IV. SA Bolivia/W1b: Sucre & La Paz EN

Tu, 14.03. Sucre
I really like Bolivia so far, especially the food culture. The most famous meal is 'Almuerzo' (lunch) from 12-2pm incl. soup, 2-3 main courses to choose from and sometimes even fruits as desert, all that for only 10-25B (around 1,36-3,40€). The most popular dish is Pollo and in particular 'pollo a la canesta' (fried chicken with French fries) that you can get on every corner in the evenings.
Sucre is a colonial town with 270.000 habitants at an altitude of 2,750m and impressed us especially with its beautiful architecture and also landscape.
'Mercado Central' (Central Market) was very interesting but the quarter Recoleta with its churches and the 7 surrounding hills is super nice. It was also there where we started our hike to the viewpoint and hill 'Cerro Churuquella' from which we had an amazing view of the city and the hill 'Cerro Cica Cica'.
After that we had a pretty yummy lunch including sweet beverage, soup, beef with rice and potatoes.
'Plaza 25 de Mayo' also had very nice buildings and gardens and the cemetery 'Cementario General' impressed us with its size and park structures. After that we relaxed in 'Parque Simon Bolivar' and saw some nice churches all built in white colonial style.
In the evening we then took a 12h night bus with 'cama' (laying seats) to La Paz - also a very interesting experience, especially as our luggage was transported in a pretty old fashioned way.

We, 15.03. La Paz - City
La Paz is with 1.6mio habitants and an average altitude of 3,660m Bolivia's largest city and capital. With an altitude of 4,000m it also has the highest located international airport.
Shortly: the city is totally insane :P The altitude differences are incredible ranging from 1,200-4,400m which is the reason why in contrast to all other cities in the world the rich people live downtown in the valley and the poor up on the hills. The whole city is built on and around hills with spectacular and 4 different mountain ranges (snow-capped, redish, green with forests, grey stone) which makes walking and any other transport in buses and taxis difficult.
That also explains the big billion project of the so called 'Teleférico' (lift) that is supposed to combine the whole city as some kind of 'air metro' - which makes a lot of sense considering the huge population, the air pollution and especially topography and additionally also creates a lot of jobs.
From 10 scheduled lines 4 are already finished: red and blue for the upper town as well as green and yellow for downtown. They are all super new incl super clean and with video surveillance at the stops, good security and WiFi - and that at a price of only 3B (40ct) per ticket.
Unfortunately the toilet of our night bus was locked so that both of us had quite an urgent issue in the morning and thus jumped out of the bus way too early near the airport at El Alto which resulted in an expensive Taxi drive - but well, sometimes human needs are just more important and I could at least haggle the price down from 100 to 50B ;)
We then immediately went to the city centre to book our must-see for Thursday: 'La Carretera de la Muerte' (Death Road) - a 66km long, with the unsteady weather and the altitude differences of almost 3,000m dangerous, very famous mountainbike path.
For lunch we had with 10B/1,40€ the so far cheapest almuerzo including sweetcorn soup, meat, sausage, sweet potatoes, cooked banana and orange for desert.
After that I treated myself with a visit to the hairdresser which was more than necessary after 6 months - in a developing country such as Bolivia, in Spanish and for 15B/2,10€ a bit risky but a super experience and in the end everything was fine :)
'Mercado de las Brujas' is very touristy with a lot of souvenir and clothes stands so that we directly took the red and blue lift and enjoyed really nice views of the whole upper city which is mainly about red brickstone buildings. The quarter El Alto 16 de junio also has the highest handcraft market ar altitude of 4,095m. The tours are also super long and the whole red-blue circuit was only about 12B/1,64€.
After that we went to San Francisco Square and Church before Felix prepared a super delicious meal in the evening (pasta with guacamole and salted peanuts as well as dark rapes as a desert) :)

Th, 16.03. La Paz - Death Road Mountainbiking
(Carretera de los Yungas/de la Muerte)
Wow, that day we finally hit the world famous, amongst mountainbikers popular Death Road :O
Apart from our driver Gonzalo and guide Israel there were 6 more guys (Felix, Marcel from Switzerland, Camilo from Santiago, Chile as well as Krisna, Corner, Chris from San Francisco, USA and me as only girl :P
From La Paz at an altitude of 3,660m we first had a 1h drive to 4,700m where we had breakfast. The landscape was genious - but with 1* and strong rain super could, we could even see our own breathes. We got our equipment (trousers, jacket, gloves, helmet, knee and elbow protectors; for sure not the best quality in Bolivia and also not for girls and thus way too big for me) as well as our mountain bikes (Giant HardTail with front suspension).
We then also already hit the first, only 22km 45min
sealed road which in the end was actually more dangerous than the gravel road. The main issue was the weather and the absolute heavy rain so that it was hardly possible to see anything and which soaked us completely - I had 2cm water in my hiking boots. Moreover, it was a heavily frequented mountain road so that we also had some dangerous takeovers including frozen fingers which made breaking really hard.
But fortunately this was not only my feeling, the boys were also all freezing :P
After a short drive in the van we then already hit the 2nd freaking part 33km 2h10 gravel road starting at
Pongo Unduavi down to 1,200m.
It was just amazing - the trail was incredibly stony, wet, we had to pass ankle or for me knee deep rivers, along or through waterfalls and through incredible rainforests and mountain landscapes. We crossed villages, saw kids and dogs and just had a lot of adrenaline and fun - even though we were absolutely soaked and completely dirty ;)
This road counts roughly 2 dead tourists per year but more due to competition and exageration. However, it is still dangerous due to the steep hills, altitude differences but especially in the months February/March unsteady weather.
Shortly before our late but delicious lunch (lots of salads, vegetables, potatoes, rice, meat balls, chicken) we had to carry our bikes through a knee deep river - officially the road but which was completely flooded due to the heavy rainfalls during the last few days. I am also always hungry here, I guess it's the altitude :)
After that we got our shirt before we had a shower and the buffet which was well earned after 3,500m altitude difference, 64km up to 40km/h speed ;)
Around 5pm we drove back for another 3h, as already the whole day with nice Spanish music such as Belma Palma and Estrichez de Corazón - partially even through snow before hitting the bed completely exhausted but pretty happy :)))

Fr, 17.03. La Paz - Valle de la Luna
That day we took a bus to 'Valle de la Luna' (Moon Valley) in the morning which is only 10km away from La Paz but a nice distraction from the big city. I am just not a city person - I like to visit them but after 2-3 days I prefer heading back to the nature ;) The valley is really beautiful and like in San Pedro de Atacama you get the feeling of being on another planet and the mountain ranges were again snow-capped, green with forests, redish or grey rocks; we hiked a bit and had some nice breaks incl panflute music :)
In the afternoon we went back to the city and took the yellow and green lift to get from the rich downtown back to the city centre. Felix visited the Coca Museum and I walked a bit along the famous Calle Sagarnada.Read more