After a couple of relaxing days in and around Lake Titicaca, we made our way to La Paz. Bolivia’s de facto national capital, La Paz is a bustling city of contrasts. If your travels include Lake Titicaca or the Bolivian Salt Flats of Uyuni, you’re practically assured a stop in La Paz–as it is an important regional transportation hub.
We spent two nights in La Paz, booking a high rise condo through AirBnb in Sopocachi, the trendy and wealthy neighborhood of the city centre. From our 15th floor three bedroom apartment we were able to enjoy expansive views of this city.
While in La Paz be sure to explore its numerous markets, including the famed Witches’ Market. Aside from picking up a llama fetus or a dried frog for your Aymara ceremony, you will find plenty of leather goods, Bolivian artesania, and other small keepsakes.
A must see experience while in La Paz is the Mi Teleférico–an aerial cable car urban transport system that serves the La Paz-El Alto metropolitan area. These modern gondolas were built in 2014, and the system now includes twenty-five stations on eight lines. Each of the lines is color coded, making it easier for the local residents to identify, and they transport working class residents, and tourists, from the city center up into the hillsides and the El Alto–the separate, working class city that sits high above the La Paz city centre.
We rode the Red Line–1.5 miles in length with three total stations–providing us with spectacular views during the ride up, as well as from El Alto.
Traveling Fern 