Dear Obiwan,

The next 3 days were full of needed resting…and I also witnessed one of the most…interesting and disturbing performances I have ever seen.

Saturday and Sunday, January 26th and 27th I slept and relaxed, mostly at the hostel, which has everything you need! However, on Sunday, I slept passed their breakfast so I was forced to leave my haven and go out in the real world. I found a breakfast place called “Higher Ground.” It had wonderful reviews online and man, were the reviews accurate…this place was incredible! It is Australian run, and if I learned anything from Austrailain run places like Jack’s Cafe in Machu Picchu, I knew it wouldn’t disappoint. And it was perfect! Delicious breakfast food, they actually understand the portion of food I want and they also know how to make amazing coffee! Also, the servers were all very warm and friendly and it was…wonderful :). At the cafe I met 2 nice fellow travelers and just by chance- one of them was leaving tomorrow to go to Copacabana to work! I’m going there in 2 days Obi! This guy’s name was Eric, he’s from Canada and was warm and funny and it didn’t take much convincing, I will stay at the hostel he is volunteering at!

However, the hostel is called “Joshua Vegetarian Restaurant Hostel” so I immediately told him I love meat and kinda…despise vegatarian food? It’s always mixed mushy stuff together it seems? Blech. But he said I bring my own food and eat there or just not eat there, sounds good to me!

Some photos of my wondering around La Paz:

Okay, now to the most bizarre performance act I have ever I have ever seen in my life. My roommate, Anish, told me that he was going to something called “Cholita Wrestling” today. I decided to join him. I didn’t know much about this beforehand, I had heard that there was an ‘all female WWF type show’ you could go too. So that was what I knew, it was similar to WWF, but with women in traditional Bolivian dresses.

The tour agency, RedCap tours provide either a full day tour of El Alto and the market and the wrestling…or you can just get a ride to the wrestling to and from your hostel. I chose the bus ride only option.

Cholita wrestling is location in El Alto, it is above La Paz looking down over the huge city. You can also get there by teleferico (the cool cable car system they have throughout the city)! El Alto is also famous for a huge outdoor market it has on the weekends…and maybe during the week too?

Once in El Alto, we walked through the entrance, which feels like, and I think is walking through the back or side entrance of this building.

The set up is…an old school gym or maybe even an active school gym? It is a basketball court or soccer field inside but on concrete. There are stands on one side and the court on the opposite. In the center was the stage, a huge boxing ring. Behind the ring was some simple but cute decorations creating a changing room and back room for the wrestlers.

When we walked in there were still seats in the front row…so I obviously went for those seats! Also, our tickets included 2 bathroom tickets, popcorn, soda, and a souvenir!

Then after hoards of tour groups arrived and some locals…it began.

What happened Obi was at first, a fun, hoke-y wrestling match. With an announcer…saying lots of things and I understood less than half? Then during each round there were referees, that I originally (oh how silly of me!) thought were just referees.

But before each match, the crowd votes, by yelling, for the referee. And learn QUICKLY that each referee has a favorite, and WILL CHEAT to have their favorite WIN. And it is all “fake” and an “act” but Obi, it felt VERY REAL. And some of it, WAS REAL. You would get so invested because one person somehow was always a bad guy and you want the good girl to win so badly! And they do it so well because you as an audience member are SO INVESTED. I truly cared for these characters and truly disliked the bad ones…and the local fans were the best…they were also BRUTAL. They would dump their popcorn and SODA on the characters they didn’t like when they would come out to the fans!

But…it went too far for me Obiwan. Yes there was lots of body slams on the stage that made loud sounds and lots of using the ropes to bounce and fly on top of one another…

But there was other stuff too, that wasn’t normal theatrics of wrestling…including…grabbing the audience’s popcorn and soda and dumping it on someone…one of the male referees SPIT ON ONE of the women…and the WORST was…this very large referee, who came out towards the end…same guy who spit on this woman…he…pulled his PANTS DOWN AND SHOVED HER FACE INTO HIS HUGE BARE ASS.

It was…awful. Truly awful. Like she had half a mask on but still, that was real, she will never forget the smell of his butt or the feeling of that man’s ginormous butt cheeks surrounding her face. AH. UGH. BLEH.

Also, the men had 2 battles themselves, and they were more just ‘fillers’ but…they would sometimes (both men and women) would fight outside of the ring, like in the crowd or something.

And when this would happen it was on the cold concrete floor of the gymnasium…and towards the end one of the wrestlers was slammed into the ground and slid fast and hard into one of the side rails and…got knocked out. It wasn’t fake. The crowd nearby were not cheering and looked upset and worried and then someone ran out with this tiny first aid kit and sat by looking worried but after about 20 seconds the guy woke up and they had to stop the fight. JESUS.

What an experience, I will never forget it, that is for sure.

Then on Monday, January 28th, I wanted to go on the famous teleferico!

Oh side note…there is trash everywhere right now in La Paz due to the town where the trash is taken had a landslide and the government hasn’t fixed it yet and as a result no one can take the trash there…so…the roads are covered in piles and piles of trash. It is awful that they haven’t helped the town yet. Earlier this week there was a rally at the capital about this issue, demanding the government to help this town! I don’t think it has worked yet.

But I took the yellow line, there a many lines throughout the whole city! But I heard this one goes to the top where you can look down at the city, so I chose the yellow line, and it was beautiful! It rained at first but cleared up…but the rain didn’t matter because the line goes so high…you get above the clouds! Wow!

Then today, walking in La Paz back from the teleferico there was a rally! I don’t know what about! But they were letting off firecrackers and yelling a lot and the main road was shut down!

Alright lamp chop, I need to get some sleep before Copacabana at Lake Titicaca tomorrow!

Love you, Tú Madre,

Carly