La Paz, Bolivia: Why I’m Not Disappointed That We Didn’t Go to Prison
Action
While in La Paz, Josh and I did not visit San Pedro Prison.
Reflection
To help plan our trip, I’ve been making lists ahead of time of what I want to do in each city we visit. It helps us prioritize and figure out how long we want to spend in each city. Since I first began reading South American guidebooks last summer, I’ve been excited about touring the San Pedro prison in La Paz. According to the guidebook, tourists can go to the prison and request tours from inmates, who need the money to pay for food. This seemed to be a strange arrangement, given how difficult it is to get permission to visit US prisons. Having visited prisons in the US, I was curious to see the conditions in Bolivia.
We spent our time in La Paz walking around the city, visiting its numerous markets, and checking out the coca museum. We were planning to visit the prison before taking an afternoon bus out of town on our third day. By late morning of our final day, we realized we wouldn’t have time to visit the prison. We slept in a little and still had emails to write that would lay the groundwork for our time in Argentina and at the World Social Forum.
Surprisingly, I’m not (that) disappointed that we didn’t tour the prison. When reading guidebooks, I distill cities into lists of Things to Do, and I can’t imagine visiting a place and not checking off things on that list. Once I reach a city, however, life intervenes. Wandering the streets, buying postcards and sampling different foods, hearing the music blaring from CD shops, I experience the city and the once-important list seems disconnected from the full experience of a place. Moreover, traveling isn’t just sight-seeing. It’s also taking the time to write postcards, sleep, and coordinate the next steps of the journey. So, even though 2 months ago I would have been disappointed if I had been told that I would be unable to visit San Pedro prison, now I’m content with our time spent in the capital of Bolivia.
Question
How do you plan what you’ll do and see on a trip? How do you feel when what happens doesn’t match up with your plans?
While in La Paz, Josh and I did not visit San Pedro Prison.
Reflection
To help plan our trip, I’ve been making lists ahead of time of what I want to do in each city we visit. It helps us prioritize and figure out how long we want to spend in each city. Since I first began reading South American guidebooks last summer, I’ve been excited about touring the San Pedro prison in La Paz. According to the guidebook, tourists can go to the prison and request tours from inmates, who need the money to pay for food. This seemed to be a strange arrangement, given how difficult it is to get permission to visit US prisons. Having visited prisons in the US, I was curious to see the conditions in Bolivia.
We spent our time in La Paz walking around the city, visiting its numerous markets, and checking out the coca museum. We were planning to visit the prison before taking an afternoon bus out of town on our third day. By late morning of our final day, we realized we wouldn’t have time to visit the prison. We slept in a little and still had emails to write that would lay the groundwork for our time in Argentina and at the World Social Forum.
Surprisingly, I’m not (that) disappointed that we didn’t tour the prison. When reading guidebooks, I distill cities into lists of Things to Do, and I can’t imagine visiting a place and not checking off things on that list. Once I reach a city, however, life intervenes. Wandering the streets, buying postcards and sampling different foods, hearing the music blaring from CD shops, I experience the city and the once-important list seems disconnected from the full experience of a place. Moreover, traveling isn’t just sight-seeing. It’s also taking the time to write postcards, sleep, and coordinate the next steps of the journey. So, even though 2 months ago I would have been disappointed if I had been told that I would be unable to visit San Pedro prison, now I’m content with our time spent in the capital of Bolivia.
Question
How do you plan what you’ll do and see on a trip? How do you feel when what happens doesn’t match up with your plans?
2 Comments:
At 3:12 PM, lernerm said…
not really to reply to your comment, but I have to say that I'm also glad that you didn't go to the prison. I had the unfortunate experience of teaching in a prison while a riot was going on - prisons can be dangerous places, and I'm, not sure exactly how safe the San Predro prisons is. Things never go as planned on my trips, but that's to be expected, so it doesn't get me down. The only way to do everything you plan is to go on one of those preplanned trips where you spend 30 min touring Chinatown (from a bus), 30 min at the museum and so on - defintely not the thing you guys do.
At 3:18 AM, LAURA!! said…
Oh Renate!! I adore your planning; your extraordinary list-making capabilities. I always plan things now on our trips and (so long as you accomodate for unaccounted adventures/diversions/things you had not anticipated) (I feel like William Hurt in "Accidental Tourist") the lists are wonderful and, it is wonderful to travel with someone who knows what they want to do. (What do you want to do? I don't know, what do you want to do?)
PLUS, ya gotta love your title line: "Why I'm Not Disappointed that we Didn't go to Prison"
Fabulous.
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