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THE HOT ADVENTURES OF A NOT COLD BIATCH

San Pedro - the most wacked prison in the world |

Got up late thanks to a dodgy hangover.

Went with Pete, the american, to have a look around the city. Went to the main plaza where we saw the Presidential House which is supposedly bullethole-riddled thanks to a coup but I couldn't see anything that was obviously a bullethole!!

Then wandered along to San Pedro prison - Renee and her boyfriend had held me down before I left and forced me to promise that I would visit it having read Marching Powder - a book written by an Australian guy about the life of a British drug trafficker serving time in San Pedro.

San Pedro is amazing - inmates buy or rent their cells from a sort of real-estate agency nearby, the poorer ones who can't afford to keep their house on the outside and their cell have their wives and kids move into their cell with them. Richer ones can buy more than one cell and I've heard of a guy who bought two cells, one on top of the other, and had a staircase and piano put in. If they have no money at all, inmates sleep on the street.

Inmates can run businesses inside the prison - shops and restaurants. Other prisoners work in these businesses to earn some money.

The families of the prisoners can come and go as they please - children usually leave in the morning for school and return in the afternoon.

The guards don't concern themselves at all with the inner workings of the prison, letting the inmates self-govern San Pedro.

Different communities develop within the prison, and there's a clear social structure. Different sectors each have a soccer team and gambling on the games is really common.

Inmates used to be allowed to give tours of the prison to tourists but this is now forbidden. However, apparently people can get around this by asking their country's embassy if there are currently any prisoners in San Pedro from their country and then heading to the prison under the guise of visiting this old 'friend'. Because foreigners are not so frequent within San Pedo nowadays, I've heard they've become much more of a novelty and there is risk of getting raped.

I considered trying to bribe the guards to get in but Pete wasn't too keen and there was no way I was going to go by myself.

One of the prisoners yelled out to me in Spanish asking if I wanted a tour. I asked him how much it was. He said it was prohibited but could I give him food. I didn't really know what to do so I just sort of ignored him.

Across the road from the prison is this plaza. When I was there, the sun was shining brightly and there were so many little kids running round and playing. It seemed so strange that there was so much fun being had only 6 or so metres from these hardened criminals. The prison is right in La Paz, it only took about 5 or 10 minutes to walk there from my hostel.

We then walked along this little street called the Witches Market. You can buy all sorts of supposedly magical potions. I bought some little statues for people back home that are supposed to improve health, intelligence and energy levels but chose to stay away from the dead llama foetuses that are so popular. Bolivians buy them when they build a new house because apparently they are good luck (if you can't afford to buy a real llama and sacrifice it yourself). They are revolting to look at.

Went out for dinner with John, one of the dutch guys. A Jifa Chifa which wasn't actually that Jifa (a Hebrew word for something that's eeww. Though not sure if that's how to spell it) - my sweet and sour pork (advertised as Bitter Sweet Pork) was tasty mmmmmm.

When I was walking home, this guy came up to me and just kept repeating 'Me llamo Andres, como te llamas?' over and over and over and over for about 4 minutes and I just kept walking and ignoring him but it was so odd.

Locations Visited: La Paz

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