Well, here we are.

My first day in La Paz.

After getting in late last night after a long bus journey from Puno, I took my sweet ass time getting out of bed this morning.

In fact, I would have even slept in longer except I did have a 11:00 tour of the city I had booked.

So, I was up and out the door by 9:45.   Just enough time to walk into town, grab a quick breakfast, and head to the meeting point for the tour.

A good breakfast to start the day

So, my history with searching out gluten free breakfast options hasn’t been the greatest but today made up for it.

Of course, it wasn’t without a bit of drama.

The Carrot Tree has two locations here in La Paz and they offer gluten free options for bread for their multiple breakfast sandwiches and gluten free pancakes and crepes.

I had put a big, bright, orange marker on this restaurant on my map because this is where I’d be having breakfast every day I’m here in La Paz.

Now, the hostel I’m staying at is about 30 minutes out of the center of the city.   It’s a bit of a walk but it’s a fair trade off considering the hostel is a top rated one and I’m super happy there.

I walked to where the Carrot Tree was marked on my map and, wouldn’t you know it, it wasn’t there!

Oh for f*cks sake!

Seriously!?!

Before I started searching for somewhere else, I noticed that the local office of Boliva Hop just happened to be across the street so I popped in there knowing I’d find someone speaking English.

And, well, it turns out the restaurant was tucked in behind them off the street through a courtyard.

Okay, drama diverted.   Time to eat!

I sat down and the song playing over the speakers was We Are Young by Fun.   Now, this song has some significance to me when it comes to traveling.

It was my go-to song on my very first trip back in 2013 when I went to Europe.   It was a nice pick me up and get excited to tackle the day kind of song and I listened to it endlessly when I was walking down the streets.

So, to hear this song playing was surely a great sign for me.

For breakfast I ordered avocado toast with bacon and eggs and it was perfect.   Man, something about getting a real breakfast in you makes you feel like you can take on the day.

Walking Tour with Cable Cars

At 11:00 I walked up to the Basilica de San Francisco where pretty much all the tour groups start from.

Usually I book a free walking tour where you only pay at the end with a tip but while I was looking up stuff I noticed this tour that did the same as the free walking tour but also included a tour through the cable car lines surrounding the city.

The tour was only $10USD ($14) so I figured, what the hell, I want to learn about the cable cars too.

Of course when I arrived to the meeting point I had no idea who I was meeting.   There were a few different guides standing around but none of them really had any markings for which company they were.

As I was about to approach one of them to just ask him if he knew about this tour I signed up with, he gave me a smile and asked if I was Todd.

Well, guess I found my guy.

His name was Fernando and he along with myself and two other travelers would be touring around the city for the next 3 hours.

The other two touring with me were a couple from Switzerland, Marcel and Feliina.   He’s originally from Chile but has been living in Switzerland the last 10 years.   They were a cute couple stealing the odd kiss here and there as we traversed the city.

Of course we did the obligatory tour through the Witches Market.   We actually stopped in one of the stores and sat down on little stools and Fernando talked alot about the different customs and rituals that Bolivia is known for.

You’ll find alot of that info in the “tidbits” section down below.

After a half hour of story telling and a little bit of souvenir shopping, we were on our way to the cable cars.

There are in 9 color coded cable car lines that criss cross the city of La Paz and it’s neighboring city of El Alto.

Because of the hilly nature of the cities, having a metro system on the ground just wasn’t viable so instead they opted to move the metro lines to the sky above.

It’s actually quite ingenious when you think about it.

Today we took 4 of the 9 lines and it’s amazing the views of the city you can get from high above.

To use the system you have to first purchase a card (tarijta) for 30bs ($6) which has 15bs ($3) already loaded on to it.

Each trip you take costs 3bs (60 cents) and transfers to other lines cost 2bs (40 cents) so it’s all quite reasonably priced.

After traveling the lines for an hour, we got off near the center of the city again and after a brief walk through Calle Apolinar Jaen (the oldest street in La Paz) the tour was over.

Little tidbits from the tour

Okey doke, here’s some cool stuff I learned on the tour today…

The cable car stations:
The first phase was only built in 2014 and included the red, yellow and green stations matching the colors of the Bolivia flag.

The red line traverses the northern part of the city connecting El Alto where the airport is to the city of La Paz down below.

The yellow and green lines are attached and cross the southern part of the city.

Problem was you couldn’t connect from the north to the south so if you wanted to get from the red station to a yellow station you had to walk for 20 minutes through a dangerous neighborhood over a steep change in altitude.

