Arriving in La Paz was a relief from the bus journey. This sleeper bus had been nowhere near as comfortable as previous busses. Added to this, the driver had decided to do an emergency brake at 2 am. As a result, I feel it was fair to say I felt a little on edge.
We disembarked into the bus terminal. The station had a far less organised feel to it than we were used to from other South American bus terminals. Given we had also arrived at 6:30 am, there was little open and so we decided to head outside to find some breakfast.
The area surrounding the bus terminal was scarce of anything but shuttered stores. We wandered for a bit but came to no avail in our quest for food. We decided we would look at our phones to see where the hotel was and keep walking in that direction. Katy opened her phone to a notification informing her that roaming inside Bolivia would could at a hefty price; a sum of 7.50 per Mb of data!!! We decided this would not be worth using under any non-emergency circumstance. We flagged down the nearest taxi we could see and showed our booking reservation, complete with address, to the driver. Thankfully he knew the area well and brought us to our new digs in no time.
We were half expecting the hotel to turn us away on the account that we were about 7 hours earlier than the check-in time quoted on the booking. However, the receptionist greeted us warmly and showed us to our room. Feeling pretty chuffed at our little win, we relaxed a bit before deciding what to do.
We headed over the road to a vegan café for breakfast. The food sounded delicious on the menu, and it was. The only unusual aspect from this place was that, for whatever reason, our coffees were made at the competing establishment across the road and brought over by the other restaurant’s waitress. Baffling.
On leaving our hotel, the rain had decided to join us. And not a light splattering of occasional unwelcome rain, this was torrential. Given that the topography of La Paz is incredibly hilly, this caused cascades of water to rush down the street in front of us. We sought solace in the nearest bar, which turned out to be an “English pub” (if this pub were indeed in England, it would be unrecognisable as a pub, with only one drink on tap). On looking at how gloomy the weather was, we decided we would rain check the tour for the next morning and decided we would tour the city in our way.
We had spotted a cable car running overhead us and decided we would spend our afternoon going for an arial ride for a ride. Katy had seen on her downloaded map that the cable car above us ran to the airport so we thought we would go for a return trip on the aerial gondola.
After a good deal of walking around to find where the terminal station was, we were gobsmacked. This wasn’t just a one-off, tourist trap cable car such as the London Emirates airline, which I still can’t see as being a viable transit mode. No sir, this was a full deployment of city-wide cable cars, with interconnection stations and whatnot.
We queued at the kiosk where a confused ticket salesperson couldn’t understand why, as tourists, we would want to pay more money for the contactless card. We, very poorly in Spanish, explained about our transport geekery. Along with showing a few contactless payment cards, we had from other cities; he understood why we were so extra.
Topped up with the right amount of money to make a semi-circle loop, we headed onto the purple line. The first thing that struck both Katy and me was how the city was laid out upon a hill. The elevation from part of the city to next varied with such intensity.
We soared into the heights of the city and got off at the first stop, which would allow us to swap lines. In the station was a small, fast food place. We paused for some lunch and admired the magnificent views from the highest point in the city.
We carried on exploring the various lines of the cable car system, admiring the views we were treated to. We decided to have a place to get to, we would pick a landmark on google. After much travelling, we s arrived at what was a very underwhelming statue. We headed back to the cable car and carried on looking at the city from above.
The final cable car, the blue line, took us at a much lower level through the city and we saw the large market/fair in the city from above.
We contacted Martina and Hugo and decided that it would be best for us to meet the next day. Katy and I now felt shattered and slightly ill (again)! They mentioned they too felt the same way, and we were glad we wouldn’t have top feign wellness and attempt to party up. Not to be too lame, we did decide on heading to the rooftop restaurant in our hotel for a drink while overlooking the city. This decision provided us with excellent night time views, and after one drink we were ready for bed (so maybe still a bit lame, but not as lame as no rooftop bar, right?)
The next day we enjoyed our free breakfast at the hotel. For some reason the music choice of the hotel was “dramatic/intense”. This made the atmosphere somewhat unrelaxed while trying to eat the sugar puffs and fruit on offer. Taking our time, we were suddenly in a rush (classic). We quickly put on our layers (La Paz was very cold!) and ran out of the door.
On our way to the meeting point, we bumped into Martina and Hugo, who were in the middle of their Spanish walking tour. A very quick greeting and explanation that we were running late; we arranged a rushed lunch plan with the couple.
We made it to the square in the nick of time! We were greeted by the tour operators who handed us a ticket, with a cost of 20 bolivianos printed on the face of it. Odd, as this was advertised as a “free” walking tour, which we have experience with (which depend on tips at the end from the guests). The guide told us not to worry, and he greeted the whole group.
