First Impressions of La Paz, Bolivia

Crystal clear mountain lakes, endless high plains, majestic snow-capped mountains, a view of a city like no other, dragging luggage through the streets of La Paz, almost being ripped off by money changers, and enjoying the best pizza in all of Latin America…just a little of what we experienced during our travels from Copacabana to La Paz.

It’s 7 a.m. in a La Paz Bolivia hotel and I am typing in our motel room with a couple of wool blankets thrown over me for warmth. If I was on a typical Bolivian holiday I might be complaining, but as with most hotels/hostals in this part of the country there is no heat in the rooms, several places have offered space heaters to cut the morning chill that we have not used yet, but you can certainly feel winter approaching in the Southern Hemisphere.

After only a 2 day stay in Copacabana it was time to head to La Paz, Bolivia’s largest city and central hub to the rest of the country. Our day began pleasant enough, we woke without alarms and began our day with a wonderful breakfast overlooking Lake Titicaca. By far the best breakfast we have had ANYWHERE outside the states, most offer coffee & bread…that’s it (continental I suppose), but the breakfast at Hotel Rosario del Lago included juices, fresh fruit, pancakes and French Toast, sweet breads, cereals, and coffees and teas, and eggs made to order. It is the simple things in life, and enjoying a wonderful breakfast overlooking a beautiful mountain lake is a great way to start the day.

We had a few errands to run before we left for the day, to the moans of the children we hiked up the hill to the main square. A little about the hikes, first I would not consider us a hiking family because…well, we are not a hiking family. Second, we have been at between 11,000 thousand feet and 13,000 feet for the past couple of weeks and have acclimated to the high altitude (we still feel some of the effects on some days) but climbing up a flight of stairs at this altitude winds you, let alone a street built on the side of a mountain. So, the kids’ moans we warranted but we began our ascent of mount Copacabana.

We purchased peanuts from the Peanut Lady, 2 cup-fulls for 10 Boliviano’s. Current exchange rate is 7 to 1, so our pound of fresh, salted peanuts cost $1.42…a luxury to be sure. Next we headed for the money changer, we got 6.9 for our dollars, and we found an extra 50 Soles left over from Peru and converted those to Bolivianos at 2.21. Our business completed in town we headed for the lake.

Gigi insisted that we take another paddle boat ride on the lake and Grant seconded the idea, so we headed down hill in search of the perfect paddle boat. The “main drag” is a little bohemian with coffee shops, and tie-dye, and vendors offering their handmade bracelets and necklaces. Even though we were heading down hill it took us twice as long to get down to the lake, allowing time for Gina and Gigi to ogle at the shiny baubles and talk with the vendors as Grant and I watch the people and dogs go by.

Having arrived at the lake we decide to use the same Duck Boat Vendor we did yesterday. He actually tried to charge us an extra 10 Bolivianos (go figure) for keeping the boat an extra 10 minutes even though we were only 5 minutes late. It is too long of a story to go into but after a long search for change and Gina giving him a piece of her mind (she is getting pretty good at chewing butt in Spanish) he relented and only charged us the $20 Boliviano’s for the 30 minute ride. So, today we decided to give him more business for his kindness.

After our paddle boat ride it was time to head back to the hotel, have a little lunch, get our luggage and board the bus. Not a bad first part of the day!

The bus ride is 3 ½ hours from Copacabana to La Paz, and takes you through some amazing scenery. Lake Titicaca does not leave you for a good portion of the trip and is visible from almost every vantage point. Today the skies a blue with large white, billowy clouds and the bright sun reflecting off the water makes for a truly amazing site. Only too out do that scene, snow-capped mountains rise in the distance some 20,000 feet into the air framing the lake in an almost surreal scene. Grant did some research and found that Lake Titicaca is ½ the size of Ontario, and that our other favorite lake Coeur d Alene in Idaho would fit into Titicaca more than 66 times. This lake is huge!

I almost forgot. Our trip also included a ferry ride. We had to disembark, pay a ferry toll, get our papers scrutinized by the Bolivian National Police, and then watch as our bus caught a barge ride across the lake. A nice diversion from riding in a bus and something that you do not experience every day.

La Paz Bolivia coming down from El Alto

Most of the remainder of the trip is across high plains with sparsely populated homes trying to scratch out a living in the rocky but fertile soil, low mountains on one side and magnificent snow-capped mountains on the other. You pass through a few small towns, their names unknown and the reason they exist unclear, but otherwise just miles and miles of high plains. It is a pleasant ride if not for the paved road, the scenery is magnificent, and really a nice way to spend a few hours enjoying our newest country Bolivia.

We are jolted awake as the bus hits a gravel road. The smooth road we have enjoyed for most of our trips end in a strange town in the middle of the road and it appears is charging us a fee to pass. I comment to Gina that the toll has not helped the city much, it looks poor and run down and another town that you are unsure of why it exists. The town does not disappear as most do and we find that we are on the outskirts of La Paz, at least we assume so based upon on calculations of time remaining to La Paz.

As we gaze out the window we get glances of a city stretching seemingly forever, in the states we would call this sprawl, as far as the eye could see buildings covering the landscape. It is evident by now that we are entering a large city, we pass the requisite factories most of which look as if they were abandoned long ago and the Barrios built around them having suffered the same demise although the population hangs on.

