la paz (san pedro prison)
after cusco i ended up spending another week in la paz, and got another chance to visit the san pedro prison. the san pedro prison in la paz is famous because there are different rankings of prisoners, and so some live in shithole cells and some in like hotel suites. tourists used to be able to visit until a few years ago, when there was a riot and it was clear that is was unsafe for foreigners. anyways, i heard of people getting in and the guys i was with really wanted to go in, so we decided to try. it was actually really sketchy, because you have to know someone in the prison, (long lost friend, relative..etc) but ofcourse when you have me and three aussie guys that don´t speak spanish, they guards knew we are lying.
so we waited across the street for some guy to come over and hand us a sheet of paper that had a spanish guy´s name and number to the jail. the number is 2131454 in case you know of anyone that is gonna go…just ask the guard for ernesto. his full name is ernesto sello, and he said he has been in there for the last 3 years and has 10 left. we thought it would be cool to hear his story. so we used the payphone across the street and called for him. the guard put him on the phone, and then ernesto he told us to bring him some coke and cigarettes in a grocery bag, and that we should put our names and some money for him to bribe the popo so that our names would be down on the visitation list.
well…it was kinda intimidating because there are all the prisoners with their arms through the front jail gates and i was the one that had to go in there and hand ernesto the bag. it was also sketchy because the guards were like, yea, YOU can go in. i was like, ¨HELL NO¨ not with out my friends. we then had to call ernesto back from the payphone and arrange a time for us to meet. the guards were watching us the whole time, and i can not imagine what they were thinking. probably something like…weird stupid gringos. anyways, we arranged for a time but then went out with a bunch of the guy´s friends from melbourne that night and missed it the next day. so, all that for nothin. haha.
we didn´t get to go in to the different rooms of the jail, but got to see the courtyard, eating area, gift shop, and talking area from where i gave ernesto our goods. so it was enough for me. and yes, they have a gift shop where the prisoners can sell their crafts…
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