‘I am the body who inhabits you, and I am here in the darkness, and I suffer you, and live you, and die you. But I am not your body. I am the night.’ With these lines Jaime Saenz, one of La Paz’s most celebrated residents, ends his eponymous poem about the night.

We brave the city’s streets after dusk to bring you this issue of the BX. As well as the mandatory tour along some of La Paz’s most popular bars, we also explore the dark side of La Paz’s reputation as a party town to reveal the social ills caused by an overabundance of cheap spirits, sometimes culminating in the infamous practice of drinking oneself to death in one of the city’s famed ‘elephant cemeteries.’ We also venture into one of the city’s worst-kept secrets to report on the all-too-famous cocaine bar also known as Route 36.

Victor Hugo Viscarra famously described how the homeless must keep moving throughout the night to escape the vice-like grip of the cold, sleeping only when the sun comes out. Only a handful will find a shelter in which to rest. We track down Daniel Escalante, a former street kid who is slowly changing the fate of the city’s homeless by giving them a roof and a purpose.

Stepping back onto the city’s night lights, we meet some of the artists who know them most intimately. Take Matamba, the dreadlocked reggae peace warrior who has been spreading the word of Jah. Or Marco Cuba, one of the country’s most accomplished DJs, who has the mysterious ability to bring the night to life at the flick of a wrist on a turntable.

A different set of characters come to life past midnight. Indeed, many individuals use the moonlight to carry out unusual second jobs. We report how Gabriel Flores makes a living by using the wee hours to take dreamy visitors on stargazing treks. Away from the city lights, one’s sights are then drawn to the night skies, where we’re told we must pay closer attention to the negative space between the stars to find ancestral Andean constellations.

To finish off this issue, we take a ride back to our headquarters on the 20 de Octubre with Mario Durán, one of La Paz’s most unique taxi drivers. Suffice it to say we’d probably do well to bring him along to our next pub quiz at Oliver’s Travels – our last participation ended disastrously. But first we must head to bed. Hasta mañana readers, hasta the next issue. Sleep tight.