La Paz

La Paz: The World’s Highest Administrative Capital and What That Actually Means

La Paz sits at 3,640 metres above sea level in the bowl of an altiplano canyon in western Bolivia. The city proper occupies the canyon floor; the city of El Alto, a separate municipality of over one million people, sits on the rim above at around 4,000 metres. The cable car system connecting them, the Mi Teleférico, is the world’s longest urban aerial cable car network and serves as genuine public transport rather than a tourist attraction. A single fare costs about 3 bolivianos (less than 50 US cents).

You will feel the altitude. Most people arriving from sea level experience mild symptoms (headache, shortness of breath on stairs) for the first 24 to 48 hours. The sensible approach is to arrive, check in, drink mate de coca (coca leaf tea, available everywhere, a real mild altitude remedy), and take the first day slowly. Alcohol amplifies altitude effects considerably.

What to Actually Do

The cable car is the thing most visitors underrate. The Mi Teleférico has multiple lines; taking the orange line from central La Paz up to the El Alto rim and riding back down gives an aerial view of the canyon and the city that photographs inadequately but impresses in person. El Alto from above looks like an endlessly expanding informal city; the view of La Paz below looks like someone has tipped a city into a bowl. The round trip takes about 45 minutes.

The Witches’ Market (Mercado de las Brujas) on Calle Linares is a specific Andean institution: stalls selling dried llama foetuses (used in building offerings to Pachamama, the earth deity, buried in the foundations of new buildings), medicinal herbs, amulets, potions, and ritual objects. It is a working market rather than a display; the yatiris (Aymara shamans) who work from this area perform consultations. The atmosphere is matter-of-fact rather than performative.

The Aymara Textile Museum in the San Francisco neighbourhood has some of the best Andean textile work in any Bolivian museum. The craftsmanship of the woven pieces from the 18th and 19th centuries is extraordinary and genuinely underappreciated.

Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley), 10 kilometres south of the city centre, is a 30-minute taxi ride that produces a completely alien landscape: clay and sandstone eroded into towers and gullies by rain and wind, the whole thing a pale grey-white against the blue altitude sky. The walk through it takes about an hour.

Food and Drink

Bolivian food is genuinely good and almost never discussed. The key dishes: salteñas are baked pastries filled with spiced meat, potatoes, and olives in a slightly sweet pastry. They are breakfast food (available from about 9am to noon, then gone); eat them in the street, standing, holding them at an angle to avoid spilling the juice. Api morado is a thick warm drink made from purple corn, cinnamon, and cloves; served with buñuelos (fried pastry dusted with sugar) it’s the La Paz winter breakfast.

Gustu restaurant, established by the Noma network, does upscale Bolivian tasting menus with ingredients from around the country. It is the most celebrated fine dining in La Paz and is considerably more affordable than equivalent quality in European cities.

Day Trips

Tiwanaku, the pre-Inca ceremonial site about 65 kilometres west of La Paz near the Bolivian-Peruvian border, is one of South America’s major archaeological sites. The Tiwanaku civilisation peaked between 400 and 900 CE and the remains include the Kalasasaya platform, the Gate of the Sun (a carved monolithic gateway with an astronomical calendar embedded in its relief carvings), and the Akapana pyramid. Take a bus from the cemetery district terminal (about 1.5 hours, very cheap) or an organised day tour.

Copacabana, the Bolivian town on the southern shore of Lake Titicaca, is about 3 hours by bus. The lake itself is extraordinary at 3,812 metres: deep blue, high altitude light, the floating Uros reed islands 45 minutes offshore by boat.

Practical Notes

The Zona Sur district in the south of the city (Calacoto, San Miguel, Achumani) is where the well-off La Paz residents live and where the better restaurants and hotels concentrate; it’s at a slightly lower altitude than the centre, which matters after several days. The centre has more history and more local life.

Currency is the Boliviano (BOB); 1 USD buys about 6.9 BOB as of early 2026. Cards are accepted at hotels and some restaurants; cash is necessary at markets, smaller restaurants, and cable car stations. ATMs in the banking district near Plaza Murillo are the reliable source.