It wasn’t until 2019 that the final line, the grey line, was completed to connect the north and the south.

Rainy season flooding:
In the spring months La Paz is subject to torrential rain storms that will flood the city streets making them all but inaccessible.

To that end, there is literally no trash on the streets as they are maintained quite well.

Why you may ask?

Well, when the rain comes, if there’s trash on the streets they all cover the street drains on the sides of the street causing the streets to flood.

At least without the trash the flooding isn’t so severe.

In February 2009, there were 36 people killed from the flooding and another 15 still missing.   It’s called Black February.

The Pachamama:
As we sat in a shop in the Witches Market, Fernando explained the different stone animal amulets that people cherish.

• Frog:   Money
• Cross:   Protection
• Snake:   Fertility
• Llama:   Happiness
• Turtle:   Long life

and my choice for amulet:

• Condor:   Travel

The Pachamama is a collection of all of the amulets in one stone carving.   If you’re watching my cats while I’m gone, there may be one of these little guys waiting in a gift bag for you.

Even numbers:
The Bolivians are superstitious when it comes to even numbers as they consider them lucky and try to stay away from odd numbers if they can.

If you go to a restaurant and order one beer, the waitress may correct you and ask if you want two cause, yah know, even numbers.

Also, Bolivians will try to get married on even numbered years, months, and days.

A little extra:
If you’re buying something off a street vendor and they ask if you want “yapa”, always say yes.   They’re asking if you want a little extra.

Populations:
The city of La Paz has 900,000 residents while it’s sister city El Alto located on the hilltops overlooking La Paz has 1.2 million people.

No McDonalds:
Like only a handful of other countries, Bolivia has no McDonalds within it’s borders.   They just prefer they’re own food.

El Alto Market:
Every Thursday (like today) and Sunday there is a huge outdoor street market set up in El Alto.

Now when I say huge, I mean huge.   It stretches out over 20 blocks and is spread out over 3 cable car stations.

If you need something, anything, you’ll find it here.   It’s also a breeding ground for pickpockets.

I’m tentatively planning on visiting the market in a few days on Sunday but if I do I’ll certainly not be bringing my backpack with me.

Saltenas:
This street food snack is very similar to an empanada with one small difference.   Inside it a soup or stew of chicken of beef.

You don’t want to be just biting into one of these cause the soup inside will spill everywhere including on you.

You need to gently nibble the top of it and drink the soup out of the saltena.

Also vendors will give gringos (that’s foreigners to you and me) a spoon to use.   Don’t take the spoon!   Eat it like a local!

Prohibited protests:
There is an area in town called Plaza Murillo where it is prohibited to have protests because of past history.

In fact there’s a special police unit that walks around the plaza.

In 2003, despite it being prohibited, there was a huge protest there over the selling of gas to Chile.

Firearms were used and there are still bullet holes on a building directly across from the plaza.

In 20 years the bullet holes have never been repaired and instead have been left there as a symbolic reminder of what transpired there.

Backwards clock:
The building in Plaza Murillo has a clock tower on it with the numbers in reverse order.   It’s said the government changed the clock dial back in 2014 as a way to show they weren’t supporting imperialism.

An easy afternoon and night

The tour was over at 2:00 but it was still a good walk back to the hostel.

After about 45 minutes I finally arrived and just kind of vegged out for the next couple hours.

It had been a long past few days and I’ve purposely kept my schedule very light over the next few days.

Just a few hours out exploring and then back to the hostel to relax.

At 4:00 I did pop back into the city looking for a lunch/dinner and ended up back at the Carrot Tree.

No breakfast this time.   I was having a classic Bolivian dish of Pique Macho which is beef strips, chorizo sausage, peppers, onions, cheese, egg and tomato all in a sauce.

Oh, and I also tried a mocochinchi which is a warm drink made from dehydrated peach, boiled with cloves and cinnamon.

I had actually managed to order everything in Spanish but when my drink came out with a tall shot glass beside it with a clear liquid in it, I had to break out my English.

“Okay, you’re gonna have to explain this.”

The waiter smiled and explained that the drink was without sugar and the shot glass was filled with simple syrup to add to the drink if I wanted to.

And that was the day.

I came back to the hostel around 5:30, took a shower, popped together this blog, and went to bed early.

Tomorrow I’ll be exploring another area of La Paz so we’ll see what adventures I can find…