The random adventurers: La Paz, the city of taxis

La Paz means "The Peace".

There were few places less peaceful through the whole trip, so the name was a constant source of amusement.
(Just for the record, I don't mean that the city was violent at all. Only beautifully chaotic and full-time crazy).

As we were approaching another big city, we got to book an Airbnb room again, hoping to replicate some of the charm of our lovely Montevideo experience.

We did get a clean, neat, comfortable room in a pretty good area of the city... but sadly, the spirit of Airbnb is already polluted with business owners trying to make some decent money (can't blame them) out of the tourism in a country that is, otherwise, in a fairly struggly situation.

So on this occasion our booking felt more like a "hostal" than staying with a local... because that's what it was.

On the very bright side, the place was extremely nice, and they had the best shower we experienced during the whole trip.

If you're at home while reading this, you might not have in mind how grateful us good-shower-owners should be on a daily basis.
Cherish your shower, mate. Love your shower. If you have a gratitude journal, write about your shower every single day. Hot water, good pressure... I can't praise showers enough.

But back to La Paz... we spent quite a few days there, strolling the streets, loving the chaos, appreciating the mix of localism and globalization, and pondering the fact that a capital city has pretty much no private vehicles.

All buses have stickers with either the driver's children's names, or something
about god, the holy dove, or some variation of "Jesus take the wheel".
Seeing the standards of Bolivian driving, the latter doesn't surprise me at all.

Seriously, we counted less than 10 (apparently) privately owned cars among hundreds of buses, taxis, minibuses, tourist minivans and others, and that was through an hour-long walk down the main avenue.

Minivan buses, or "colectivos"... that's how Paceños roll.

There's a lot to see in La Paz, though most tourists are found walking around Sagarnaga street, where most of the tour agencies and souvenir shops are.

You can't blame people for that, since Bolivian crafts are among the prettiest and cheapest I've seen.

Llama tile on Sagarnaga Street.

The gringos (including us) enjoy a day of souvenir shopping.

At the crafts market.

Power cables making a beautiful mess.

Kitty pattern rug. I want 10.

Nice advertising.

Also, everyone wants to see the "witches market", where diverse Aymara ritual-related goods can be bought, including some mystical instruments like palo santo wood (that ritualistic smell is everywhere in the Andean region), dried frogs, and llama fetuses (feti?).

Hanging next to other mystical stuff, a llama fetus gazes
into the sky with its empty eyes.
Creepy.

Fancy some llama fetus head with your tea, darling?

Spoiler alert: Witches Street is nothing like Diagon Alley, and you can't, I repeat: you can NOT buy a wand or Quidditch equipment. Believe me, I tried.

We found a few good places to eat, walked around a lot, saw the street markets that sell everything from food to furniture, bought a few insanely cheap and very pretty items of clothing (how good La Paz must be for a shopaholic!), and jumped on the cable car that's a way of public transport to get to the high part of the city.

A view of La Paz historical centre.

Cutest street art.

Beautiful little girls play with a box.

An amazing cafe that wasn't on the guide or Tripadvisor, full of quirky old things.

The same cafe, where I was seriously tempted to steal everything.

???

Looking down to the city, which is built inside a valley.
All the walls of the valley have been used.

Food safety standards. That is raw chicken in the afternoon sun.

Colorful veggies and local ladies,

Buildings and flags in the city centre.

The view from the cable car.

Public transport.

A sneaky pic of a family taken inside the cable car.

Sadly, one of my favorite things about La Paz I couldn't get a picture of...

Since very early in the morning, some of the back streets are fully taken by a huge flower market. It feels like walking in a dream, and the day we saw it was, of course, the day we didn't have the camera.

I hope that you imagine it. Or even better, that you can go to La Paz and enjoy it yourself!