Traveling all the way to Bolivia means you’re likely to see a number of important tourist attractions, including a Bolivian wrestling match between the oddest of characters.
In El Alto, the city above one of Bolivia’s two capitals La Paz, is a well established wrestling auditorium where each Sunday Bolivia’s version of the World Wrestling Entertainment in the United States or Triple A in Mexico takes place. But these matches are far from high profile.
I was especially interested in watching this as a former high school wrestler. I hoped to witness awkward takedowns and throws and what I saw was exactly that.
Below is “Gay Boy” dressed in pink. After each lackluster punch he would strike a pose for us, the mixed audience of foreigners, Aymara, and Quechua Bolivians.
It became pretty silly as each new wrestler appeared was more out of shape than the last one.
Grandpa?
Boom shakalaka!
Notice the woman getting a beat-down…Bolivian organizers have introduced the fighting Cholitas, indigenous women who wear bowler hats and multi-layered skirts. It’s become an interesting attraction and really the reason why I came to watch.
All in all I would recommend watching for 30 minutes at the most. Sadly, its not nearly as exciting as I had hoped. Make sure to bring many layers as you will freeze on the concrete bleachers.
For more information about they have a website at http://www.cholitaswrestling.com/or a phone number at 77294590 – 73076668
gral. Gonzáles N º 1314 corner admiral Grau (San Pedro) from Monday until Friday of 15:00 – 19:00; On Saturdays of 09:00 – 17:30 and every Sunday of 10:00 – 14:00.
emre says
thanx for this post