KIRAN GOES PLACES
1. Ride the cable cars
This might be the most unique public transport system anywhere. La Paz is so hilly and shaped like a bowl that buses and cars genuinely struggle to get around, so instead the whole city runs on a network of cable cars, Mi Teleférico. For locals it's just public transport, for tourists it's an incredible way to get from one part of the city to another while getting a proper view over the red rooftops. It's the kind of thing you'd pay for as an experience anywhere else, here it's just the bus.
Public transport, but also somehow the best view in the city.
2. The Witches' Market
Bolivia was colonised by the Spanish, but repeated uprisings mean it's kept a strong indigenous identity, an estimated 50 to 60% of the population still identify as indigenous Bolivian. The Witches' Market is dedicated to traditional Aymara practices, stalls filled with herbs, charms, powders and ritual objects. The most surprising thing you'll see is dried llama fetuses hanging above the shops, traditionally buried under house foundations as an offering to Pachamama, Mother Earth, asking for protection and good fortune.
Herbs, charms and dried llama fetuses. Not something you see every day.
3. El Alto and the cholita markets
The Witches' Market is fairly touristy these days, so for something more local take the cable car up to El Alto on the plateau above the city. Here you'll find markets full of cholitas, Aymara women in bowler hats, colourful shawls and heavy layered skirts, and it feels like the real La Paz.
The plateau above the city, and the real La Paz.
4. Shamans and spiritual rituals
Around the markets you'll also see amautas, traditional spiritual healers a bit like shamans, performing blessings and rituals from colourful houses of prayer lined up along the streets. People come to them seeking help for health, business or relationships, and the closer you are, the more powerful the ritual is meant to be.
5. The best $10 fine dining you'll find anywhere
There's one place that still sticks in my memory, Popular Cocina Boliviana, and it lives up to the name. For the equivalent of $10 you get a three course, fine dining style tasting menu using traditional local ingredients like quinoa, pumpkin, plantain and giant corn, plated in a genuinely modern way. It's not a well kept secret though, so two top tips. It's lunch only, so come early, around 11:40 got us into the first sitting. If you can't make opening, come later instead, around 1 or 1:30, once the first sitting has cleared out, otherwise you're queuing between 12 and 1.
One of the best value meals I've found anywhere in South America.
6. Coca leaves and altitude life
Everyone in La Paz seems to be chewing coca leaves, used by Andean people for thousands of years to combat altitude sickness and help with energy, hunger and thirst. They give a mild stimulant buzz, genuinely useful at 4,000m. The small Coca Museum explains the plant's cultural history and how it became internationally controversial through its link to cocaine, run by an owner who clearly loves telling the story.
7. Cycle Death Road
Just outside the city is one of the most famous mountain biking routes in the world, once considered one of the most dangerous roads in South America and made internationally famous when Top Gear filmed a special on it. You cycle down through forest, under waterfalls, with a sheer drop to one side. Not for the faint of heart, but genuinely exhilarating if you're up for it.
A sheer drop on one side, and one of the most famous rides in the world.
8. Valley of the Moon
One of the strangest landscapes in Bolivia, filled with tall spires and eroded rock formations carved out by centuries of wind and rain. It genuinely feels like stepping onto another planet, and it's an easy trip outside the city.
9. Buy a fake Patagonia jacket
High altitude means cold, and La Paz has an unexpected cure for it. For some reason the city is famous for fake Patagonia jackets, with rows and rows of shops selling fully customisable versions, you can choose the material, pockets, colours, zips and size, made to measure on the spot. They're obviously not real, but they're properly well made and warm, and travelling around South America you'll constantly spot other people wearing them, knowing exactly where they picked theirs up.
Fully customisable, and made to measure on the spot.
10. San Pedro Prison and Crazy Dave
A few blocks from the centre is San Pedro Prison, once one of the strangest prisons in the world. For years it essentially ran itself, prisoners bought or rented their own rooms, families lived inside, there were internal shops, hairdressers and restaurants, and at one point prisoners even gave backpackers tours. It's closed to visitors now, but outside in Plaza San Pedro a former inmate known as Crazy Dave holds court at lunchtime telling stories from his 14 years inside. Pay him and he'll tell you all of it.
Closed to visitors now, but the stories outside are just as wild.
La Paz is unexpectedly brilliant. You could spend several days here and still only scratch the surface. If you want to see more of Bolivia, the Uyuni Salt Flats are just as surreal and well worth the trip after this.