Okay, let’s see. Bolivia is landlocked, there’s not a beach in sight, daytime highs rarely hit 70 and the city of La Paz really is in the clouds. It’s twice the elevation of Denver and hillier than San Francisco — so why would anybody want to go there?
Three things: the food, the people and the magnificent Andes.
And because La Paz is not burdened by overtourism, you can experience the city of peace on your own terms, far from the madding crowd.
La Paz sits at 12,000 feet on a massive plateau in the Andes called the altiplano. Snow-capped peaks reaching 21,000 feet stand guard. Forty-five miles away, Lake Titicaca, the largest freshwater lake in South America, sports 41 islands. Many of them are populated, such as Isla del Sol, home of stunning Inca ruins.
Early inhabitants of La Paz included the Tiwanaku, innovative irrigationists, and later the clever Incas, who gave us advances in metallurgy, road and bridge construction and a way to freeze-dry meat and potatoes using frigid nighttime mountain air.
In the 16th century, Spanish conquistadors from Peru rode in and took over, which lasted until 1825 when Bolivia finally declared its independence. The Spanish influence in Bolivian culture remains strong but the continuing impact of the 36 recognized Indigenous groups is also inescapable.
Step aboard the world’s highest and longest urban cable car system, Mi Teleferico, to see it all: towering Andes highlighted by triple-peaked Illimani, the canyon below filled with the Choqueyapu River and the sprawling city of two million. Mi Teleferico is mass transit on a grand scale — eleven lines carry 200,000 riders every day in and between La Paz and El Alto, a city of a million higher up the plateau. Most are commuters.
On the streets downtown, vendors sell legendary saltenas: crispy pastry shells filled with savory meats, potatoes and spices, much like an empanada. The silpancho sold by many restaurants is a generous beef or chicken cutlet on a bed of rice and topped with a fried egg. Be bold and order sopa de pirañas -— piranha soup — fresh caught in the Miranda and Paraguay rivers.
While downtown, stroll over to historic Plaza Murillo, a public square named after Pedro Domingo Murillo, a revered revolutionary hanged by conquistadors on that very spot in 1810. Now, the open square is filled with pigeons, busts and statues, surrounded by La Paz Cathedral, the National Congress and the Presidential Palace.
Witch doctors, called yatiri, sell items associated with the Aymaran culture at the Witches’ Market, near the city’s center. This is where you’ll find your herbs and folk remedies, as well as potions, talismans and dried frogs. Inexpensive handcrafts range from trendy jewelry to knitwear.
The Coca Museum is an easy walk from the Witches’ Market. It celebrates the storied past and current culture of the Andean coca plant and its nefarious derivative, cocaine.
For authentic Bolivian flavor, walk the narrow Calle Jaen, a delightful cobblestone street with its own kind of charm — colorful Colonial architecture, lively markets and notable museums await.
While you’re out and about, look for traditional Bolivian women called Cholitas dressed in billowing skirts, long braided hair and tiny bowler hats. Cholita wrestling events on Sundays are very popular, more theater than combat.
For years, the only way to La Paz through the Andes from the Amazon rainforest was via the Yungas Road, aka “the Death Road.” The unpaved, narrow roadway (less than ten feet wide in places) is cut into the side of the canyon 2,000 feet above the valley. A new, safer road has been built but still, the 40-mile Death Road eerily attracts thousands annually, primarily thrill-seeking bicyclists.
Stay at the Stannum Boutique Hotel and Spa near Plaza Murillo. An art gallery is on site, the Bar Ignis is on the 12th floor, and spa services include happy feet reflexology.
