Con los chicos

On Sunday, the guys arrived to La Paz, ready to start our adventure across Sudamérica.  Kyle got to the airport first, extremely early in the morning, so I went to pick him up in a taxi.  We went to our hostel first, checked in and ditched our stuff, and started walking towards downtown, taking time to see every interesting building, mural and market along the way (when you wake up at 4:30 AM, you have plenty of daylight to spare).  After an hour, we finally found an open cafe and ate some breakfast.

After some food, we decided to walk towards a Mirador (overlook) the hostel staff had suggested.  It involved walking all the way across the city and climbing a giant hill, so we saw plenty of the city along the way.  We realized it was worth the walk, though, when the Mirador revealed a spectacular view of Illimani, the giant mountain just outside of town, and the entire La Paz skyline.  We sat for probably two hours just enjoying the spot, catching up and people-watching.

Soon it was time to pick up Tim from the airport, so we walked back to the center of town to take a minibus.  I was so happy to see Tim!  With all the group together, we went out to lunch to get a Menú of soup, rice, french fries and grilled meats.  Yummmm...

In the evening, our hostel took us to go see the world-famous (?¿) Cholitas Wrestling.  It was a lot like Mexican lucha libre or American pro wrestling, in that it was absolutely absurd and included costumes varying from Hombre Araña (Spiderman) to women in traditional Cholita dress.  You see, the Cholitas are mixed-race women who have both indigenous roots and a wish to show their social status through their ostentatiously shiny dress.  About ten years ago, they decided they could make some money by learning to wrestle and do crazy tricks, and Cholita Wrestling was born.  We had a lot of fun for the first couple of hours, but it was way too long.  At the end we were very tired and covered in soda, so we were glad to go back to the hostel and rest.  Even so, though, it was a great experience and I´m glad I went.