THE GUIDE - The Rough Guide to Bolivia - page 82

Few cities in the world have as spectacular a setting as La Paz. Glimpsed for the first
time as your bus or taxi crawls over the lip of the narrow canyon in which the city sits
hunched, it's a sight that will leave your lungs gasping for oxygen they can't have. At
over 3500m above sea level, amid a hollow gouged into the Altiplano, it's a scene of stun-
ning contrasts: a central cluster of church spires and office blocks dwarfed by the mag-
nificent icebound peak of Mount Illimani rising imperiously to the southeast. On either
side, the steep valley slopes are covered by the ramshackle homes of the city's poorer
inhabitants, clinging precariously to even the harshest gradients.
With a population of around 835,000, La Paz is the political and commercial hub of Bolivia
and the capital in all but name (technically, that honour belongs to Sucre). Though protected
to some extent from the tides of globalization by its isolation and singular cultural make-up,
La Paz feels very much part of the twenty-first century, its manic bustle and offbeat, cosmo-
politan feel luring travellers back time and again. Founded as a centre of Spanish power in
the Andes, La Paz has always had a dual identity, with two very distinct societies - the indi-
genous and the European - coexisting in the same geographical space. Hi-tech international
banks and government offices rub shoulders with vibrant street markets selling all manner of
ritual paraphernalia for appeasing the spirits and mountain gods that still play a central role
in the lives of the indigenous Aymara .
The Aymara, in fact, make up not only the majority of the city's population, but also that of
El Alto , La Paz's militant, red-brick alter ego, which continues to outstrip it in terms of rur-
al migrant-boosted population, and often media coverage. For them, working life in La Paz
is conducted largely on the streets, and at times the whole place can feel like one massive,
sprawling market. Though you'd imagine the exigencies of life at high altitude would make
the pace of life quite slow, in reality it's often more frantic than Buenos Aires or Rio, not
least during the winter Fiesta del Gran Poder , when young and old alike dance in riotous
celebration of the sacred and the profane.
Horrendous congestion and belching-black pollution notwithstanding, most visitors find
La Paz's compelling street life and tremendous cultural energy warrant spending at least a
few days here, even if conventional tourist attractions are limited to a scattering of colonial
palaces, plazas and churches in the centre of town. The city's museums , while perhaps not
fully doing justice to Bolivia's fascinating history and culture, are nevertheless much im-
proved from only a decade ago, and likewise warrant at least a day or two's browsing. The
absence of green areas, meanwhile, is more than redeemed by the sight of Illimani, tantal-
isingly glimpsed through breaks in the urban sprawl.