Bolivia: A Travel Destination With A Difference
Bolivia certainly isn’t your everyday tourist destination. In many respects it embodies the heart of South America. In what other country can you watch indigenous women with their bright traditional dresses and bowler hats, stunning tropical valleys and snow-capped peaks in a single day?
La Paz is sure to leave you breathless in more than one respect. At 4000m it is not only the world’s highest capital, it also has the world’s highest commercial airport, and nearby is the world’s highest ski resort. Driving into the city from the airport, you will feel like driving down the rim of an extinct volcano… The city is surrounded by snowy mountain tops all year round.
The witch market in La Paz is an experience you are not likely to soon forget. Here you can buy all sorts of witchcraft items, including a llama fetus which you can bury beneath your new house for good luck. A little further on is the vast open air market of 16 de Julio where you can buy everything from electronics to a 5 piece drum set or a wireless reading device.
Don’t leave La Paz without bringing a visit to the famous coca museum, depicting the history of coca farming in Bolivia. If you thought that coca was only used to produce cocain, you are in for a surprise. The indigenous people have been using it for centuries to make tea, for medicinal purposes and to chew as an antidote to altitude sickness.
You are most likely not aware that a certain soft drink used all over the world, not only contains the word coca in its name, but that it actually contained cocaine for many years. How much coca it really contained is sort of a trade secret, but it is known that this practice lasted deep into the 20th century.
If it’s possible, you should really try to attend La Paz’s biggest yearly festival, the festival of Gran Poder. To give you an indication of the size of this festival: the total number of participants during 2009 exceeded 30 000. It is truly a fantastic display of music, costumes and dance which lasts from early in the morning until deep into the night.
Should you be an avid skier and you have access to Alpine skiing equipment, you should consider taking a day trip to the nearby ski resort of Chacaltaya. At 5400m this is the world’s highest ski resort. We are now talking about the same height as that of Everest base camp, so unless you are totally acclimatised to the attitude, you will probably find that you can hardly breathe, never mind ski.