A bit more active in Bolivia... Our prison experience

Good morning everyone,

Sorry about the lack of posts on the blog - the truth is that we have generally been either working, sleeping, eating or drinking... but we decided that enough was enough and we had to do something ´cultural´.

We (Ian, Mike, Hayley, Jono and I - J was busy with Paddy) - went to the Valley of the Moon on Friday. Well I think it was Friday - days all blur into one here! The Valle de la Luna is incredible. Half an hour outside the city, it is an area that literally looks like the moon. The clay soil has meant that when the rain falls, huge stalagmites form. We were able to walk around it (in the rain), and the boys were great company. Spent about an hour or two there, and it was so refreshing to get out of the city. You´ll have to look at the pictures I´m uploading for it!

Went to the Ethnographic and Folklore museum too on Sunday. It was free - yay! Saw the token pots and pans (a very very erotic one gave me a bit of a shock in between all the ceramic plates...!), and some pretty cool textiles, but loved the room of the feathers. There were displays of headresses, painted feathers and carnival type feather objects. Really weird but cool. Also cool was the room of carnival masks. Had everything from realistic masks of old men, or wooden masks of people, to the weird and wonderful beasts with goggly eyes, feathers and some scary serpents... felt a bit better after doing ´culture´!

The evenings all blur into one. Either working or having a bevvy or two - such a hard life here! One of our friends was asked whether she was a ´hippy´(she works with us and is fantastic - Laura). She asked the guy whether he was a ´sleazy bastard´. Hilarious! He won´t stereotype again in a while...

But the biggest thing we´ve done recently is go on an illegal tour to the San Pedro prison. It has been made infamous from the book ´Marching Powder´. Technically, we get fired from Loki if we talk about it, so we´ve had to keep it quiet...!

The prison is 1 city block big, and houses 1500 prisoners and over 500 family members. The prison is run by the prisoners. There are 7 areas, and the prisoners organise their own security and so on, delegating to a few prisoners. A couple of guards (non prisoners) watch over the prison and shoot anyone who attempts to leave. 70% of the prisoners are in for drugs trafficking. 80% of prisoners are still awaiting trial. However, as the prison is filled with criminals related to drugs, they have made a big cocaine factory within the prison. We declined the opportunity to buy 99.4% pure cocaine (apparently).

We were taken in to the prison, registered and had a number written on our wrist (to let us get out again). Had a fantastic guide, however his tours only last until his next cocaine hit, and he was getting quite agitated at the end...! Prisoners buy their cell or rent it. The 7 areas are different in terms of cost, safety, the people who live there... it was really intimidating walking in to begin with, I personally felt quite scared. However it was horrible the way they organise tours for tourists to gawk at the prisoners and families. Also horrid the way we give out cigarettes and sweets, and pay huge amounts to enter the prison, to criminals, while we ignore people homeless on the street begging. A moral dilemma for us.

We walked in and had 4 body guards. Apparently they are in for murder - if they kill anyone they would only do their longest sentence anyway, so they are pretty much free to kill if they want without any repercussions. This was meant to reassure us. Most people in the prison work to pay for their cell. There are shops, a church, swimming pools (where they used to kill child rapists), saunas (made from inserting live electric prongs into buckets of water), schools, football pitches (not rectangular) and so on. The prison is a higgledipiggly mess of narrow corridors, unsafe stairs, and the structure is unsound. The Bolivianos have built a maximum security prison 2 hours away from the city, and there is talk of shutting down San Pedro. It has become notorious and too famous, and can´t really be said to be rehabilitative for drug traffickers or addicts, with the cocaine factory in the middle of it...

There are even ´crack cats´... wild cats that have become addicted to the smoke of crack cocaine. They fight each other on the roofs for the best position to inhale the smoke. The prisoners also try to inhale the smoke, so prisoners paint toy cars on the top of the factory roof to mask the smell... Some prisoners make toys, bracelets, wooden models and so on for money.

Even the ´punishment´area is known to be the best area to smoke weed or crack. I can understand that the prison does not really seem to be working! Families are welcome in the prison - in fact the prisoners have threatened to burn the prison down if families were not allowed. Children and women (most of the prisoners are men - think there are only 2 females) - are so stigmatised on the outside if their husband or father is in prison, that the quality of life is much better inside the prison, and they are allowed to live there.

Found the experience really strange. Very interesting, but an immoral tourist experience. Justified it to myself that I cannot be good all the time, and I am dedicating my life to humanitarian causes so for a once off... came out feeling extremely dazed. (Probably also due to having 1 hour sleep the night before). We were invited to stay the night, play pool, go into the swimming pool... but we decided to try and make sure we could leave! Luckily we could...

Took me a while to readjust to Loki life again, especially when a guy was beating a woman in the park and no one did anything...

As another treat yesterday we went to a Swiss fondue restaurant. Absolutely beautiful. And even managed to get an early night...!

So been to the immigration centre today to extend our (free) visas from 30 to 90 days. Am loading photos onto the internet as well, so will label them in a minute.

Hope all is ok back at home - enjoy the snow! Laura got sunburnt yesterday... bit of a difference here!

Lots of love from us all,
Al, H and J xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx