Cholitas wrestling: a locals Sunday family event !!

Last night, we joined our traveling and fellow Inka Trail friends, Mark and Laura for some tasteful Bolivian entertainment. A must see when in La Paz! The night started with an eventful taxi ride, Ivan, Laura and Kristin in back, the taxi driver, his wife and Mark crammed in front. After a block of driving the taxi driver realized he could not shift too well with his plump pumpkin wife sitting on top of the shifter....so he graciously threw her in the trunk for the 20 minute ride up the hill.

At the very top of the city, we stepped out into the muddy mayhem (of locals snacking on chicharrones and cars honking and zooming by) and into the rowdy arena with the wrestling ring in the center.

After a couple of snacks the speakers erupted with the Rocky theme song, "Eye of the Tiger" and the announcer jumped into arena to welcome the first contenders. The first match consisted of 4 luchadors all dressed in crazy costumes, spandex and masks (think movie: nacho libre). The first two (obviously to be favored by the crowd) were in more heroic costumes, while the second two had Slipknot music and black, dark and beaked masks. Flipping each other over their shoulders and flinging each other over the ropes, the heroic team was clearly winning, when suddenly the ref turned on them and team evil started to play dirty to win. The fight suddenly turned around and (though it looked fake until one of the members of team Awesome tackled an evil guy outside of the ring and the careened to the concrete floor) team Awesome won!! The unfortunate "evil" beaked man was definitely limping off of the arena floor...






The second fight was between a "Cholita," or a woman who was dressed in traditional country garb with a beautiful embroidered shawl, versus a fascist looking dictator in fatigues. The referee and the fascist quickly ganged-up on this woman, and she was soon being 'bloodied' on the arena. While we knew this was all theatrics, we were both mortified seeing a young girl completely convinced that this woman was being gang beaten by 2 men. Fortunately she 'won' the fight, but we're sure this girl was scarred for life. A shame so many people bring their sweet, young children to shows like this...

A doggy pile with the dictator in fatigues on bottom and the 2 gringos who jumped in the ring to "help" the cholita underneath her

The next fights were of a clown versus "Jenny de Dos Caras." This was hillarious because the clown would blow his whistle in unison to his movements (i.e while he was doing push ups, summer-salts, etc...) to make fun of Two Faced Jenny and challenge her to copy. The following fight was between two portly "Cholitas" who energetically battled it out. The show lasted for about 3 hrs and was more entertaining as the fights went on, the crowd riled up, music got louder and the costumes and theatrics increased!

Two faced Jenny got angry and smashed the fence down between the ring and the crowd. She chased her opponent into the crowd and smashed his head into the pilars...
Don't worry the blood is fake

All in all it was some interesting entertainment that we definitely won't need to experience anytime soon, but glad we were able to get a taste of "local family" Sunday entertainment in La Paz. (Note: don't bring children under the age of 12) After the show we grabbed some yummy thai food, a beer and ice cream sundaes with Mark and Laura and reflected on the crazy show.

Tomorrow we are leaving La Paz and on our way to Cochabamba. A small, quaint town east of La Paz, known for its art and music scene. Side note: Kristin is learning to play the Zampona, a hollow bamboo like flute, with two rows of reeds (7 and 8) that you blow over to make noise. Maybe a possible cafe performance in the future ;)