Mi Bolivia

We start in La Paz, dizzying in every respect, not only for its high altitude at 3660m, but also for its quirky beauty. It literally takes your breath away.

All travelers enter the city via the flat sparse plains of the sprawling El Alto.

The city’s buildings cling to the sides of the canyon and spill spectacularly downwards. On a clear day, the imposing, showy, snowy Mt. Illamani, 6402m, looms in the background.

The posher suburbs, with skyscrapers, colonial houses and modern glass constructions, occupy the city’s more tranquil lower regions, but most of the daily action takes place further up the incline where a mass of irregular-shaped steep streets and alleys wind their way skywards.

Here, locals embrace their frenetic daily life. Women, sporting long black plaits, bowler hats and vivid mantas, attend to steaming pots or sell everything from dried llama fetuses to designer shoes while men, negotiating the heavy traffic and its fumes, push overladen trolleys.

Sandi tucks into a salteñas, the locals favourite breakfast made with potatoes, meat and spices.

The cloisters, cells, garden and roof views of the Museo San Francisco beautifully revives the history and art of the 460 year-old cathedral, the city’s landmark.

Colonial Calle Jaen has four small museums including the Museo de Metales Preciosos Precolombinos with dazzling gold and silver artifacts and the Peña Marka Tambo, a folk-music venue that presents traditional Andean music.

A must for musicians is the impressive Museo de Instrumentos Musicales with an exhaustive hands-on collection of unique instruments from Bolivia and beyond. Tim tries one he thinks he can handle, made with a stick, a string and a processed meat can.

The charango is a popular stringed instrument in Bolivia, traditionally made with the shell of an armadillo as in the center example above.

Calle Sagarnaga is the street for tasteful and kitsch souvenirs and the nearby Witches Market is the place for oddities such as shriveled llama fetuses, which locals bury under the porches of their new homes for luck and good fortune.

We take a day trip from La Paz to Tiwanaku, high on the altiplano, Bolivia’s most significant archeological site.

Little is known of the people who constructed this great ceremonial center on Lake Titicaca’s southern shore. Archeologists generally agree that the civilization that spawned Tiwanaku rose in about 1600 BC but after AD 1200 the group faded into obscurity. However, evidence of its influence has been found throughout the Inca empire.

There are a number of monoliths, more than 130 tons in weight, strewn around the site. Much has been restored, not always with total authenticity.

The sun god was the main focus of worship. Here is a close up of the sun gate, the most important structure at Tiwanaku.

Heads of important figures in the society are recreated in the Semi Underground Temple. There’s one you might recognize.