The first thing that was mentioned was about the law in Bolivia regarding the walking tour. It had turned out that the “free” aspect of the tour had angered locals who had resorted to physical violence towards guides to demonstrate their displeasure at a new competitor. When this incident was brought to the law, Bolivian legal systems determined that nothing could technically be given away for free. Therefore, the company rebooted itself by making VERY budget walking tours which would still carry the tipping scheme from the typical free walking tours. While making sense, this did add a bit of uneasiness to the start of the tour, thinking we were in some targeted bootleg tourist attraction.
The walking tour provided an interesting insight into daily life in La Paz. From the current political situations to the use of witchcraft in buildings, the city was rife with culture. Added to the mayhem were the roads, which were some of the most manic I have seen to date. This is not like the organised chaos of Asia, or the madness of Indonesias drivers. The roads in La Paz are filled with mini-buses which use road laws at their discretion. Many are un-regulated and privately run, where people jump on at the “known only by locals” bus stops!
During the tour we sampled some the local cuisine. Using a lot of potato, and some meat, the cheap street treats were a great snack and gave us energy to carry on the tour. We also saw the famous anti-clockwise clock. This is installed on the legislative palace and resembles the fact that the clock runs backwards in the southern hemisphere. Sounds odd but this is true, as sun dials in the southern hemisphere do actually run left around the dial!!
Notice how the clock runs anti-clockwise? 
Enjoying some local cuisine 🙂
When the tour ended we messaged Marta and Hugo and found a little place to have a lunch and a catch up! Post dining we walked back towards the hotel area. Katy was keen to have a look at the local wares in the market near to our hotel. Inside one of the markets was the Coca museum of Bolivia. This privately-owned museum prided itself as the real independent source of knowledge regarding the coca leaf and its uses for both good and bad.
A mere 18 Bolivianos per person entry fee, this was actually quite the bargain. We were handed a translation of all the museum exhibits in printed copy that we could walk around with. It’s fair to say that we both learned a few things about the coca plant from this place. Chiefly how coca had been demonised through its use in the drug more commonly known as cocaine. My main takeaway from the museum was one particular quote, pointed towards the US effort in their war on drugs:
“..During prohibition times, the grapes used in the fermentation process were not considered illicit goods. Therefore, why was the coca plant, the raw material which requires chemical processes to become a drug, suddenly targeted alongside the narcotics”? This seems like a somewhat fair point.
However, as with all museums, there is a definite element of bias. Practically stating that the coca leaf is nothing but a miracle and should have its negative status across the world reconsidered.
We ended our museum trip and met up with Martina and Hugo once more for dinner. They mentioned that their walking tour guide had recommended a particular part of town which we should check out. The joy for us was that to get to this part in the city, we would need to get on the Telefonica cable car system.
Journeying through the night skyline provided us with views of the city in its nighttime splendour. Photographs were taken and we arrived at our destination; we walked around looking for a place to eat. We decided upon a pizza place which had a good 2 – 4 – 1 offer. We made the error of not looking at the menu soon enough as we were talking away. When the waiter came along, we asked for a few extra minutes to look at the options available. Inevitably the additional few minutes requested dragged on for far too long, and we eventually went looking for our waiter, asking him to come back.
Katy and I ordered the Bolivian pizza (it looked like an all on one dough circle option). When selecting this, I had not noticed that it was spicy, something which the waiter clarified with us. Expecting a few chillis or whatever we politely said this was okay. Martina and Hugo chose a calmer 4 cheese pizza.
When the pizzas came out, we all shared a slice of the four cheese. Cheesy and delicious it did not disappoint. The Bolivian followed soon after, and we all took a slice. I felt so bad for suggesting this pizza. Martina and Hugo were not people for spicy foods (given it isn’t a big part of cuisine in Uruguay). And this pizza was something else. The spicy-ness had been added to the base pizza sauce. Also, the sauce was what I would describe as of blistering heat. Both Katy and I could tell this was one hot dish!!
The rest of the dinner we stuck to the pizzas we had initially ordered. We still felt terrible that we enjoyed a slice of the mild cheese when Martina and Hugo would not be able to enjoy a slice of ours. The second issue was that Katy and I now had to finish this spice monster. Mouths on fire, we apologised once more and settled the bill. We all got a cab back to our hotels and said goodbye to each other, promising that we would meet up in Peru when our paths would cross!
The next day Katy and I would be up early for cycling on the death road. This will be in another post as it was a whole, fantastic day in its own right. After that, we would miraculously be leaving la Paz and heading onwards to Copacabana (which will also be explained in the Death Road cycle post).
