Getting into Bolivia

So for the Christmas holiday break we decided to go to Bolivia for some hiking, backpacking and just generally to get out of Arequipa for a bit.

Since we're in southern Peru it's a pretty straight shot into La Paz, the capital which is in the western part of Bolivia on the Altiplano. 

We took a 10-hour night bus to the border town of Desaguadero and stood in line for a few hours waiting for the border control to open and let us walk across the bridge into Bolivia. All the while we could see the local people who live in the town just walk casually across the bridge and back as they got ready for their daily business there.

The entrance visa fee for Bolivia is the highest in all of South America at $135. Although supposedly they are just doing it to US citizens because our visa fee is that price or higher for all applicants.

Once in, we took a 2-hour cambi into La Paz and then the most expensive taxi ride of my life into the city (they even charged me my camera and phone - all replaceable things). After that we thought of ending our trip and coming back to Arequipa but decided to continue on and I'm really glad we did.
La Paz was really one of those cities that I got into and just couldn't stop looking around and wondering how in the world they had the idea to build a city there, in a hole in the Altiplano at over 3,000 meters elevation.




And it grew into the capital city and the hole became so crowded that the people built their homes up the sides of the walls and eventually the city spilled over the top of the hole. Anyways it's quite beautiful for a city and from inside you can see the snow covered Cordillera Real (mountains) just to the east of the city.
The center and different areas of the city are all centered around these beautiful churches with tall pointy steeples. We were there over Christmas and so we popped out heads in on a mass at one of the big churches on the hillside. It was interesting because it was my first mass ever (even though we only stayed for 10 minutes because someone was falling asleep next to me), and all the locals carried their baby Jesuses to church and took them up to the nativity scene in front. These baby Jesus dolls were really well dressed and in fancy little carriages that looked like they could have a real baby inside.

San Francisco Church, Downtown La Paz

Just some nice church near the crazy huge market