Bolivia Part 5 - Our way to the City, Witch market and Cable Car, La Paz (Fotos + Video)

Since worldmappin was launched I have been thinking a lot about the beginning of this project 7 years ago. Back then the idea of this project - originally named steemitworldmap - had just been born. I was traveling for one whole year using Steemit and thought it would be great if other travelers could not only write down their memories and share them with the community but also pin them on the map.

Like that, we all could write down our own memories, but also share them with other world travelers for their adventures. I am glad martibis was able to code that map, we had an awesome team over those years and the project has survived until now - later migrating to Hive as Pinmapple, starting the community, and now as Worldmappin with new team members 🤓🤗 - The community has grown over time and the spirit is more alive than ever!! - what a great achievement of you all! God I just love traveling!

Thinking back to that time I checked my map and saw that I never finished writing about my adventures in Bolivia. Oh man, I was freezing a lot when I was there, so I guess worldmappin winterchallenge is a good moment to think back, take out the memories, pictures and videos and tell you all about it now 😎

On my map you can read Parts 1-4, where I tell you about arriving in Puno, Peru - how we crossed the border to Bolivia and checked out Lake Titicaca with its islands and Copacabana.

So today you finally find out what happened next 😉

After watching that great sunset on top of the city, we had stayed the night in Copacabana, because the bus drivers were on strike. A new law was signed that didn´t allow them to drink alcohol and drive anymore. They were so angry about it that they refused to drive and partied instead 😂 - So the next day we jumped on a bus to La Paz with a bus driver looking quite hangover.

4-5 buses were going from Copacabana to La Paz that day and it only cost about 6 USD. We didn´t take the earliest as we wanted to make sure the driver was not too drunk still 😅 It´s not that far to go from one city to the other but still, we are in Bolivia... streets are not the best and 4 hours can be long.

At one point we had to cross the water. So all the passengers had to leave the bus, the driver was going on the transport boat and we were watching. For Europeans like us, that was very fascinating, as there was not much space on that boat. Of course, we just stayed where we were and watched how that works.

For some reason we didn't think of how we would reach the other side ourselves... only when the bus was leaving without us or any other people on that boat did my friend Britta and I just look at each other and say.. and what about us?! - We looked around and couldn´t see any of the other passengers.. they were all gone 😂 - We laughed and got nervous at the same time... I mean almost all our belongings were in that bus... and it was already a few meters in the water...

I started to ask some people passing by how we could cross the water and they showed me a little motorboat waiting at the peer. So we ran there and they confirmed that they are bringing people to the other side. We jumped in and waited... and waited.. and waited...nothing happened...
I asked the boat guy again, not sure if I had explained myself right and he said very calmly that he would leave once the boat was full loaded 😅

We looked around and saw no more people.. who was he waiting for?! Our bus was already far away about half way crossing the water and we were stuck. I explained our situation but he refused to start the engine.

Luckily about 10 minutes later another bus just arrived around the corner and our boat filled up quickly with more people. - Ours had almost arrived on the other side 😟 We were so nervous!

What if we didn't make it in time?! would they see that we are missing?! Would they even realize?! And if yes, would they wait?! We couldn't do anything, so we tried to enjoy the ride and counted the seconds hoping the bus and all our things would still be there..it took forever!

La Paz is a big city.. of course, we would arrive there somehow, but what would be the chances to get our things back 😅

When we finally made it to the other side we jumped out of the boat and started running. Our bus driver already had the engine on and all the other passengers were sitting inside. We had just made it in time. I thanked the driver as apparently he had waited for us. - He just said - you are lucky. "I was just about to leave but I remembered your beautiful blue eyes and was missing them, so I waited 5 more minutes 😂 😂"

Well... a bit spooky but helpful we thought and went inside. All of our things were there still... lucky us!😎

The rest of the drive was pretty calm. I was already looking forward to arriving at La Paz. There are so many cool things to do around the city! We had big plans! I had heard so much about it!

But of course, Bolivia is a very poor country. So I wasn´t surprised that when we entered the outside of the city the streets were pretty trashy. Very interesting though was that there were a looot of new houses, shell construction, with nobody living in them. I asked some locals on the bus that we had made friends during the ride and they told us that the government is providing houses for the people to live in. But they have more houses than people as so many are leaving the country. So they are built but empty and not very nice looking.

When we arrived in the city we went straight to our hostel, checked in, and then left to the different tour operators we previously had looked up, to schedule all our adventures for the next days.

Walking through the streets we saw many people selling stuff. That inspired us to go and check for some markets in the area.

Of course, we also decided to check out the local market: El Mercado de las brujas (witches market). Very cool!

We found this market also known as El Mercado de las Brujas and La Hechiceria in Cerro Cumbre, a little mountain within the city. The market is run by local witch doctors known as yatiri, who sell potions, dried frogs, medicinal plants like retama, and armadillos used in Bolivian rituals. It felt a little bit like walking down the Diagon Alley of Harry Potter. - Very interesting and spooky at the same time. - I didn´t dare to take many pictures there, but if you ever go it is good to know that the yatiri can be easily identified by their black hats and coca pouches containing amulets, talismans, and powders that promise luck, beauty and fertility.

The most famous spooky things of all the items sold in The Witches' Market are the dried llama fetuses. I learned that these llama fetuses are buried under the foundations of many Bolivian houses as a sacred offering to the goddess Pachamama.

But of course, you also find many touristy things like souvenirs, jewelry, bags, scarves, stuffed animals, etc. that you can buy.

We arrived late, so many shops were closing soon so we decided to take a look at the city from above next.

As you may know, the spectacular surroundings of the city can be experienced on a ride on the Mi Teleférico gondola. I only saw that one time somewhere in Colombia, and recently also in the surroundings of el D.F. Mexico City. In Europe, we have a lot of Underground Metros in flat cities. Here in the the middle of the highlands, it's more handy to go from one part of the city to the next by cable cars. 😅

We wanted to go to the highest point of the city. The El Alto highlands, with the snow-capped 6,438 m high Mount Illimani towering in the background.

It took a while and several stops to get there. While we went up and saw all the people, markets, streets, and houses from above the sun went down and all of a sudden all we saw was lights.

When we arrived at the top at 4100 meters, they told us that the touristy part -the viewpoint- was already closed. We looked around the corner and couldn't see any security guard. so we jumped over the barrier and enjoyed the view anyway 😅 - Rebel times 😋

It was very cold up there and not much to see anyways. We were far away on the edge of the city and decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to stay for longer than necessary for many reasons... I guess you can imagine some of them - so we went back to the city center and jumped in the cable car as long as it was going back, enjoying the view from there.

We walked back to the hostel, had a snack there, and went to bed early as we had a long day right ahead of us. - I am so excited to tell you about our next days - You will love it :D so stay tuned.

Cheers,
Liz