While "chewing" is the popular term for it, the leaves should never actually be munched upon. Instead, they should be placed one-by-one into the cheek, forming a small saliva-generating ball which you just leave there. Because the stems of the leaves can hurt the inside of your cheek, you should remove them first. Some remove the stems by sliding the leaves between their two front teeth, while others use a lick-fold-tear method.
One of the most famous prisons in the world is the inmate-run San Pedro, smack in the center of La Paz. Yep, I said "inmate-run". Authorities guard the gates, but within the walls of the block-sized facility, the prisoners run the operations.
We recently attended the famous Lucha Libre at a sports facility in El Alto. Bolivians are wild for wrestling. Posters of famous American wrestlers are everywhere, and you can't go a block in La Paz without seeing seeing it on a curbside television set. Bolivia doesn't have a professional league on the same level as the USA's WWE, but El Alto's Sunday afternoon Lucha Libre makes a solid substitute.
Most people don't realize that Sucre is technically the capital of Bolivia. La Paz has become the country's largest and most important city, but according to the Bolivian constitution, Sucre is still the official capital. And the Casa de la Libertad is the country's most historically significant building.
Heralded as Bolivia's best museum, the Casa de la Moneda offers a fascinating look back at a time when Potosí was the center of the Spanish Empire's wealth. This mammoth building in the center of the city was the Royal Mint, pressing silver extracted from the Cerro Rico into coins and medallions.
Young kids hard at work is all too common a scene on Sucre's streets. From shoeshiners to car washers, boys and girls are spending their childhood in Bolivia's unofficial labor force. Just yesterday, I bought a newspaper, gum and a woven blanket from kids who couldn't have been over ten.
