Mi Teleferico Cable Car Lines and Mirador Killi Killi Viewpoint

Before May 2014, commuting across the 400-metre vertical cliff separating central La Paz (3,650 metres) from its sister city of El Alto (4,050 metres) meant creeping up hairpin highway switchbacks in diesel minibuses. Engineered by Austrian-Swiss manufacturer Doppelmayr Garaventa and inaugurated on 30 May 2014, Mi Teleferico transformed that geography overnight into the longest urban aerial cable car network in the world. Spanning 33.8 kilometres (21.0 miles) across 10 colour-coded lines and 36 stations, its whisper-quiet ten-passenger cabins depart every twelve seconds, doubling as the most spectacular sightseeing ride in South America. Combine a sky loop here with our 3-day La Paz itinerary.

The Best Mi Teleferico Lines for Scenic Views

• Red Line (Linea Roja): Departing from the former Eiffel-built railway yard at Estacion Central (Taypi Uta), the Red Line glides directly over the multi-storey stacked burial niches of the Cementerio General before soaring up the sheer mudstone cliff wall to 16 de Julio (Jach'a Qhathu) in El Alto.
• Silver Line (Linea Plateada): Running horizontally along the very lip of the Altiplano precipice between 16 de Julio, Faro Murillo, and Mirador stations at 4,090 metres, the Silver Line delivers the single greatest uninterrupted panorama over the entire La Paz bowl and the triple glacier peak of Mount Illimani (6,438 metres).
• Yellow Line (Linea Amarilla) and Green Line (Linea Verde): From Mirador station on the rim, the Yellow Line plunges dramatically down into the canyon over Cotahuma to Sopocachi and Libertador, where you can transfer seamlessly onto the Green Line descending past the jagged badlands of Obrajes and Alto Obrajes to Irpavi in Zona Sur (3,200 metres).
• White Line (Linea Blanca) and Orange Line (Linea Naranja): The Orange Line links Estacion Central across the historic north side of the city to Plaza Villarroel, where the White Line continues suspended directly down the central median of Avenida Busch above the high-rises of Miraflores to San Jorge.

Mirador Killi Killi: 360-Degree View Over the Canyon and Illimani

For a stationary view where you can linger at sunset with a camera, take a ten-minute radio taxi northeast from Plaza Murillo up to the Villa Pabon ridge at 3,730 metres, home to Mirador Killi Killi (named after the small Andean kestrel falcon native to the valley). Steeped in history, indigenous Aymara leader Tupac Katari established his command post on this ridge during the six-month siege of La Paz in 1781, the terraced park curves around a stone archway framing a nearly 360-degree sweep from the high-rises of downtown and Miraflores straight up the canyon to the snowfields of Mount Illimani.