned by inmates!
(Despite spending a while thinking about my own freedom, I really wondered if it helped deter people from committing crimes, and found out that it no, it doesn't given the amount of individuals in it.
-Cholitas: They wear lots dressed because the fashion was influenced by Spanish women, (100 years ago!). The hats, well they came small, so they figured they should wear them how they are!
They wear lots of dresses because it's cold and to emphasize their hips!
Sexiest part of a cholita: calves!
You can only be a cholita, if your mom was a cholita!
-Shoe shinners wearing facemasks, because they clean shoes that are associated with feet, which are considered the dirtiest part of the body, therefor it's a shameful job!
-The fascinating Witches' Market!
She said it best by saying: it's not made FOR tourists, it just happens to be in this part of town! It's not about our beliefs... It's a Bolivian thing.
These witches' market is a serious thing, these stores have been open for years! They do offerings as often as they need to. The obvious desires are: love (which I stayed away from!),
money and health.
Most offerings are for Pachamama (Mother Earth). She likes booze and sweets and burned baby llama featuses!
It's fascinating how deep this is a part of their culture!
I bought myself a soap that "attracts a job"...
Hopefully it'll work! Hahah
So other than the ups and downs of most streets, Cholitas, shoe shinners and and souvenirs shops... La Paz, has some interesting stuff to do.
Bolivians love to protest or march... This little one happening tonight, is for the president.
Bolivians... They don't seem to enjoy our foreigner presence. They avoid us. It's awkward. At first I figured they might be shy like the Japanese or something, but nah, they just "don't care", like they even don't bother acknowledging your presence. As a Brazilian, this sort of offends me... Yet, I do prefer it over "in-your-face" cultures...
Hardest product to find in La Paz is: shampoo.
Easiest products to find: potatoes, candy stands, orange juice stands, something with a llama on it, glasses store, popped cereals, fresh fruit juice in a bag!
Now... It's Titicaca time! Highest lake in the world! :D
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