Tales of the Travelling Cocaine Bar

Route 36- if this name sounds shady to you, wait till you hear what this place is about. A cocaine bar As absurd as it sounds, it is absolutely true. The world&rsquos first cocaine bar is travelling discreetly through Bolivia&rsquos administrative capital, La Paz, and most of the world has no clue about it. How does an illegal drug bar supposedly exist without the authorities knowing about it, you may ask The answer to that is it does not have a fixed location, making it almost impossible to track down. 

Is cocaine legal in Bolivia

Although cocaine is very much illegal in Bolivia like it is for the rest of the world, the abundant harvesting of the coca plant (growing which is legal) from which cocaine is extracted makes it easy to procure. Bolivia is the third largest producer of the coca plant, after Columbia and Peru. The bulk of the produce is legally sold and used for medicinal purposes and also in cooking, but a small percentage of it finds its way into the cocaine market. Even after the cocaine trade being illegal in the country, La Paz situated on the Andes' Altiplano plateau 3,500 metres above the sea, has now become the heart of cocaine tourism, with thousands of tourists bumping along to the capital every year. 

How to find the elusive bar

You are mistaken if you think you can easily locate this pop-up bar. To keep the cops off its scent and sustain operations, Route 36 keeps changing its location once every month. So how should one go about looking for it Cabbies You can Google all you want and scour every site available on the internet but fat chance that you might find it. The only way to locate the bar is to ask the local cab drivers, like a number of locals who were successful in locating the bar suggested.

How to book a slot once you find it

If you do manage to track down this notorious bar, it is fairly easy to go in since the entry fee is supposed to be around &pound4.30 (approx. Rs 410), and the crowd consists primarily of international tourists. However, since the substance distributed inside is said to be exceptionally pure, you would get charged somewhere around &pound13 (approx. Rs 1,200) for a gram.