Five (or more) nights in La Paz

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Wednesday 28th December - Monday 2nd January 2022

A taxi, two flights, another taxi and 8hours later, we found ourselves arriving into La Paz, Bolivia, at 4am and super happy with ourselves that we had arranged ‘early check in’ and got to dive into bed straight away. Hello Bolivia, but night night! Thankfully, after a few hours of decent kip, a good breakfast and a couple more hours of sleep, we felt reenergised and ready to go exploring again. We’d made it out of Peru!

A much bigger city, La Paz was a bit of a sensory overload as we exited the hotel straight onto a busy street, full of people, market stalls and cars. So many cars and buses, clearly owning the right of way in every situation, even when the man is green, beeping and puffing out huge black clouds as they chugged along. Almost choking on the fumes, we instantly missed the mountains and the Amazon. However, it didn’t take long to get some bearings, and, after a really informative and fun walking tour of the city, we felt much more comfortable within just a few hours. Whilst it felt big and loud, with no real room to walk, as you’re either in a cars way or blocked by the thousands of market stalls, it’s surprising how quickly it feels normal.

In fact, the market stalls are a key thing we found here in La Paz. They are everywhere, lining all the main streets and side streets possible; both on pavements and the roads themselves. Even, when looking to find a quiet space to sit and finding the ‘park’ on the map, we arrived to it being covered in market stalls! All selling different things yet, maybe organised, to be selling the same things in groups. Want a smoothie? Head over there. Looking for snacks or drink? That section is where you want to be. Need to replace your blender or fancy a stapler? Down there you go. Not got your lucky yellow knickers for New Year’s Eve yet? Then you need to go that way. I don’t think a thousand pictures would really show just how many crazy and crammed streets there are, all over different parts of this huge city, full of just about anything you can think of.

And even things you wouldn’t think of. Fancy picking up a llama foetus? Well, you can here, at the witches market. As well as all the other bits you need for your ‘mesa’ when making an offering for good luck and blessings on your house, business or other future wish. What was really good though, and very different from Peru, is that you could actually stop and take a look at something without the vendor instantly being there, bagging it up and taking your money. This was really refreshing, and made it feel so much easier and calmer to wonder along; despite all the people and cars. It added to the feeling that maybe Bolivia is a little less dependent on tourism and so not needing your money quite as intently.

Similar to Peru though, there is a big story of independence, Inca history, previous wars and a political instability. We had already heard a small protest happening, which we learnt was a daily thing here, and how there has been a coup within the government almost every year; being told how the ‘half decent’ prime minister they had was pushed out a window, shot and hung here in one of their main squares, where you can also see many big bullet holes dotted around the buildings. Lovely. In fact, it was surprising to learn just how recent changes were made to eradicate discrimination here, being only in the late 90s that indigenous people were allowed into La Paz centre. As part of this movement, indigenous women in particular, took the chance to take their rights and celebrate their culture, traditions and way of dress too. Cholitas, with their huge colourful skirts and little bowler hats, are now pretty famous and well respected here. In fact, they fought for and won their right to practise the sport of wrestling, much like Lucho Libre, which, albeit now a big show for tourists, was great fun to be able to see in action.

La Paz is also famous for the words highest and longest cable car system, and, as we spent most of one day journeying along them, we can see why. They are really cool and a great way for locals to get to different parts of the city, and for tourists to see varying views of this huge city from above. We are just glad the tornado happened a couple days before we arrived and ventured onto these high swinging cable cars. Having said that, there was still a large storm on our last night, that whilst fun to watch from our hotel, meant we woke up to no power the following morning and a very leaky rooftop breakfast bar!

That was the start to an interesting ‘last day’ here in La Paz too. Whilst having been managing ok and still getting out and about during our 5nights here, (we saw some of it’s many churches, visited a couple of museums, stopped at many cafes, didn’t die from exhaustion walking up to Killi Killi viewpoint, visited the fancy buildings called Cholets, tested our Spanish by watching a film at the cinema and managed to celebrate the new year with pizza, beer, another couple we met that day, and the panoramic view from our hotel of the hundreds of fireworks that lit up the city at midnight. Happy new year!) I had been struggling with bouts of diarrhoea, cramps and bloating since the end of Cuzco. Knowing we had no real hospital coming up in the next week or so once we left La Paz, we decided it best to get checked out. So, after an afternoon in and around the hospital, a blood and stool sample, and a mix of bad Spanish but thankfully good English on their side, we found out I had Salmonella and possible parasite! And so Paul probably does too. Did I say happy new year?!

Medications prescribed, collected and first dose taken, (advised Paul to take too given we eat the same things and he has had mild symptoms) and we felt good for getting checked out and happy the Dr seemed to think we could continue with our travel plans of the bus to Uyuni tonight. It was also fun to see another, much wealthier, area of La Paz and finding a big mall to sit around in and people watch. However, the first dose (and maybe having too much too soon for dinner) seemed to begin to flush out our systems rather quickly and so we bailed on the bus for tonight, needing the security of a decent toilet on call. Fingers crossed we feel better tomorrow and, after another ‘last day’, we can continue with our travels safely and securely. Wish us luck!

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