We pass a Bolivian Air Force base and I wonder to myself what shape their military is in and if in fact they had any planes to fly. I have lived around military bases a good part of my life and aircraft are always coming and going on training missions, the skies have been clear for the past 3 hours.

Our first glimpse of La Paz

It is entertaining and mesmerizing to enter a new city for the first time, and riding a large bus through center of town gives you a unique view of the goings on. In many ways it is like every other town we have been to in South America, and in many ways it is different. We sit in our cushioned chairs perched above the city life and watch as the masses go about their daily businesses.

Wow I shriek! Look at that! I can’t believe what I am seeing! Those are my first words as we catch our first glimpse of La Paz proper. The city sits in a bowl and as we enter from the highway above, perhaps as much as 3,000 or 4.000 below sits an amazing site of building clinging to the sides of mountains as far as the eye can see. Most of the city is surrounding by sparse high plains similar to what we have witnessed for the past couple of hours, and in the distance Mt. Illimani rises more than 21,000 feet its snow-capped peaks adding to the most spectacular contrasts I have ever witnessed. My senses are literally overwhelmed as I try to take in what I am seeing.

The capital of Bolivia is not La Paz although the city is often referred to as the Administrative Capital, and is the countries center for commerce, finance, and industry.  Combined with the cities of Viacha and El Alto there are more than 1.6 million people in this city, while not overly large, they are all crammed into this “bowl” at 12,000 feet in the Andes…many clinging to the side of a mountain!  Think that is high?  The Bolivian airport servicing this area is located in El Alto and is at an elevation of over 13,300 feet…we are glad that we did not fly into this city but had a chance to acclimate.

We arrive at the end of the run for this bus, a hostal on a busy street in the middle of La Paz. Unfortunately we are not staying here and as Gina and I wonder aloud how we are going to find our hotel, we notice a man holding a small sign with our name on it. Next thing we know we are weaving our way through a mass of bodies as we pull our luggage down the street. The sidewalks are crowded and more difficult than walking down the street, however, this creates another obstacle for us now…the car. We pass street vendors selling everything from fruit to batteries to chicken parts to shampoo. More for our senses to take in as we are welcomed to the city of La Paz.

After more than a half mile we arrive at our hotel. We check in, climb the 5 flights of stairs to our room (why do they always put us on the top?) at 13,000 feet above sea level our lungs are ready to burst. We throw the bags in the corner and collapse on the nearest bed…the kids already fighting over who gets what bed and other complaints that I tune out. Gina and I know we are not done yet, we only have a few bucks in cash in our pockets not enough to pay for dinner, our hotel room, or the bus tickets we will need for tomorrow.

Back down we go! Out on the street a smile comes over my face. I love exploring a new town and seeing and smelling all that La Paz had to offer was exciting. We make our way back through the maze of vendors, stopping to ask directions to the nearest Banco Automatico, and as is usually the case with each answer we are more confused about exactly where to go. We end up several blocks from our hotel room on a major street dividing the valley and the city of La Paz in half. We find the ATM get our money and start heading to where the money changers are located. We ask a women to change $200 U.S. and she yells for another woman to come over, she tells us the rate is $7.05 (a good rate) a proceeds to start scamming us.

It goes something like this…

She counts a thousand Bolivianos and hands them to me. She then counts a few more and gives them to Gina. Believing she has given us the correct amount I hand her the $200 bucks, until I count it and find out she has not given us enough money. She takes the cash back and counts it herself…telling us it is accurate. By this time Gina and I are getting agitated (which is part of the scam), a little confused, and not sure of what the total amount she has given us. She hands the money back to me, I count it again, it is wrong again and I hand it back to her. As I am watching her count it I see her slip $100 Boliviano’s under a stack of cash in her hand…now I know the game is on. I tell Gina that she is cheating us and after yelling and arguing with the women she takes out our original $200 U.S., Gina grabs it…I call the woman a few choice words and we head off down the street. Just around the corner is another group of money changers. They offer an exchange rate of $7.00 Bolivianos to the dollar, we watch them count the money…double count it ourselves, give them our $200 bucks and head off back to the hotel.

This was actually the second time we were hustled, the first was in Chiclayo, Peru where 2 guys gave us the run around, passed bills back and forth, told us that a couple of them would not be accepted so they had to discount the exchange rate, and generally being a couple of buffoons. We took our money, called them a few choice words, and headed down the street to find legitimate money changers. So, we have not been ripped off yet but they have tried!

Anyway, while we were only a few blocks from the hotel…the blocks were STRAIGHT UPHILL. We made our way (slowly) towards the hotel…only stopping a few times to catch our breath, man o’ man can 13,000 feet make you feel like you are out of shape.

We make it to the hotel, grab the kids, and head back out on the streets. It is late and we need to feed the kids and get them in bed. We have an early day tomorrow, another long bus ride, and nobody has eaten since lunch. We stumble into a restaurant advertising pizza and traditional recipes. Gina gets a bowl of Quinoa soup and we order pizza for the kids and I. Wow! The pizza is delicious, a light, crispy crust that is made from scratch in the kitchen and cooked in a wood burning stove. If pizza is not the perfect food I do not know what is…but after a long day of traveling and the few hours in La Paz the pizza was better than ever.

As the 4 of us stepped out into the cool night air and headed once again towards the hotel the sights and sounds of La Paz once again attacked our senses. In a few short hours we would head out of town…most likely never to return, but our brief time in La Paz, Bolivia was an adventure we would remember for a long, long time.