La Paz, Bolivia

From Puno, we hired a cab to take us to the Bolivian border. The trip was less than two hours to the small border town of Desaguadero. We walked over a small bridge lined with people selling goods and we were there!

The three of us gringos walked across and stood there for a second looking where to go. It wasn't clear exactly where the immigration office was so after discussing our options for a second, we decided to keep walking. I'll admit, part of this decision was fueled by the fact that americans have to pay $135 to enter Bolivia, however, it's not like we hid in a truck bed under barrels of hay. We were 3 gringos with massive 70-80 liter backpacks standing and looking around at a slow border. We stood out, and it was not clear where to go. So, we kept walking and hopped on the first combi we saw that was heading to La Paz.

A few hours later, and we had arrived in the middle of a downpour. We ducked into the first restaurant we saw for cover, a bite, and a beer.

A travel tired Alex sporting her first Paceña (from La Paz)

It took us a few tries to find a hostel that was okay with the fact that we were never stamped at the border (and hence, not legally in the country), but we found a decent one, dropped off our things and got ready to explore. We headed out on the city of peace to see what it had to offer.

La Paz is the world's highest capital city at 3,650 m (11,975 ft). That's more than twice as high as Denver! So La Paz is cold. It's also the cheapest country in South America to buy alpaca wool, crafts and clothes. So naturally, we headed towards El Mercado de Las Brujas (The Witches Market). This place turned out to the shinning highlight of La Paz.

The Witches Market was filled with alpaca sweaters, scarfs, hats, gloves, at a cost even lower than in Peru (which is also known as being a cheap country for shopping). We went a little nuts with gifts for our friends and family but realized we didn't spend THAT much. An Alpaca sweater could cost as little as $8, and hats and scarfs cost around $3. There were also tons of tempting and cheap hammocks, musical instruments, beautifully pattered guitar straps, handmade earrings, and of course the dried out almost shrunken heads of animals. Wait, what? Yeah. (sorry no pictures of this, I didn't want to upset the witches).

This is the cheapest and most interesting place to shop the country known for cheap and interesting things to buy. If you can only do one thing in La Paz, go to El Mercado de Las Brujas with $50.

Mercado de Las Brujas

View from the outdoor back patio of our hostel