Two of the highest elevation cities in the world that never stop going!!!!
These two cities (some of the highest in the world) are a melting pot of great food, great people, and great scenery. I stayed ten days in this area in order to get out and walk around and photograph people doing their everyday life. While they used to be one city, El Alto little by little became its own entity and now arguably outnumbers La Paz in people, but that is unverified. I would have to rank La Paz as one of my top ten cities in the world as the photography is amazing and the street food all over is some of the best I have had.
One of the best places to stay which I spent ten nights in is Patio de Piedra Hotel Boutique. It is a great mix of what an old villa looked like in the city and has been renovated to turn it into a hotel with ten rooms and some of the most beautiful furniture. The staff is great as Hernan was always there to help me out and get me to and from the airport and the food in the restaurant is extremely good.
El Alto
The best way to get up there is of course the cable car. With 11 different lines all named by color, I believe this is the best way to see both La Paz and El Alto. Of course the most interesting thing to see in El Alto is the Chollets. These colorful buildings are usually used for different events- weddings, quinceaneras, work parties, holiday parties, etc. Although some of them actually have units of people living in them. Some of them have themes while some of them are very plain. I expect in the next 20 years a lot of these buildings will be extremely colorful.
Another popular excursion you will find around El Alto is Chollita wrestling. These females clad in bright clothes with huge skirts is definitely fun to watch. Very similar to Lucha Libre wrestling in Mexico, the ref is always the heel which usually take the side of the female heel. With my seats above the ring I was able to get some really good photos!!!
The city cemetery has been around a long time. As I was there before Dia De Los Muertos, I saw the beautiful street art by different artists being painted next to the tombs. They combine many Christian ideas with ideas they had before Spain arrived which makes for very interesting stories. Some of the graves are very intrinsic while others are very plain. It was interesting seeing people there to go to relatives or friends graves and while most of them were not grieving, they were instead celebrating. This was one of the most interesting cemeteries I have been to ranking it up there with Recoleta in Buenos Aires and Pere Lechaise in Paris.
Even though the witches market in La Paz in the city center is the popular place to go for tourists, the good one is up in El Alto which gets very few tourists. Here a lot of people go to get rid of bad omens by these medicine people who have all kinds of herbs and/or liquids at their disposal, they have been known to perform miracles on different people and often have a lot of visitors. I got to get my fortune read and we will see if any of it comes true…
La Paz
The city of La Paz is a thriving, bustling, and colorful city. You can walk every which direction and always have something to look at. From the old churches, to the narrow streets, this city has it all.
The people of La Paz seems to be always on the go as the streets are always busy and people are always jumping into mini busses going to work or to meet friends. Other people you can see sit around from their street stalls selling stuff and others just sitting in front of the church while children run around…
Finally, just a couple of hours out of La Paz is the mysterious civilization of Tinawaku. This civilization predates the Incas by a few hundred years and was probably at its height around 1200-1000 years ago. Here you can find decorated ceramics, a system of buildings and mysterious monolithic structures. The subterranean temple has some mysterious heads of people and/or aliens (some peoples theories) around. If you walk around the site of the Puma Punku, you may find some cut stones. Due to the complexity of the stonework many have theorized the existence of aliens. I noticed some of the cuts were very precise, but this is just a theory.
These two cities which are next to each other was some of the best mix of culture and food and photography I have had in a long time. I will be sure to come back here as there is so much more to explore around the city and it will always be bustling…