19 May 2025 10 min read

Wrestling Cholitas & bombing Death Road in La Paz

The Mi Teleférico which are the primary public transport in La Paz.

La Paz is the highest capital city* in the world, at 3650m, officially. However, depending on where you are, most of the time you are at about 4000m above sea level and you can certainly feel the altitude. Note for perspective, Aoraki Mt Cook is 3724m.

We spent about a week in La Paz, interspersed with various activities and adventures including:

Biking the infamous Death Road,
Watching the Cholitas wresting,
Visting the infamous San Pedro Prison,
Riding the Mi Teleférico (gondolas) around town, and
Enjoying the local cuisine and markets and reconnecting with friends from our travels.

While in La Paz, we also had a few other excursions which we have written about in separate posts:

A 3-day ascent of Huayna Potosí 6088m (link), and
A trip north of La Paz to a small town called Rurrenbaque where we spent 4-days in the Amazon Jungle (link).

*Officially, Sucre is the capital of Bolivia. However, La Paz is a dual capital city with Sucre, holding the seat of the government.

The dizzying heights of La Paz city

We arrived in La Paz on 1 May at 630am from a night bus from Sucre. Luckily, we had a smooth ride with no breakdowns and we managed to sleep most of the 14 hour journey.

We orientated ourselves the best way we know how; by sourcing the best local Western cafe. Cafe del Mundo became our new favourite and we indulged in barista-made coffee, Nutella crepes and fresh acai bowls for breakfast while we waited for check-in.

Cafe del Mundo. We were frequent visitors. Pictured is a latte and acai bowl for about NZD $7.

We spent the afternoon exploring the Witches' Market and riding the Mi Teleférico around town. The Mi Teleférico are gondolas that are La Paz's main mode of public transport to navigate the dizzy heights of the city. Travelling above the city is the most efficient method of transport as the streets are constantly congested with various markets, a lot of traffic and general dysfunction.

Most of the rest of our "down" time in La Paz was spent exploring the various markets, designing custom-made Patagonia synchilla sweatshirts for NZD$32, catching up with various friends from our travels plus some forced rest due to gastro (on reflection, a good thing for us).

Cholitas wrestling

Cholitas are the indigenous Aymara or Quechua women who are known for their distinctive attire; particularly their bowler hats, long braids and colourful pleated skirts.

And yes; they wrestle (at least, for show).

On our first night we indulged in the La Paz local entertainment of Cholita wrestling. Think; WWE but with traditional latin American woman. It was everything and more and quite the entertainment for a couple of hours on the Sunday evening. We were in luck, because the Cholitas only wrestle on Thursdays and Sundays.

The finishing move; the Cholita in yellow had just launched off the balcony above.

San Pedro prison

Much to my delight (the right adjective? not sure), I discovered that our hostel was on St Peter's square which was adjacent to the notorious San Pedro prison.

San Pedro prison is notorious, and made more famous by the book written by Australian author Rusty Young; Marching Powder. I read the book last year while at Tasman Saddle hut on a glacier ski trip with some mates, entranced by the real-life accounts and unknown to the fact that I would be in La Paz and get to see the real San Pedro prison in person!

The main entrance to San Pedro Prison. Note the family members lining up outside to get in and the bullet holes in the doorway. Every time the door swung open you could peep the prisoners inside.

San Pedro prison is notorious because of the following:

The prison is run by the prisoners, not the guards. There are no guards inside the prison, only on the perimeter. The prisoners administer routine, hierarchy and structure within the prison, creating a micro-society within the prison walls.
Inside the prison there are 8 different "districts" of varying prestige (think suburbs). Prisoners are required to buy their own cells and their own furnishings. The most lucrative cells are said to have jacuzzis. Most cells have TVs, kitchenettes, radios etc.
The prison has an occupancy capacity of 600 prisoners, and it is estimated there are 3000 people (prisoners and family) currently residing within the prison.
Prisoners work for a living within the prison, either running restaurants or shops such as delis, barber shops, schools, printing shops etc.
San Pedro prison is renowned for its cocaine manufacturing and exports. The cocaine is manufactured by the prisoners within the prison.
The families of prisoners live with the prisoners within the prison. Yes - the wives and children of prisoners live with the prisoners in their cells and come and go from the main prison gate on a daily basis. Within the prison there are schools and the wives often keep traditional jobs such as running the restaurants and laundry services.
San Pedro prison and the prisoners also cottoned on to the money offered by tourism. Prior to 2009, tourists could pay to enter the prison. Tourists would pay the guards and then be escorted by the prisoners within the prison itself. Tourists would party (read: pure cocaine manufacturing and alcohol) with the prisoners and would even stay overnight, for days at a time.

Having read the book and become obsessed by the function of San Pedro prison I spent about an hour hanging outside the front gates watching the coming and going of prison guards and family members entering and leaving. Every time the door swung open I could see through into the courtyard and get a peep at the prisoners.

San Pedro Prison in the background of the market. Spot the water tanks on top which are, allegedly, for the Jacuzzis of the more wealthy prisoners. It is also alleged that the prisoners launch the cocaine over the wall into this square, which is the main distribution channel from inside the prison to the outside.

