The R&R Big Adventure

Surprising La Paz

In the taxi from the airport to our hotel yesterday afternoon we passed through some pretty depressing areas (which turned out to be El Alto, a separate, but adjacent city to La Paz) and wondered why we had booked to spend time here. The area around our hotel though is very different – with shops, restaurants and embassies all close by. After a (relatively) good night’s sleep, we felt in much better shape today to explore. We weren’t expecting much, especially being a Sunday, but were thankfully proven wrong.

We started the day by getting a birds eye view of the city from the many cable cars that criss-cross the city. An amazingly efficient system that was introduced in 2014 (we had seen this on a much smaller scale in Colombia) for a city built on, and surrounded by, large hills. The cable cars arrive every 20s or so, and the connections between lines (handily colour-coded) is swift. And at 20p per ride, an amazingly cheap way to see the city. If only the Tube were like this. We stopped at a Sunday market that seemed to stretch for miles in each direction – selling everything from dismantled car parts to every over-size bra size you could imagine. We bought a very unconvincing fake ‘Under Armour’ bag to replace the old one carrying our hiking gear that had fallen to bits. I wanted to haggle with the seller to reduce it from the ridiculous c. £8 asking price, but R wouldn’t let me do that to the 70yr old lady whose stall it was.

Once we reached the centre of La Paz it seemed every street was alive with activity – more Sunday markets, bands playing, a couple of sound stages with a rock band on one (and an open air mosh pit) and traditional Bolivian band on another. As we turned a street corner, a huge procession was coming down the street with what looked like the equivalent of Bolivian freemasons in suits and regalia, but singing, banging drums and twirling rattles to a brass band following them. Most of them were carrying cans of beer as well, so they probably were half cut to be fair. Behind them were more men in pastel suits singing, and women in traditional Bolivian dress. We passed several flower shops – many of them selling bouquets of red roses with a sunflower stuck randomly in the middle: I am hoping this was just a nod to the colours of their national flag (red, yellow and green).

We splashed the cash on another 20p cable car ride back to the hotel, to find our room covered in rose petals (floor and bed), a bouquet of flowers, and a bottle of bubbles (Bolivian demi-sec, don’t ask) on ice. Aside from celebrating eighteen wonderful years with Robert of course, I had paid an extra tenner to get an upgraded room and sparkling wine in their ‘romance weekend’ package, but wasn’t expecting them to go to this length. All the staff here (like everywhere else) have been super friendly.

An early-ish night tonight as we are up very early (again) tomorrow for a flight to Uyuni – and a two day tour of the famous Bolivian salt flats. I am really looking forward to seeing some stunning scenery, but instead of spending the two nights in a campsite, staying in hotels made of salt…