Bolivia's Capital Of Cool

From design hotels to edgy restaurants, the once downbeat city of La Paz is now popping with curious happenings of real pedigree.

- Chris Moss

I am on the Prado, the main avenue in downtown La Paz. Paceños speed up when walking downhill. Yes, those approaching me have an elegant, 19th-century pace. But those jostling beside me move much faster, zigzagging through the crowds, phones clamped to ears, shouting out their private dramas as if there is oxygen in the air.

At 3,600m above sea level, breathlessness is part of everyday life in La Paz. As is hustle, bustle, the raw human energy of almost a million people living in a caldera-shaped canyon. Sometimes it seems we’re all tumbling down towards a putative centre—but I can’t see one. The plazas are thronging with pedestrians and cholas (bowlerhatted Aymara women) selling salty, greasy snacks, glasses of mocochinchi made with dried peaches and cinnamon, souvenir llama-motif bobble hats, miniature chola dolls and SIM cards. The roads are rammed with packed minibuses, battered cabs and Dodge buses painted in vibrant colours. Respite is a rare commodity.

Fortunately, Boris Alarcón, a bright Bolivian entrepreneur, has opened a smart café in the old Gisbert bookshop on Calle Comercio, called The Writer’s Coffee (www.thewriterscoffee.com). It’s dimly lit and beautiful, with Adler, Triumph and Torpedo typewriters on display, and tall shelves crammed with sober-looking academic reference books.