It turns out that La Paz is a city of contrasts.
Case in point: the cable cars. How does a city where so many live in poverty, and where so much of the infrastructure is crumbling, afford a state-of-the-art cable car system that connects the heart of downtown, in the valley, to the peaks in the mountains above?
The answer is neither simple nor pretty. From what locals tell us - always off the record - corruption is rife, in Bolivia in general and La Paz in particular. A rich supply of natural resources, an unbalanced tax system, flat-out bribery and a host of other factors combine to create a society that has experienced 188 presidents in 190 years...
And cable cars.
