You don’t need any previous technical mountaineering experience, because guides will teach you basic crampon usage and ice axe arrest techniques on the lower glacier. Still, extreme physical fitness and careful altitude acclimatisation are strict prerequisites if you want a real shot at the summit. Even though it is aggressively promoted as an “easy” 6,000-metre…
Climbing Huayna Potosí takes a planned 2-day or 3-day guided glacier trip, and it should be booked via a certified mountaineering agency in La Paz. The route includes working through technical ice faces, deep crevasses, and an exposed summit line to get you to 6,088 metres, pretty much the top point. Most people are strongly…
Tourists can book all-inclusive VIP ticket package deals through pretty much any travel agency in central La Paz, or they can travel on their own to El Alto to grab general admission tickets directly at the Cholet Multifuncional arena doors; it depends on how you feel. The agency options, about $15–$20, are usually the safest…
Cholita Wrestling (Lucha Libre) is a very theatrical, acrobatic wrestling show held in El Alto where indigenous Aymara women step into the ring and fight while wearing traditional voluminous pollera skirts and bowler hats, with long, braided hair. It started to become more visible in the early 2000s, and it feels like a uniquely Bolivian…
El Alto is relatively safe for tourists when it is daylight, especially near the cable car stations, at the huge 16 de Julio market, and around the Cholita Wrestling venues. That said, going away from the main shopping streets, or staying in the city after dark, is strongly discouraged. It is a massive, sprawling working-class…
Mirador Killi Killi is probably one of the best unobstructed 360-degree panoramic spots for La Paz, sitting on a steep hilltop in the Villa Pabón area. From there, you get this wide, almost dizzying view that shows the city’s dramatic, bowl-like layout, with Mount Illimani sitting in the background. Since it’s positioned right above the…
Moon Valley is set about 10 kilometres south of central La Paz, in the Mallasa district. You can reach it pretty easily with a 30-minute private taxi, a ride-hailing app, or a shared local minivan, the trufi, leaving from the area near San Francisco Church. Instead of a regular valley, the place feels like a…
The Witches’ Market (Mercado de las Brujas) leans heavily on traditional Aymara medicinal plants, folk remedies, charms, and ritual offerings for Pachamama, which people call Mother Earth, and one of the most talked-about items is the dried llama foetus. It’s mostly found along Calle Linares, and in a way, you could say it feels like…
Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking is widely seen as the pioneer and also the more premium, safety-minded operator for this particular route. Other very reputable players with strict safety standards are Altitude Biking and Barracuda Biking. Going for equipment quality rather than chasing a cheaper ticket price is one of those life-saving calls you make before…
Yes, since paid mountain biking excursions started in the late 1990s, about 20 to 25 vacation cyclists have had fatal incidents. Still, this number is a very small share of the hundreds of thousands of people who come down the trail safely most days. Most of the worst cases really trace back to the rider,…