The Highest Capital in the World, La Paz

We took an evening bus from Puno, Peru to La Paz after spending almost a week on the shores of Lake Titicaca sitting and waiting for funds to arrive in our joint account. The week was probably our lowest point in the trip ironically spent on the shores of the highest navigable lake in the world. Alas, the funds came and we got the first bus out of town and straight to the border. Bolivia is the first country Americans have to pay to enter if they're traveling from north to south, and it's not a light fee either. It's $135 in crisp bills just to step foot on their soil. The obvious idea is that tourists will have to pull out $140 in twenties from an ATM and it is up to the border agent whether or not they have change for you. If the agent is having a bad day, then one of the twenties will be "uncrisp" and rejected. Luckily, he was in a good mood when we crossed and took the money, gave us our change, and let us on our way. Note that the processing of two Americans took longer than any of the 40 other travelers on our bus. So it was back on the bus and into country number four for us in South America. We had heard the stories of Bolivia before coming in: third world, worst buses in the continent, distain for Americans, etc. Like most rumors, we quickly found the opposite to be true. La Paz was gorgeous, the people were inviting, the buses were adequate, and the place was cheap. We arrived in La Paz, found our hostel, and immediately searched out some street food. We found a woman cooking burgers for $0.40 each so I bought three and we scarfed down the best street food we had eaten on the trip.

Great weather for 12,000 feet

The Prado

Iglesia San Francisco

Steep streets 

Dried llamas are buried under houses for good luck 

Treating ourselves to a decent night out 

Llama meat with cheese, prosciutto, and spicy jam

The altitude made us feel lightheaded and out of breath, but we still managed to pack in a lot each day. The day before we left La Paz, we woke up early to take a tour of the city and then took the new tram to the top of the city for the biggest flea market in South America. We had to rush back down in time for Cholitas wrestling, an all-women fight where full beers are used as weapons and the youngest fighters are well under 16 years old.

Daily market

Walking through the streets

View of the main plaza

Plaza Murillo where presidential palace is located

Our juice lady who claims one price and charges another

Old train station

Brand-new tram to the top of the city

View on the way up

The beginning of the large flea market

This car fell 100 feet from the road

As we embarked towards the wrestling match, we were told that although some of the fighters were 15 years old, they had done well enough in school to allow them the privilege to fight. Fair enough. We got to the match, bought a few beers, and settled down. We noticed a young girl from our bus getting ready for the fight and Shanta managed to give her a high five before she perished. These women were punching, kicking, throwing our beer cans at each other, and yelling nasty slurs trying to throw the other off their game. In the end, there were no deaths and we ended up getting some small souvenirs just for attending. If you find yourself in La Paz on a Sunday, this is where to be.

Cholitas in action

No mercy

Shanta giving a cholita some good luck

She stole a beer from the crowd and went crazy 

Me and a cholita back on the bus

We spent the next day walking through San Francisco church which began construction in the 1500s. It was built to try to unite the unruly indigenous under Catholicism. However, the Spanish struggled with this attempt for hundreds of years.

Courtyard in San Francisco Church

The wine cellar in the church

View from the top

Leaving La Paz with a night bus to southern Bolivia

Machu Picchu

The day had finally arrived to visit Machu Picchu. We woke up at 4 a.m., left the hostel in Aguas Calientes at 4:20 a.m., and arrived at the gates just before 5 a.m.

At the gates before sunrise

We met up with a few more friends from the trek while we waited for the gates to open. As you can see, it was raining so I had to sport my rain jacket over our backpack. No one could pull off that humpback better than me!

Walking on up

After the gates, we climbed step after step for about an hour to get to the entrance. My legs were suffering from the past four days, but I pushed through. We had to be careful though as the steps were a bit slippery. 

Exhausted

Machu Picchu at 6 a.m.

Unfortunately, lots of fog was present when we first spotted the iconic ruins. 

Obligatory Machu Picchu pic

It slowly burned off over the day and was clear when we left seven hours later.

Perfectly manicured 

Much larger than I expected

A bunny squirrel?

There are different types of walls throughout the site, but this one was by far the most impressive. The stones are perfectly fitted and very smooth. This type of architecture was most likely reserved for the highest class. 

Look at that construction

Leo showing us the Inca cross

Llamas! 

Phill cannot get enough of these guys

While it was hard to peel Phill away from the llamas, we needed to get to Machu Picchu Mountain before 11 a.m. Then you have to be out by 2 p.m. and we wanted to have time to enjoy the view from the top. Considering it would take 1.5 hours to reach the peak, we needed to get moving. While I was very sore, going up was not as difficult as I thought it would be. The hardest part for me was that at times the steps were narrow, steep and right on the edge of the cliff!

30 more minutes until we reached the entrance to the mountain

More steps

View a quarter of the way up

We were walking along that river just yesterday!

That lady ahead of me is showing me up

It felt like the steps would never end

Finally!

What a view

At the top with our new friend Katie

The fog sure did roll in quick

After enjoying the view from the very top, and chowing down on Inca Corn and Mike & Ikes, we made our way down relatively quickly, in about 45 minutes. Once back to Machu Picchu, the weather had finally cleared up, but the crowds were everywhere!

It was time to say goodbye