Located in the bowl-like canyon created by the Choqueyapu River and surrounded by the high mountains of the Altiplano, La Paz is the highest capital city of the world at roughly 3650 meters above sea level. It is the seat of government of Bolivia and the third most populous city of the country, after Santa Cruz and El Alto (a nearby city on the high plains and where the airport is located). Despite the great improvement brought to the city by political stability in the last few years, it is still lagging behind major cities in other countries, specially when compared to Peruvian cities.
Manufacturing is its major economic activity as many of the factories are located nearby producing products such as clothing, various consumer goods, building materials and agricultural tools among others. Being such a large city, visitors can find a number of small supermarkets, pharmacies and all kinds of shops living together with street vendors whose produce range from food to DVDs or clothing.
It is also the major cultural center of Bolivia, boasting several cathedrals and Jaén Street with buildings from colonial times, hundreds of museums. Other attractions worth a visit are Plaza Murillo and its unique markets, particularly the Witches’ Market. Its cable network, the largest of the world, was officially recognized in 2015 as one of the New 7 Wonders Cities.
We arrived from Peru, entering from the top, at a rickety bus terminal that looked abandoned on the outside but was very well organized on the inside, and took a taxi to our Airbnb near the city center. Once settled, we went to the nearest tourist information office for recommendations on what to visit and do on the city for that day. They recommended to embark on three cableway lines that would allow us to have excellent views from the city.
The cableway was a new system with solar panel cabins, a very efficient transport means with clean, well-cared stations. And the views were simply amazing.
From the last cableway we walked towards some of the highlighted areas of La Paz: the Witches’ Market and a nearby cathedral. The witches market is a small crafts market that also offers medicinal plants from the Bolivian jungle.
Back in the main street we went to the cathedral, an imposing but dingy and rundown building. The streets were full of people, pedestrians, sellers and many homeless people. There is more poverty in this city and its streets are not as well cared as Peruvian streets in their city centers.
The next day we walked up to Killi Killi lookout for 360 degree views of the city before leaving towards the airport in El Alto, we were taking a plane to Uyuni and it’s famous salt flats.
*Information obtained from Wikipedia, for futher information visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Paz
