Crazy but delightful La Paz!

Today was another travel day. We left our hotel just before 9am to get an 11am flight to Santa Cruz, then after a 4.5 hour stopover, another hour’s flight onto La Paz. While the flights weren’t too bad, travelling for over 10 hours is never pleasant – especially not when one of us has a really sore and quite swollen foot.

At 4100m above sea level, La Paz has the highest airport in the world. Aside from this being a cool fact, it also means you have no time to slowly acclimatise to the altitude. Getting off the plane both of us immediately felt the effects of the altitude with shortness of breath and Derek had tingling in his hands and face.

After we got off the plane we went in search of a taxi. We read up quite a bit about Bolivia and all the scams involving cab drivers and tourists so were a little wary. The information desk advised us that the airport taxis are safe so we got into one and headed for the city.

Because we are driving from the altiplano into La Paz below, you have a magnificent view of the large, sprawling city nestled in the Cordillera mountains, with houses built into every available crevice on the slopes. The view was incredible, but man, that taxi ride!!

Now, let me start by saying I know we are spoilt in the UK by drivers’ (general) extreme respect for pedestrians, traffic rules, traffic lights, other cars, etc. and that in most of South America they usually make traffic rules up as they go along. But, I have never in my life experienced a taxi ride quite like this one. I was sure we were both going to die on the streets of La Paz.

The city itself is crazy – full of people, colours, dogs, taxis and general congestion and chaos. Taxi drivers and mini buses just add to that chaos by honking constantly; honking to say they’re not stopping, honking to get past, honking to warn you, honking to let you in, honking to say thanks, honking just to honk! And all the while, your senses are on high alert due to the colours, smells, noises, hundreds of people, dogs, cars, buses and general craziness.

For the first time on this trip and pretty much during all my travels, I felt slightly nervous. Not only because I thought an accident was inevitable, but everything was just too strange, too crazy and pushed me a little too far out of my comfort zone. The taxi then proceeded to drop us off across what looked like a dodgy apartment building with fancy dress costumes draped across the windowsills. I was close to tears.

You can therefore imagine my relief and childlike joy when we stepped into our hotel and it was an oasis of tranquillity and peacefulness! The hotel and our room were beautiful and we both agreed it was the nicest place we’ve stayed in so far. Less than ten minutes later I forgot all about my nervousness and started getting really excited about this wild and chaotic city and could not wait to explore! It is amazing the difference a nice base makes.

Sadly, at this stage Derek was quite badly affected by altitude sickness and felt very dizzy, tingly and generally unwell. Coupled with his sore foot, he just couldn’t face walking through the busy streets of La Paz. In fairness, I was quite tired myself from a long day of travelling so we opted to have dinner in the hotel’s restaurant.

Our hotel was situated in downtown La Paz so we were close to the main tourist sites. First we had to stop by the Gravity Mountain Biking shop which was organising our trip of the Death Road. Due to Derek’s foot still being quite sore, we wanted to move our trip to the Friday to give it an extra day to heal. Various blogs and sites recommended we do a walking tour so we decided to do the Red Cap Walking Tour this afternoon, but more about this tour in a separate post.

Before the tour, we had a few hours to kill so decided to walk around some of the older parts of the city. It was incredible – a city of such contrasts. The downtown high-rise office buildings, the old and somewhat ruined apartments, the Bolivian women in their traditional skirts and bowler hats, modern cars speeding past beaten up minivans and decades old buses.

The city is a mix of different cultures, influences, traditions, beliefs and people. But somehow, all these elements mix perfectly in this hectic, crazy city, providing a unique and unforgettable experience.

During the next few days we retraced some of our steps of the walking tour as we felt we didn’t really have time to appreciate all the sights at the time. We also went back for more avocado sandwiches (I had one every day) and fresh fruit juice (ditto) at the local markets.

The most incredible thing about La Paz’s vibrant streets is the variety of items you can find within a few blocks: anything from second-hand shoes to toilet seats to exhaust pipes, confetti and live snails. Shops selling similar items also tend to be grouped together so we started referring to it as haircut street, heavy machinery street and medicine street. It was unlike anything we have ever seen.

We also strolled down the cobbled street of Calle Jaen – one of La Paz’s most finely preserved colonial streets with brightly plastered houses dating from the 18^th century.

Derek noticed a poster in a travel agency’s window for something we thought we had missed out on during our stay in La Paz, as it normally takes place on Sundays only. But it turns out this event also occurs on a Thursday… the poster was for Cholitas Wrestling!

There is a huge tradition of Lucha libre in Mexico – masked wrestling. This was Bolivia’s take on it. The wrestling would be between the elaborately dressed Cholita ladies with their big skirts and bowler hats. Now neither of us are big fans of wrestling at all or indeed any fighting especially between women. But this was more show acting than actual fighting.

The evening started with some men fighting – one dressed as a savage clown and the other as the cousin of The Flash (at least that is the look we think he was going for!).

At last it was the Cholitas’ turn! With an elaborate entrance from behind the curtain came the contenders for the first bout.

What followed for the next hour or so was some of the best entertainment £10 could buy. Ladies flying through the air and jumping off the ropes in spectacular fashion; dresses whirling and bowler hats flying all the while the announcer shouted in incomprehensible Spanish over the crackling speakers. Every now and again the action would erupt outside the ring as they “pretend” pulled each other’s hair. The referee would then get involved as he favoured one over the other; but moments later got a swift kick in the nuts, only to be replaced by the other crocked ref. It was pure pantomime.

The crowd was mainly tourists with a few locals here and there. We were disappointed that the “tourist” crowd didn’t quite seem to appreciate this for what it was. Derek and I seemed to be the only ones cheering and whistling and booing when the ladies head-butted one another or when the ref turned “evil”. So much so that every fighter came to us to pose or get a high five before or after the every fight. Derek was so animated by their entrance and performance that one of the ladies made a beeline for him and twirled him around before giving him a sneaky kiss on the mouth.

We had a great time with our stale popcorn and flat coke and went home very entertained.

On our last day in La Paz we decided to take the cable car to the top of the rim of the altiplano above the city. At the moment La Paz has three cable cars operating across the city (with nine others planned), mainly to alleviate the traffic congestion down below. It was quite strange to ride such modern cable cars in a city that doesn’t even have running water on most days.

The views were incredible from the top and we took some time to appreciate the scenery and bid La Paz farewell.