Tequila and Tattoos - A Month in the Wild Rover

So, 2 weeks of working in the Wild Rover Hostel in La Paz, Bolivia turned into 3.5 weeks, due to the fact that we would receive an additional 20% off food and drink and cos we were having such a great time, meeting some really lovely, crazy, mental, fun people and going on the piss for nearly an entire month! Working here has been one of the most random yet rewarding experiences of our trip to South America so far. It was an unexpected stop-off in one of the more random cities of the trip, certainly not one of the places I expected to spend almost a month of my life!

I remember seeing the city for the first time as we arrived here the day before New Year’s eve and thinking “Holy crap, let’s get back to Cusco, NOW!!”; the poverty and the general hodge-podgeness of the place made me immediately adamant that we would stay no longer than 4 or 5 days. Almost one month later, I nearly have to be dragged kicking and screaming from the place I have called home, with my new-found family of Bolivians, Irish, Aussies, Kiwis and Brits. I have grown used to working all night and seeing pretty much no daylight for 3 days straight, going from the bar to the staff dorm room and back again, repeatedly, venturing out of the hostel occasionally to eat in other restaurants and to head to one of the many night clubs once the bar had closed.

The hostel here was most definitely a “party” hostel; no night was a quiet night and Diego, our Bolivian Events Manager who is developing an Irish accent made a huge effort in organising a different themed night every night. We had parties such as Tequila Night, UV night, BBQ night, and probably the best one so far was the massive Oz-themed piss up for Australia Day on the 26^th January. There was an all-day BBQ, lots of Aussie paraphernalia, drinks specials all day, the infamous Triple J Hottest 100 Countdown and a general good-humoured jolly atmosphere between the largely Aussie – Irish contingency.  As bar staff, and ultimately volunteers, we were encouraged to chat to and have a few drinks with our customers, making them feel welcome and of course, encouraging them to drink more! This resulted however in us regularly getting AS drunk as the customers, if not worse my case – note to self that drinking too much tequilas on Tequila Night will result in me having to be escorted to my bed! But hey, at least we boosted the sales of Tequila! There is the nightly ritual of dancing on the bar, some say it turned into a scene from Coyote Ugly, with the bar maids regularly getting up to dance to Gangham Style or All the Single Ladies, and pouring free shots straight into the mouths of those beside the bar! Luckily nobody fell off the bar, which, considering the amounts of alcohol consumed was a miracle! And of course, I got myself a small tattoo, to top off the craziness levels, but it’s now as much a part of me as my underlying ginger-gene….

On our days off or even just our mornings off (if we got up before 3pm!), we ventured off into the city to explore. The consistently drunk Diego organised tours for the hostel guests (and us!). We were brought to weird and wonderful places such as Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) and the jam-packed market in the city’s Parque Central for the Alasitas festival:

Valle de la Luna was an unusual, lunar-like landscape just outside the city centre. Being in a valley, the weather was worlds apart from the bustling streets of La Paz. While it was pissing rain near the hostel, the sun was beating off the clay and rock formations of the valley. It reminded me of pictures I’ve seen of other canyon / desert landscapes such as Arizona or such places. We had a wee walk around, took some obligatory photos and made our way back to “normality” by local chicken bus.

The Alasitas Festival of Bolivia began on the 24^th January. Traditionally, it is an annual festival where locals converge on the busy market to buy miniature trinkets of items they most desire, in the hope that they will be blessed with genuine, real-life versions of those possessions within the year. You can buy miniatures of literally everything, from cars and houses to college diplomas, groceries and computers. If you desire a girlfriend or boyfriend, you can buy a Barbie or Ken doll to represent them, or if it’s a husband or wife you’re after, you can buy a miniature hen or rooster! The trinkets are then blessed by a “witch”, kind of like an ancient Celtic Druid; they pray and bless the trinkets with Holy Water and use flower petals and incense to complete the ceremony. When your trinkets have been blessed, the idea is to arrange them around a statue of the “god” called Kkekko, put a lit cigarette in his mouth and offer him and Pacha Mama (Mother Earth) some alcohol and pray that your desires come true.

I will really, really miss this place. I’ll miss the staff dorm room, the great friends we made and the great laughs we had, trying to keep quiet when we stumbled in at 5am, trying not to wake the others up, giggling like schoolgirls at Diego’s train-like snoring and having fits of laughter at Myles looking for his locker key under his bed, pissed as a fart and muttering “what the f*ck is going on?!”. An end of an era, but we’re ready to get going on the road again. Next stop is a few days in the Pampas (grass wetlands) of the Bolivian Amazon before returning here again for a few days! Will we ever make it out of here???

Alasitas Festival

Aussie Day