16 July: La Paz

On this date in 1548 The city of La Paz, administrative capital of Bolivia, was founded. 10 things you might not know about La Paz:

1. It's the highest capital city in the world. Or is it? It's the administrative capital, because most of the government buildings are here, but the actual capital is Sucre. La Paz is, for sure, the highest administrative capital in the world.
2. The city's full name is Nuestra Señora de La Paz, which translates as "Our Lady of Peace".
3. La Paz boasts the world's longest and highest cable car system. The cable cars are part of the city's public transport network, with five lines and plans for another six to be added, which will make it another 10 miles (16 km) longer than its nearest rival.
4. La Paz Golf Club is the highest tournament standard course in the world at 3,300 meters above sea level. Because it's so high, the air is thinner and players can therefore drive the ball further than on lower courses.
5. The main bus station was designed by French architect Gustave Eiffel, the guy who designed that famous tower in Paris.
6. Every neighbourhood in the city holds one or more parades, or entradas, every year. So there are actually more parades of people in colourful national costume than there are days of the year.
7. Women's wrestling is a big thing in La Paz. The wrestlers are called cholitas. It started in the early 2000s as a means for women suffering domestic abuse to vent their anger and to raise awareness of their situation, and has become a form of entertainment and a tourist attraction. The cholitas wear colourful costumes, topped off with... a Bowler hat. In the early days of the bowler hat, a job lot was made for British railway workers stationed in Bolivia. However, the hats were too small for the British men (was it a mistake or do British men have big heads, I wonder?) and the Bolivian men didn't want them. Anxious to offload their wares, the bowler hat company sold the line that bowler hats were the height of ladies' fashion in Europe and so women snapped them up. Now, a bowler hat is an integral part of the Bolivian national costume.
8. There's a clock in the city that was designed to go backwards. It's the clock that faces the Bolivian house of congress, and it's been that way since 2014. It is meant to be symbolic of Bolivian heritage and/or to encourage people to think creatively.
9. In La Paz, you'll see cebritas (humans in Zebra costumes) directing traffic. Other sights to see include San Pedro Prison where the prisoners are required to buy their cells and all their food and clothing. So inmates start businesses inside the walls to pay for it all. Churches, market stalls, restaurants, handicraft workshops, a football field, even taxi companies, have all been set up. It's certainly been the case in the past that tourists could visit on a guided tour. Another thing that's different is that the prisoners' families can move into the prison with them and the kids leave the complex every day to go to school. Not all the businesses would be approved of by the authorities, however. San Pedro Prison is reportedly home to cocaine labs which produce high quality drugs to be wrapped in nappies and lobbed over the wall. The city also has a museum dedicated to the coca leaf which includes information how to make the drug as well as other uses for the leaves.
10. It's possible that any building you visit in La Paz has a creature buried under it, as old superstitions dictate that an animal should be buried in the foundations as a sacrifice to Pachamama (mother nature). Small dwellings may have a llama foetus but bigger buildings would have demanded the sacrifice of an adult alpaca. According to urban myths, some projects even required a human sacrifice.

My Books:

If you like stories about:

• Superheroes
• Psychic detectives
• Romance
• Alternative dimensions
• Time travel 
• Secrets
• Friendship
• Family relationships
• Ghosts
• Adventure
• Crime

If you want to read about superheroes who aren't the usual Marvel/DC staples, who don't all live in the USA.

If you like quirky tales.

If you like to support independent self published authors.

Check out my books page.