Lady’s Copacabana to La Paz Guide

Today I want to share my guide to how to get from Copacabana to La Paz in Bolivia. This South America trip might sound straightforward, but the journey is full of the unexpected. I’ll show you why.

Copacabana to La Paz

The bus ride from Copacabana to La Paz in Bolivia is one of the most adventurous I’ve ever experienced.

Leaving the Isla del Sol and Lake Titicaca, the road winds through thick green hills and along sapphire waters until it reaches a point where there should be a bridge.

But there isn’t. There’s only a wide stretch of water with no way to get across. So what does one do?

No, this isn’t Oregon Trail. You can’t ford the river. You can’t caulk the wagon and float. You take a boat. And so does your bus from Copacabana to La Paz.

While I sat in a crammed motorboat for the three-minute crossing, my bus boarded a long wooden raft that looked like it would buckle under the weight of a bicycle.

But it didn’t. It floated across the river, bus on board, in a scene so strange I could hardly believe my eyes.

Not long later I was back in my seat and the bus ride from Copacabana to La Paz was underway again.

La Paz, Bolivia

When we pulled into the bus terminal, I took a taxi to my hotel in La Paz, La Loge. It was located in a pretty neighborhood not far from the historic city center. It was also covered in murals and shaped like a boat. No joke.

The hotel, which was more of a restaurant with apartments on top, had offered me complimentary accommodation after my bus ride from Copacabana to La Paz.

As soon as I arrived, I was shown up to my flat, a huge two-room space that was big enough to sleep a small army.

But it was just me for the night, and I quickly spread out across the kitchen, living room, desk (complete with a computer, webcam, and the like), bedroom, and bathroom. It was so spacious I could’ve stayed inside all night.

But I wanted to see some of La Paz. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time before sunset, so my meandering was limited to the area around my hotel.

Thankfully there was a pretty park nearby and I found a couple fruit and vegetable markets nestled among the historic buildings in the neighborhood.

Back at La Loge, I sat down for dinner in the ground-floor restaurant, La Comedie. I’d read about the place before I traveled to South America, and everything I perused indicated it was the best restaurant in La Paz.

The food was French, the ambiance golden, and the tables packed with people.

I ordered the gratin dauphionis with bacon, which my host lady in Nice used to cook for dinner when I studied in France. 

I needed to consume a calorific meal after recovering from the food poisoning I got in Cuzco, and the layers of cheese, creme fraiche, and potatoes hit the spot.

That said, the flavors were slightly different from the ones I was used to. Maybe it was because the dish was made from one of the 400+ varieties of potatoes grown in the region. Either way, I was happy.

And sleepy. Thankfully I didn’t have to walk more than two flights up in order to indulge my food coma with a good night’s sleep. I needed it, too, as I woke up at 5am the next day to head to the airport for my trip from Bolivia to Peru.

As my taxi wound its way out of the deep bowl in which La Paz sat, I had spectacular views over a city of which I had seen far too little. But it was the last day of my trip to South America, and Lima beckoned.

Copacabana to La Paz and Beyond

While my flight out of Bolivia was nowhere near as adventurous as my bus ride (and float) from Copacabana to La Paz had been, the Bolivian mountains and ocean scenery out the window of the plane made it just as beautiful.

And then I arrived in Peru, ready to explore another South American capital. To be continued…

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