High, dry, and cold, La Paz still manages to impress. It's really two cities: El Alto, perched on the flat plateau of the Altiplano, and La Paz proper, which dramatically spills down the sides of a steep valley.
Though the architecture tends toward the drab and functional, the high canyon walls and looming, snow-capped peaks create a vertiginous sense of verticality along the lines of Hong Kong or Rio.
The narrow streets are teeming with activity (El Alto is the fastest growing city in Latin America), but in a relaxed, provincial way. The roads are too steep and the air too thin to rush about. But hundreds of chollitas--women who follow a largely traditional lifestyle--trek down from El Alto every day to offer an impressive variety of wares:
More kinds of potatoes than I've ever seen!
There was even a bit of urban grit
