BOLIVIA - New year in snow and height

I’ve just came back from a short but intense trip to Bolivia, precisely La Paz! I went there with my girlfriend and it was for just 4 nights, but it was enough to immerse in this culture different but still close to Brazil.

Explaining a little bit more about La Paz: the geography is crazy! The best definition I’ve heard of La Paz was “pressure cooker”. Imagine a city rounded by mountains, like a pan. In the mountains, there are houses from the bottom to the top. The pressure come from the 3600 meters of height. It is REALLY high.

Have you ever imagined this landscape in Bolivia?

I’d been in other high places before, like San Pedro de Atacama in Chile (2400 m) and Mexico City in Mexico (2250 m), but never felt sick. When I put my feet in La Paz I started to feel very sick. Hours later I vomited.

I was lucky that the hosts of the house I rented in Airbnb helped me with a coca tea and soroche pills.

The view from the plane

Chacaltaya

Our first tour was in Chacaltaya mountain. We up the mount in a car to incredible 5350 meters. The landscape was outstanding and unforgettable. I had seen snow before but nothing like this.

Valle de la Luna

The Moon Valley is a shorter tour and less intense, but still give incredible views. Those structures are very interesting and receive that name due to the similarity with the soil of the moon.

Titicaca Lake, Copacabana and Isla del Sol

Titicaca is famous for being the highest navigable lake in the world! They are 3,800 meters above the sea level, right on the border between Bolivia and Peru. Our tour went the Isla del Sol, where the legend says that it is the cradle of the Inca civilization. Everything supposedly started on this island. To get there, we sailed through Titicaca, made a stop in Copacabana and sailed again to the island.

La Paz – Teleféricos,

We enjoyed our last day taking a ride in the cable cars. They are regular public transportation that the population uses to move around in this chaotic city. The traffic jam here is terrible!