We also met "Crazy Dave", a man we were told we couldn't miss. Sure enough, I knew him as soon as I saw him. While tours within the prison walls are now shut down, Crazy Dave offers a glimpse into what prison life is all about. Crazy Dave acclaims to have spent 16 years within San Pedro and during that time was involved in various roles from teaching english in the school to manufacturing cocaine. He has a large scar from a laceration above his eye, which he claims was from his induction and tells of stories of survival, escape and hierarchy within the prison. An eye-opening experience, and Crazy Dave was an entrancing story-teller.

Crazy Dave spinning us some yarns about his time inside San Pedro Prison. Now you know how I spotted him immediately?

Biking Death Road

On our third day in La Paz we left early in a tour group to head out the back of La Paz to the top of the infamous Death Road.

The Death Road is a famous road that connects La Paz to the Yungas region of Bolivia; where La Paz gets all of its agricultural produce from. The road was the main arterial route between these regions and critical for transporting goods and people, but notoriously dangerous.

The road got its nickname from its notoriously treacherous route. Records state that 200-300 people died PER YEAR travelling on this road. Tens of vehicles plummeted off the side of the road, falling up to 1000m, resulting in the very high death toll.

Death Road winding through the cloud. Approx. elevation 3800m. Imagine cargo trucks and buses navigating this route as the main road.

In 2007, a new road was built that bypassed the infamous Death Road, creating a much safer route between the regions. Death Road itself is still a public road and is still open, but is used mainly for tourists these days.

We started up high at 4800m and descended the first hour on asphalt. It was very cold up top and we were surrounded by snow capped peaks. After the first hour we turned off the main road and onto the original Death Road.

The highest point on Death Road. This section was sealed and is part of the "new" Death Road.

Riding down Death Road itself was "not too stressful nor difficult" - Laura's words. Yes it's a very dangerous road, for the trucks and buses navigating its narrow passageways. As a bike track, it's very wide and not much of a concern to navigate.

Naturally, there are still a handful of tourists who die relatively frequently riding the Death Road (apparently 49 tourists in total since 2007), but I would attribute that largely to incompetence rather than any objective risk.

Our guide, Remy, orchestrated this photo op. Laura thought it was brilliant.

It ended up being a long day. 65km of riding, descending over 3000m. We finished with a swim and lunch before the drive back to La Paz. Thankfully, on the new main road, not back up Death Road. We returned back to La Paz about 9pm in the evening.

We had to do a repack, because the next day we were starting our 3-day ascent up to the summit of Huayna Potosí. Read about our Huayna Potosí climb here.

After returning from summiting Huayna Potosí we flew north to Rurrenabaque to explore the Amazon Jungle. You can read about our Amazon Jungle experience here.

We returned to La Paz after these expeditions tired and bogged down by gastro but made the most of our final days in Bolivia.

Bolivian culture and reconvening with friends

As I sit here and write this blog, it is day 4 for me of food poisoning (2 separate incidents) and Laura has finally fallen asleep after a long day of travel, balancing vomiting, diarrhoea and a fever.

Our friends, Dani and Fletcher checking in on Laura and providing a morale boost mid-gastro.

Nevertheless, we recovered from our food poisoning and reconvened with our friends Dani and Fletcher in La Paz, who provided some great company and distraction from illness.

We learnt some fascinating cultural facts about Bolivian culture and La Paz itself. Apparently, it is custom to bury a baby llama (that died of natural causes) underneath the foundations of your building.

For larger commercial buildings (think stadiums, hotels, large commercial precincts) it is custom to bury a live person (face down, of course, so that the spirits don't escape). Dani and Fletcher tested this theory with their tour guide and it is very much a known thing. Apparently, Bolivians will find a lowly person (i.e. someone that won't be missed - think homeless person or similar). They give them the best night of their life; alcohol, drugs, prostitutes etc etc. Eventually, they pass out from the substances and never wake up, because they're placed (alive at this point) at the foot of the foundations of these structures. Crazy.

The rest of our time in La Paz was spent hanging out with Dani and Fletcher including going to a Michelin star restaurant that served a chef's 5-courses for NZD$15 and going to the coca museum to learn about the rich history of coca. Coca is a way of life in South America, and it was fascinating to learn about both the cultural significance of the plant, and then the western/ drug-induced aspects.

The main course from the Michelin star restaurant tasting menu. 5-courses for NZD$15.

Dessert from the Michelin star restaurant tasting menu. 5-courses for NZD$15.

Our time in Bolivia was fantastic. A country filled with breath-taking (literally) landscapes, brimming with culture and packed full of adventure for cheap. Bolivia's diversity provided us with the vast salt flats, the breath-taking heights of the Andes mountains, beautiful lakes, the flora and fauna of the Amazon Jungle and cities bustling with Bolivian culture.

We concluded our time in Bolivia on an overnight bus from La Paz all the way to Arequipa, Peru (total travel time approx. 24 hours). We stopped off at Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca; one of the largest lakes in the world, and at an altitude of 3600m on the way.

Adios, Bolivia - you've been awesome! Up next; Peru!