We've been in La Paz, Bolivia for a little over a week now and it's easily my favorite city so far. Maybe it's because I had no expectations coming into it, or maybe it's because it's just that awesome. Either way, I don't even mind that I still can't fully breathe at 13,000+ft. The people are still very traditional so walking down the street you'll see Cholita's walking their kids to school right next to women in jeans and heels running off to work. It's the first place I've been this year that truly feels like I'm traveling and experiencing something different.
For those of you who are as clueless about Bolivia as I was, it's located in the North-West of Bolivia, in a crater, on the top of a mountain. We're living at the bottom of the crater which provides some gorgeous views when you look up and see the city built up around you.
I think my photos of the last week will explain it better...
My first day I met the traffic zebras, they caught me snap-chatting them and stopped me for a photo. They hire at-risk youths as zebras, give them a stipend and access to programs such as computing self-esteem and nutrition. In turn, the zebras help manage the crazy amounts of traffic - a win-win! They're really friendly, shout out "buen dia!" and high five us as we walk past.
Part of the public transportation is a system of cable cars that will take you to the top of the mountain. Because it's not hard enough to breathe at just 12,000ft....
Last Wednesday we had the privilege of being invited into famous artist Mamani Mamani's gallery to view his work. He's known all over the world for portraying Bolivian culture in bold vibrant colors and all of his art includes elements of his Andean culture. I purchased the above painting and had it signed by Mamani himself last week! Someday when I have a permanent dwelling this will be hung up, until then..sorry Mom and Dad it's residing with you!
Finally, we spent a long weekend in the Southern part of Bolivia called Salar De Uyuni. The landscape was incredible. Day one was spent on the famous salt flats, exploring and taking some fun pictures like the Godzilla one above. There's no depth perception here so we got pretty creative. We took a ton of funny photos (more can be found on my instagram @rabsontheroad) and did some pretty cool hikes. The first photo was supposed to be in the reflecting part of the salt flats but it was too windy so we just splashed in the water.
Day two we did some hiking on petrified lava, checked out lagoons filled with flamingos, and other lagoons ranging in color from green to red. Above was the first stop of they day where we could see a steaming volcano. We also learned that when you make fun of your friends inside of a half-cave it echos. The second picture is us getting busted.
This was our sunset on day 2, it was absolutely freezing outside but luckily the boys in the group took one for the team and snapped this.
For those of you who are as clueless about Bolivia as I was, it's located in the North-West of Bolivia, in a crater, on the top of a mountain. We're living at the bottom of the crater which provides some gorgeous views when you look up and see the city built up around you.
I think my photos of the last week will explain it better...
My first day I met the traffic zebras, they caught me snap-chatting them and stopped me for a photo. They hire at-risk youths as zebras, give them a stipend and access to programs such as computing self-esteem and nutrition. In turn, the zebras help manage the crazy amounts of traffic - a win-win! They're really friendly, shout out "buen dia!" and high five us as we walk past.
Part of the public transportation is a system of cable cars that will take you to the top of the mountain. Because it's not hard enough to breathe at just 12,000ft....
Last Wednesday we had the privilege of being invited into famous artist Mamani Mamani's gallery to view his work. He's known all over the world for portraying Bolivian culture in bold vibrant colors and all of his art includes elements of his Andean culture. I purchased the above painting and had it signed by Mamani himself last week! Someday when I have a permanent dwelling this will be hung up, until then..sorry Mom and Dad it's residing with you!
Finally, we spent a long weekend in the Southern part of Bolivia called Salar De Uyuni. The landscape was incredible. Day one was spent on the famous salt flats, exploring and taking some fun pictures like the Godzilla one above. There's no depth perception here so we got pretty creative. We took a ton of funny photos (more can be found on my instagram @rabsontheroad) and did some pretty cool hikes. The first photo was supposed to be in the reflecting part of the salt flats but it was too windy so we just splashed in the water.
The middle of the salt flats has a random island filled with petrified cactus' that we hiked up. Hiked being generous, we were another 1,000ft up so breathing was even harder than usual. Who needs air anyway?
The sunset from the salt flats was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Just after this photo the whole sky turned a bright hot pink.
Day two we did some hiking on petrified lava, checked out lagoons filled with flamingos, and other lagoons ranging in color from green to red. Above was the first stop of they day where we could see a steaming volcano. We also learned that when you make fun of your friends inside of a half-cave it echos. The second picture is us getting busted.
We stopped at the mountain of 7 colors. It's named for the number of peaks and on the other side is Chile!
This was our sunset on day 2, it was absolutely freezing outside but luckily the boys in the group took one for the team and snapped this.
And after about 5 hours of sleep, this was sunrise the next day! We were woken up at 4:30 am to hit the road to make it to our highest elevation 16,500ft! Here we saw bubbling lava, geysers, and a stunning sunrise over the volcanoes with steam from the geysers in front. Made the wake up time worth it.
Because no showers for 3 days didn't leave us smelling bad enough, we decided to run through the sulfur geysers. Luckily we had a hot springs bath just an hour down the road.
We also scoped out an abandoned train cemetery. Pretty cool seeing trains from the Pacific war and getting to play on them. Good thing I got that tetanus shot...
Finally, the sunset from our flight home. After a long 3 days in the outdoors this was the perfect ending.
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