The Worlds First Cocaine Bar

Walking down the streets of La Paz, Bolivia the young tourists hunt like a pack of dogs to find the most thrilling travel experience. It was found, down the dark streets of La Paz, 15 or so early young hounds hunt for the mysterious Route 36, the world’s first Cocaine Bar.

In the Centre of La Paz, the respectful Bolivian Union monument is the landmark used as reference to find the bar. The first left after the roundabout, the pack head one block to where a man is standing in front of what seems like a garage door. He gives the group a once over and makes a phone call. Seconds later they are lead through the door and up a dimly lit hallway, to an opening of a modern day funky bar, surrounded by mirrors and seating that circles the dance floor.

The waitress strolls over to the travelers with a simple smile, the average drinks are ordered, a rum and coke, a couple of vodka sodas and a scotch and coke. The waitress waits, expecting the travelers to order there desert, the cocaine. She eyes the young travelers and realizes there inexperience of the local bar and continues to regurgitates the bars main menu, “Tonight we have two types of cocaine, normal for 100 Bolivianos a gram, and strong cocaine for 150 a gram."

The bar is becoming famous within young travelers, with some hostels having excursions taking you, tour guide and all. Route 36 in La Paz, Bolivia is a surreal experience, such a lawless place is similar to a dream, time stops so does your sense of reality.

The waitress walks to the table, drinks in hand, and offers the tourists bottled water. The waitress also lowers a black disc which has three small origami packets and a few scattered 6 inch straws. The tourists sit in awe, watching the woman who could be any average, middle age woman. The waitress delivers the cocaine like she was handing out candy to children, in a way she is, the kids’ eyes practically jumping out of their skin in anticipation to open the little packages.

The waiter seems like a woman that has seen a lot. She reflects on an experience, "we had some Australians; they stayed here for four days. They would take turns sleeping and the only time they left was to go to the ATM," says Cecilia, who is one of the more senior bartenders, working at the bar for over a year at forever changing locations. Cecilia, or Chechu as she likes to be called, says that the bar had to enforce a closing time as tourists would spend days not eating or drinking appropriately, simply consuming the white powder. Chechu seemed more shocked at the lack of stable diet than the amount of cocaine consumed in this time.

Chechu gracefully walked back to the bar where she divided bags of white powder into smaller amounts. The tourists are soaking in the music, the local Spanish chit chat and of course the cocaine. The night begins with segregated groups in their lounges, shoveling Charlie into divided lines, conversation begins and a few even dare to venture to the dance floor. Hours pass and the young hounds venture around the bar to other groups of people, finding similarities and a love for everyone.

La Paz, Bolivia, is situated on a hill. In fact, the rolling hills surround the city like a jail wall, one short walk has your heart racing. Route 36 adds to this adrenaline pumping experience, yoru heart racing from the first step in search of the world’s first cocaine bar.

Although this Bar has attracted tourism from all over the world and possibly made thousand of tourism jobs for Bolivianos, it is still supporting the coutries hardest battle, the fight against cocaine. The coca fields of Bolivia are the southernmost point in a struggle that stretches into Peru and Colombia and spills over into other surrounding countries.

Bolivia is the poorest country in South America, and, among Latin American countries, its poverty level is second only to that of Haiti. According to online research Questia, ranked third behind Colombia and Peru in cocaine production is Bolivia. According to a recent United Nations report, Bolivia has allocated 28,900 hectares of land to coca production. This report was released in 2007, a figure that is more than double than what Bolivian law allows.

The picturesque coutry side has many problems both evident with the homeless and beggers and hidden with President Eva Morales support of such large coca farms. The largest problem now is the Bolivians believe that this Coca production is now apart of their culture and economic survival.