La Paz Audio Tours

La Paz sits in a canyon carved by the Choqueyapu River, at an elevation of around 3,650 metres above sea level -- making it the highest administrative capital city on the planet. Snow-capped Illimani, at 6,438 metres, watches over the city from the south-east, visible on clear mornings from almost anywhere. The altitude is real and affects most visitors: slower pace, mild headache, difficulty sleeping on the first night. The locals call it soroche and have a cure -- mate de coca, a herbal tea made from coca leaves that is effective, legal and sold in every corner shop.

The city runs up impossibly steep slopes, connecting with El Alto, a sprawling satellite city at 4,000 metres, via Mi Teleférico -- the largest urban cable car network in the world, with colour-coded lines that have become both a practical transit solution and an aerial tour of extraordinary urban geography.

The Witches' Market on Calle Jiménez sells llama foetuses, dried herbs and ritual objects to both tourists and practitioners of traditional Aymara medicine. The Basilica of San Francisco, completed in 1743, is the spiritual centre of the old colonial core. Salteñas -- pastry pockets filled with a sweet-savory braised meat and potato mixture -- are the standard mid-morning street food and are sold only until noon.