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Basically, any spot in La Paz can be used a makeshift viewing point. Just raise your eyes off the ground and there’s the massive Illimani Mountain towering over the southeast. Looking up towards the west provides a view of El Alto, Bolivia’s fastest growing city, stretching haphazardly across the cliff. And if you drive into El Alto, the panorama of the city below is unmatched. Though La Paz itself can be grimy, polluted and uninspiring from an architectural standpoint, I doubt any other city in the world provides as many incredible picture-taking opportunities.

La Paz has taken full advantage of its mountainous setting by creating a number of official miradores, or viewing points. The first one we visited, because it was the closest to our apartment, was the Mirador Laikakota in Miraflores. This park overlooks the upscale neighborhood of Sopocachi and the city center, and doubles as a playground for kids who couldn’t care less about the breathtaking views.

After visiting the Mirador, we walked to the city center over a curvy, green pedestrian bridge that crosses the Chuquiago Valley which cuts La Paz in two. It’s an easy, downhill walk into the Parque Roosevelt, where rickety-looking fair rides patiently await visitors. On the way, you can look down on the sports fields which are still being constructed in the valley. There’s always a soccer or basketball match taking place.

What’s your favorite spot to view La Paz from? We plan on visiting all the miradores… by the end of our three weeks here, you might be as sick of looking at our panoramic pics as I’ll be of writing about them!

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On the second morning of our trip from Uyuni, we awoke with sore backs and cold toes after having spent the night in a salt hotel. The place was built entirely from the stuff: salt tables, salt floors, salt walls. Instead of sleeping, I spent the night licking my bed. But we loaded our tired bodies dutifully into the jeep and, within no time, had reached the desert of Chiguana. Shrubs, sand and the occasional llama were our only companions as we cut southwest through one of Bolivia’s most underdeveloped corners.

Even though we were in a desert, there was plenty to see. We stopped at a group of irregularly shaped, volcanic rocks, and in the distance could admire their creator: the semi-active, still-smoking Ollague Volcano. The most famous rock formation is the Arbol de Piedra, a 26-foot stone in the approximate shape of a tree. Its trunk is long and narrow, and the day the entire thing topples over surely can’t be long off.

As we continued our drive, the peaks of the Andes were ever present, constantly shifting to reveal new facets, and I spent a long portion of the journey staring wordlessly out the window. After emerging from the desert, we reached a few small lagoons, and were greeted by the pungent stench of sulfur. Many of the mountains in this region are tinted yellow with the mineral, which inevitably runs off into the water. Laguna Cañapa, Laguna Honda (Deep Lagoon), and the appropriately named Laguna Hedionda (Stinky Lagoon) each offered a different kind of beauty, though the smell of rotten eggs detracted a bit from the experience.

Although less spectacular than the Salar, this region still impressed with its size and solitude. Besides the other tourist-bearing jeeps, we were completely alone. Regardless of how much Bolivia develops and grows, it’s tough to imagine anyone ever settling this area.

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