La Paz, Bolivia - Polarsteps

LALALALAPAZZZZZ PAAZZZPAAZZZ ☮️ Yes, we were at the bus terminal again. After an unpleasant ride with a lack of sleep, we arrived in the early mornings in La Paz! We are happy with the flexibility of our hotel, that lets us check in at 11 instead of 14:00. The next two nights we will sleep in a hotel again! We got a big room and for the first time in months an ensuite bathroom which we directly got into use! 🛀 La Paz is an... Interesting city to say the least. Although it is the political capital of Bolivia, it sure doesn't feel that way. The entire city is rather run-down and at times it feels like a giant sprawling market, with stalls and vendors in every street. Putting it simply; we have mixed opinions of the city, Frank said 'we loved it': The sounds, smells and colours were wonderfull and it was good fun wandering around with so much activity to see, even though La Paz doesn't have much in terms of traditional tourist spots. At the same time, Liselot was only mildly impressed. 🤨 What we both agree on, it that the most fun thing about La Paz is the public transport. Being build in a giant canyon, which shelters it from the fierce Altiplano winds, all streets in La Paz run rather steep. As a solution, they don't employ metro's, but rather cable cars as public transport🚡. It is great fun soaring through the skies, seeing all of the city sprawling below you, for an equivalent of €0.30! And it saves you the steep hikes up, which are not great fun at 4000+m altitude 😰. During a cable car ride, you can clearly see the differences between the people's lifes. In the city centre most buildings are finished, although they still might look a bit rundown. Further away from the centre, the suburbs showing the poverty of the general population. But funfact-time 💡: we learned that having an unfinished house doesn't necessarily mean that the inhabitants are poor. The advantage of living in an unfinished house, is that you don't have to pay the taxes! 🤑

Country Guides:

Bolivia