Contrary to popular belief (at least I didn’t know), La Paz, Bolivia is not the country’s capital, nor is it the highest city in the world. Those merits go to Sucre and Potosi respectively.
We entered La Paz via bus from Copacabana so we first drove through the zone of El Alto, a city in its own right with a population greater than La Paz. El Alto is a huge sprawling mass of houses and businesses on a very flat plain. It is very dusty and there is little greenery. El Alto gives way to La Paz dramatically as the houses seem to just spill over into the valley basin which was once an ancient lake. La Paz is certainly dramatic as it is rimmed by the Cordillera Real’s snow capped mountains.
Unlike most other cities in the world, the affluent residents live at the lowest altitudes. This means that they get slightly warmer temperatures, but they certainly miss out on the view. A good way to appreciate La Paz is by taking a ride on their brand new cable car system. It’s not a tourist attraction because it was built for commuters, but it is good fun and a very cheap activity. There are 3 lines and we chose to ride up and down the yellow and green as they share a station in the zone of Sopocachi.
Other attractions in La Paz are quite limited. The oldest parts of town are colonial and look picturesque in a crumbly neglected way. There are the usual squares and churches, but nothing to write home about. We did enjoy the famous Witches Market which is more a collection of shops on a street. Theses shops are full of potions, lotions, offerings, talismans for protection and all manner of dried animal parts. They are certainly not just a tourist attraction, but a very active part of the belief system of the population.
There is also a vast street market of fresh produce practically carpeting the streets north of the main tourist street of Sagarnaga.
We took one day trip from La Paz which combined a visit to Chacaltaya mountain and the Valley of the Moon. The drive out to the mountain was incredibly scenic, but we were in some sort of old school bus on dirt tracks so got bumped about all over the place. Climbing the last few hundred metres of the mountain was very hard due to the altitude being over 5000m, but the panoramic views were the prize. We were also able to see little fossil shells in the rocks, from millions of years ago when the area was underwater. The Valley of the Moon was less impressive; it consists of bizarre towers of compacted mud which used to be the bottom of a huge lake. Weather erosion has left these towers teetering in a moonscape like environment.
Two days of our stay were unbearably cold; the weather changed and a lot of snow fell on the Cordillera Real. Great for pictures, not so good for cold tourists!
The food scene of La Paz was not that exciting; in fact we didn’t really get a chance to try any Bolivian food as everything was international. We had Cuban, pizza, Mexican, even Indian (the highest in the world)!
I am fascinated by your trip and think you both write beautifully. I await anxiously the next article and your photos are beautiful
Why don’t you write a book?
Hi Pauline, thank you for the kind words, we rally appreciate it!
It’s a new thing for us and the more we go on, the more we enjoy running this blog.
For now we are just enjoing the ride and taking it day by day. In a few months who knows, maybe we’ll take it up a gear!
Thanks for following us and please spread thee word if you like.
Kind regards
Alex