Peru & Bolivia

Part 6: La Paz & Cañon de Palca

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August 8th (day 14): La Paz (3600m)

After the jeep tour I took the night train from Uyuni to Oruro together with Nicole and Rob, two Americans I got to know during the tour. In Oruro we hopped on a bus to La Paz where we arrived around noon. Rob went straight to the airport to fly home, while Nicole and I checked into a hotel and spent the afternoon around La Paz.

Historic center

La Paz has a bad reputation due to poverty and crime, so I'd expected a bleak and unpleasant city, but it turned out to have one of the nicest city centers I visited this trip, and it had a rather dynamic atmosphere as well. The central square, Plaza de Armas, houses the cathedral and the presidential palace and is smaller but much cosier than the many similar central squares I've visited in other Latin American cities.

The world's highest capital

So let me explain about La Paz again, because it really is a unique place. The region around La Paz is a high plain (the altiplano) of 4100m altitude. La Paz itself however was founded in the middle of a wide deep canyon in that plain, created by the Choqueyapu River, at an altitude of 3600m. As La Paz grew and grew, houses were built higher and higher against the canyon wall until finally the city spilled over onto the plain, 500m above the historic center. The part of La Paz on the plain is called El Alto and is a huge city by itself; I got lost there the day I arrived in Bolivia.

The first picture below shows the skyscrapers in the center of La Paz, and the straight edge of the plain 500m above. This edge doesn't go all around though, because on the other side of La Paz lie the foothills of the Illimani, a 6439m high mountain that towers above the city. When walking in La Paz, you can see the city go up against the canyon wall above you, which is an amazing sight especially at night when the lights go on in all those houses.

Bolivian oddities

Finally I'd like to show two Bolivian oddities. One is the Mercado de Hechicería or Witch Market, where dozens of shops sell all kinds of magical ingredients to the superstitious Bolivians. The main item sold are llama foetusses, which all these shops have by the dozens if not hundreds - a rather gruesome sight. Bolivians bury llamas below new buildings for good fortune - no doubt an ancient custom that the church hasn't managed to eradicate - but the common Bolivian has to settle for a llama foetus to keep it affordable. The other oddity is that everywhere you go you are approached by guys who look like guerilla fighters but just want to polish your shoes. Many Bolivians shine shoes on the street to make some extra money, but apparently there's some social stigma on that so they cover their faces. Many, including the two on the picture, also wear camouflage vests - perhaps that's just to complete the menacing guerillero image, I don't know.

In the evening we dined in Tambo Colonial, said to be the best restaurant in town. I took soup, a main dish, desert, a cocktail, and it was all great, but it still cost only 10 euro!

August 9th (day 15): Cañon de Palca

Now somewhat rested from the jeep tour, Nicole and I set out for a day hike on what was the last day of her trip. We intended to visit the Valle de Animas but the bus driver dropped us off at the wrong spot. When we'd figured that out we decided to hike through the Cañon de Palca instead, and in hindsight were glad about the change of plan because this canyon was absolutely great.

To get to the canyon we first had to walk through the countryside for an hour or two, but that was a great walk by itself because the area is just beautiful, and the occasional farmer at work and animals grazing around freely made it look positively idyllic. The Cañon de Palca itself descends towards the village Palca, which lies at the foot of the Illimani, so we had this 6439m mountain in front of us the whole time.

The following series of pictures are all shot in the same direction during our walk and hence are like a fast forward movie of our approach and descent into the canyon - watch them in sequence!
Some pictures shot along the way...
At the end of the canyon stands a natural obelisk that is 100 meter high. You can already see it on the final picture of the sequence above, but it looks much more impressive from the other side...
Continuing past the obelisk we soon reached the end of the canyon...
Where we got this fantastic sight...
At the bottom of this beautiful valley lay the quiet village of Palca, from where we could take one of the last minibusses back to La Paz - they only ride until the early afternoon.
The ride from Palca back to our starting point turned out to be a most spectacular one, over a winding road that went very high up the mountains and gave us fantastic views on the Illimani and the green landscape. This ride alone would make the hike worth it! Much to my frustration I was sitting on the wrong side of the minibus (which was full of locals) and could hardly take any pictures. Here's two though... For anyone planning this trip: you want to make sure you sit on the left for this ride, and have your camera at hand!

Valle de Animas?

When we got out of the mountains we decided to try and still get to the Valle de Animas (the Valley of the Spirits), so we got off the minibus. We walked through another canyon, this time upwards, but turned back before reaching the end because it was getting late and we weren't even sure if we were in the right place.

The Valle de Animas is described as having rocks in the shape of organ pipes, which also describes this canyon rather well, so perhaps this was it? In any case, it was another beautiful place. Here's another movie-like sequence...
Two pictures on the way back...

Back in La Paz

By sheer coincidence Jan and Cathy, the Flemish couple who'd also been on the jeep tour, had checked into the same hotel, so this evening we all had dinner together in a fancy restaurant called Traffic near the Plaza Isabel La Catolica. Again it was a great dinner for the price of a McMeal in Europe. During the tour Jan had indoctrinated Nicole with a deep love for all things Belgian and even taught here some Antwerp dialect, which was highly amusing. It especially cracked me up when after Nicole had recited a list of all great Belgian things (chocolate, diamonds, etc) for the 100th time, Jan proceeded to convince her that so-called French specialties like cheese and wine were actually stolen from Belgium by Napoleon :)

After dinner we all said goodbye and I changed to another hotel from where I would start my expedition to Huayna Potosi the next morning, while the others were all to fly home.

<< Part 5: South West Bolivia

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Part 7: Huayna Potosi >>