LA PAZ: the world's highest administrative capital

Current location:  click here

The bus trip from Puno to La Paz was straight forward, if it wasn´t because of the "out-of-water" onboard toilet. I used the Puno-Copacabana-La Paz route as I wanted to take a quick look to Copacabana, and the bus schedule indicated a 2 hours stop.

The border formalities went without any problems for me, but our bus driver "forgot" to give all pasengers indications on how we should move from one pass control (peruvian) to the next (bolivian) one.

Some of our pasengers moved quite slow and other buses coming after ours were able to complete their formalities faster than we did. With all this delay, our stop in Copacabana was reduced to 10min and there was no time to do any sightseeing. Next time I should plan staying overnight at the Isla del Sol in Bolivia, it was very much recommended by everybody I met in La Paz.

From Copacabana we had to cross the straight of Tiquina and had to leave the bus as passengers use different boats. All this took about 45 min.

we finally arrived La Paz in the evenning, just in time for the afterwork rush hour.

Nuestra Señora de La Paz, commonly known as La Paz, is Bolivia´s largest city and the coutry´s legislative capital. It is located in a valley surrounded by high mountains with varying elevations from 3.000 to 4.100 meters over the sea level. It was founded in 1548 by the spanish conquistadores conmemorating the restoration of peace following the insurrection of Gonzalo Pizarro four years earlier. The city was later moved to its present location in the valley of Chuquiago Marka. The center of the city keeps well preserved monuments and historical buildings from the colonial and republican times.

The Basilica and Monastery of San Francisco located in Plaza San Francisco is one of the places to visit. It marks also the beginning of the turistic Sagarnaga street, with lots of travel agencies offering tours to Bolivia´s main attractions, ATMs, souvenier shops and restaurants offering local menues and free wifi. I used one travel agency here to book my next flight to Sucre as well as the coming Uyuni´s salt flat tour. 

I find that combining a whole day walking tour with a 1/2 day bus sieghtseeing tour provide a good overview of most cities. The Museo of Litoral is one of the places visited. 

La Paz is regularly place of large demostrations like in this case where thousands of people were protesting against plans for a new road intersection which requires the relocation of a large food market.

It was nice to find Abuela´s Obdulia building and hostal. Didn´t know my grandmother had a house here.

There are also areas with modern and high buildings, including an initiative to build a central park in the lowest part of the valley and bridges to connect the upper parts in a faster way.

Not far from the center there is a place called Valle de la Luna (Moon´s valley) which is visited by the bus tour I took. The topography and view of this place explains why it´s called so.

In general I find la Paz somehow similar to Lima´s downtown and some of its peripherie. The lack of coast and its altitude seem to me as the main difference.