La Paz – Part 2

Tuesday, March 1 – Fat Tuesday

We slept in hard and then used the remaining morning hours to book some travel reservations. We finally left our Airbnb and walked again up the hill to Sagarnaga street, aiming for the witch market.

Everything seemed closed for the holiday and the weather kept changing dramatically from cold in the shade to hot in the sun. Karen’s asthma was not tolerating the altitude and all of us were slow going walking up the steep streets. Apparently the water and soap spraying of Carnival was still in effect and we got soaped, sprayed, and water ballooned as we walked up the hill.

We made it to the witch market – normally a street of souvenir stalls that sell pagean themed chachkis. Because of the holiday nearly everything was closed. I was able to get an amulet to bring us good luck in traveling. As I left the shop a drunken man fell down as he lunged after me but several other men- friends of the witchy shopkeeper- pulled him back as they shook their heads and tsk tsked him. The amulet was already showing its power!

We stopped at Cafe del Mundo – the same cafe where Carl and I considered getting food two days before but opted for something quicker. Our guts had been right before because it took a week to get three coffees and some crepes (Pancake Tuesday!) We were in no rush as the only thing left on our agenda was to take the teleférico up to El Alto again and we still had 3 hours of daylight.

We decided to walk to the historic street, Jaén, which was not that impressive, especially after seeing the old city of Cartagena.

We struggled to walk up the hill to the start of the red line. But once we were on it we again ogled at the amazing views. We got out at the end of the red line and walked along the road trying to see a good view. We saw some foreigners come out from a gated area so we snuck inside to see what they’d been up to. Behind the gate was a row of shacks that looked out over the freeway and over the whole city. I had read about an area in La Paz where shamans lit things on fire and told fortunes etc and this seemed like the place for it. There were remnants of Carnival decorations strewn about but not much in terms of shamans. We took some pictures of the epic view, mumbled some good omens into the world, and left before finding out what time they close the gate to this shamany-cliff we had stumbled upon.

Originally we thought we’d take the blue line to see some Cholettes. Patti had told us the Cholettes were financed and lived in by the indigenous women of the area and could cost $1 million for exterior and interior decorations. A google search said most Cholettes are built in neo-Andean style which I had never heard of. We were able to see many along the road so we opted to not take the blue line and instead to head back to our Airbnb along the silver line to the yellow line.

The silver line connected the highest points of the red and yellow line, carrying us across the top of the altiplano with an occasional gut churning view into an abyss of steep, craggy rocks below. The yellow line dropped us back down into the valley and we had been so high it felt like we were descending for days.

Back ‘in the city’ Carl and I wandered to find something for dinner. Everything was still closed and what was open was actively closing because it was already nearly 8pm. We decided on a place called Pollo Ja Ja Ja (chicken hahaha) and couldn’t decide whether the name or the fried chicken was better.

Wednesday, March 2

Our Airbnb host showed up promptly at 10am, house cleaner in tow. He let us store our bags in his garage locker for a small fee and then we scuttled across the street to a cafe Carl had read about called Cafe Typica. The cafe was SO cute. It was like being in someone’s old house with a record store in the front room, the coffee makers in the dining room and cafe seating throughout the rest. The decor was old fashioned with books and objects like old cameras scattered on tables and on an old fireplace mantle.

We got coffees and did some more trip planning, figuring out how best to spend our last day in La Paz before taking the train to Uyuni that night. We got a taxi up to Mirador Killi Killi, a viewpoint that offered 300 degree view of the city. We had been higher the day before but we still admired the sprawling city and its nearby majestic, snow covered mountains. We tried out the seesaw- probably the world’s highest seesaw!

We walked downhill from here to a park that was surrounded by old government buildings. We got an ice cream from a vendor. Two cones for five bolivianos, which we had started to endearingly call ‘Bobs’.

Karen went to sit in a cafe and Carl and I walked to the national brewery and tried to get in for a tour or a drink with no luck. As we walked back we spotted a place advertising haircuts for 10 Bobs ($1.25 dollars) and I urged Carl to get one so he could look like a South American soccer player. It turned out pretty well but I did have to cut it a little more after because he does not exactly like it slicked back like Cristiano Ronaldo.

After this we wandered over to a ‘brewery’ which ended up being a tap house on the top floor of a building with great city views. The guy did not warn me that the IPA I chose came in a big girl bottle but I accepted my fate and welcomed the sleepy bus ride to come. From here we met Karen at a vegan restaurant and got a little food before getting our bags and heading to the bus terminal.

The bus had been advertised as a sleeper bus and the chairs leaned 160 degrees back. Despite this nice feature, we kept slipping down the seat whenever the bus stopped abruptly (a lot) and I got very little sleep. We arrived in Uyuni on time at 5:30 am and immediately went to our hostel, checked in early, and slept for many hours.