{"id":2832,"date":"2026-10-18T00:38:02","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T00:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spokesandshoes.com\/wordpress\/?p=2832"},"modified":"2026-10-20T22:19:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T22:19:23","slug":"day-357-2026-10-15-spires-soup-and-spanish-cinema-a-day-off-the-saddle-in-la-paz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spokesandshoes.com\/wordpress\/2026\/10\/day-357-2026-10-15-spires-soup-and-spanish-cinema-a-day-off-the-saddle-in-la-paz\/","title":{"rendered":"Day @357 – 2026-10-15 – Spires, Soup, and Spanish Cinema: A Day Off the Saddle in La Paz"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Intro<\/h3>\n

It is Day 357, and for once, my bike is locked up in the hostel storage. I traded the Altiplano\u2019s horizontal grind for the vertical geology of the Valle de las \u00c1nimas, starting the morning at 07:30 with a quick market run for bread and avocados. The air in La Paz was sharp and clear, providing a crisp backdrop for a day spent navigating the city\u2019s steep arteries on foot and by bus.<\/p>\n

The Cathedral of Souls<\/h3>\n
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  • By 07:40, I was boarding a ‚Puma‘ bus at Plaza Camacho. These modern buses are a point of pride here, featuring a two-person crew: a driver and a dedicated ticket-taker who taps travel cards. It\u2019s a stark contrast to the cost-saving, driver-only models back in Germany. The bus dropped me at Chasquipampa at 08:30, where I joined a group of bus drivers at a roadside stall for a breakfast of peanut soup loaded with pasta. It was salty, thick, and exactly the kind of fuel required for a high-altitude hike.<\/li>\n
  • Entering the Valle de las \u00c1nimas at 09:30 felt like walking into the petrified skeleton of an ancient cathedral. The silence was heavy, broken only by the rhythmic crunch of gravel underfoot as I navigated the 12-kilometer loop. Thousands of needle-sharp spires made of ochre clay and sandstone thrust upward into a violent cobalt sky. By 11:40, I reached the summit at the highest point of the hike. I sat in the yellow, spiky grass and unpacked a lunch of charqui and bread rolls, looking out toward the glaciated peaks of Mount Illimani while the wind funneled through the stone columns with an eerie, whistling persistence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Shadows in the Moon Valley<\/h3>\n
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    • I descended back to Chasquipampa by 14:00, the trail dropping away steeply enough to make me glad I wasn’t trying to brake on a loaded touring bike. After a quick stop at a cycling shop to ask for bicycle maintenance and a supermarket to refill my water, I caught a collectivo van to Mallasa. I reached the Valle de la Luna at 15:40, just as the afternoon sun began to lose its midday bite. The weather was a steady 26.5\u00b0C with a light breeze, making the grey, cratered landscape feel like a furnace of radiating heat.<\/li>\n
    • The Moon Valley is a different beast entirely from the morning\u2019s cathedral. It\u2019s a maze of pale grey clay that feels remarkably fragile. As I walked the 1km circuit, I reached out to touch one of the formations; knocking at the formations felt rather hollow, a dusty and crumbly mineral texture that seemed like it might dissolve in a heavy rain. By 16:50, the sun was raking sideways through the labyrinth, stretching long, ink-black fingers across the narrow ravines. The temperature dropped to 21.9\u00b0C by the time I finished the loop at 17:01, the light turning the pale, dust-grey badlands into a moody, monochromatic landscape.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Neon Lights and Beef Hearts<\/h3>\n
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      • I headed back toward the Sopocachi district, arriving near the Multicine at 17:35. On a whim, I decided to test my Spanish comprehension by catching a 6:00 PM screening of Madagascar. Trading the rugged dust of the valleys for a plush theater seat felt like a strange indulgence. I bought a bucket of sweet popcorn\u2014which was massive enough to serve as a secondary meal\u2014and settled in. Watching Alex the Lion and the penguins navigate their own slapstick adventures in Spanish was surprisingly effective for language practice, mostly because the plot is driven by hyper-kinetic energy that doesn’t require a master’s degree in linguistics to follow.<\/li>\n
      • The movie let out at 19:40, and I walked over to La Rufina for dinner. I wasn’t incredibly hungry after the popcorn, so I ordered the Anticuchos. The smell of the charred beef hearts hit me before the plate arrived, the meat served with fried potato chunks and smothered in a thick brown sauce. Despite my lack of appetite, the savory, smoky flavor was too good to leave behind. I finished the plate, left the restaurant at 21:05, and made the slow climb back to the hostel. My legs are more tired from walking these grades than they usually are from a sixty-mile ride.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Overnight<\/h3>\n

        I returned to my hostel in the San Pedro district of La Paz. It\u2019s a central spot that makes navigating the city\u2019s various transport systems easy, and the hot shower at 22:00 was the only way to wash off the fine ochre dust from the morning hike.<\/p>\n

        Reflection<\/h3>\n

        A rest day in La Paz is just a different way of being exhausted, but the geological scale of the surrounding valleys makes the city’s verticality feel less like an obstacle and more like a landmark.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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        Route summary – Valley de las animas<\/h2>\n
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        • Date: 2026-10-15<\/li>\n
        • Distance: 11.7 km<\/li>\n
        • Elevation gain: 650 m<\/li>\n
        • Elevation loss: 660 m<\/li>\n
        • Duration: 4 h 45 min<\/li>\n
        • Time in Motion: 3 h 11 min<\/li>\n
        • Average Speed: 2.5 km\/h<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/section>\n
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