La Paz: crossing from Puno and Lake Titicaca into Bolivia

Bolivia sorts visitors into three groups by nationality. Travellers in Group I, which covers Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union and, since December 2025, the United States, enter without a visa. Everyone else should confirm their group with Bolivia's Dirección General de Migración or a Bolivian consulate before travelling, because the lists change: the December 2025 change moved eight countries into Group I.

Carry a passport valid for at least six months. The stay granted at the border is usually 30 days, and it can be extended at a Migración office, free of charge, up to a maximum of 90 days in a calendar year. Canada's travel advice also describes a web-based registration, SIGEMIG, to complete before arrival with the lodging address for your whole stay; if you have not completed it, the officers at the post register you there, and missing registration can lead to a fine when you leave.

Get your exit from Peru and your entry into Bolivia both recorded, and keep the stamped passport safe. Canada's advice is explicit: at a land border, a missing entry stamp can mean a fine when you depart. Peru records movements electronically through its virtual Andean Migration Card (TAM Virtual), so the Peruvian half of the crossing is a record check as much as a stamp. Bolivian customs officers may also ask to see an onward or return ticket and proof of funds.

Yellow fever needs one check before you go. The CDC records that Bolivia requires a yellow fever vaccination certificate from travellers arriving from a country with a risk of yellow fever transmission, and Peru is such a country. If you hold a certificate, carry it with your passport; if you do not, confirm the current position with a Bolivian consulate before the crossing.

Tourist buses leave Puno's terminal in the morning, typically between about 06:00 and 07:30 Peruvian time, and run south along Lake Titicaca before turning inland to Desaguadero, roughly two and a half to three hours away. Keep your passport, medication, money and a warm layer in your daypack; on through buses the main luggage usually stays on board during the border stop, and the driver or tour staff will tell you what to carry off.

At Desaguadero both countries work from a shared binational border centre (CEBAF). Everyone leaves the bus. First comes the Peruvian exit control, where your departure is recorded; then you cross the bridge over the Desaguadero river and present yourself to Bolivian migration for the entry check and stamp. Allow roughly 30 to 60 minutes for the whole stop when queues are normal, and longer on busy market days.

Back on board, the road crosses the Bolivian altiplano towards La Paz, passing the Aduana Nacional customs control at Guaqui, where vehicles can be stopped for customs checks; the blue sign in this page's photographs marks the post. The run into La Paz takes about three more hours before the bus descends into the city and reaches the main bus terminal. Door to door, the journey typically takes six to seven hours. Bolivia is one hour ahead of Peru, so a morning departure from Puno arrives in the early afternoon by the Bolivian clock.

There is a slower alternative. The Kasani crossing, reached via Copacabana, takes roughly seven to nine hours with a short ferry ride across the Tiquina strait, and it suits travellers who want to stop in Copacabana or visit Isla del Sol. Desaguadero is the direct line; Kasani is the scenic detour. Either way, book a morning departure so a queue at the border cannot cost you the day.

La Paz moves by cable car. Mi Teleférico runs ten lines between El Alto on the rim and the neighbourhoods in the bowl below, and residents use it as everyday transit, not as a sightseeing ride. Stations carry both a Spanish and an Aymara name. For a visitor it is the fastest way to cross the city, the easiest way to understand its shape, and the kindest way to move at altitude, because the cabins do the climbing. Check the network map, fares and hours with Mi Teleférico before you rely on a specific line.

El Alto International Airport sits on the plateau above the city, higher than La Paz itself. No cable-car station serves the terminal directly: the standard options are an authorised taxi from the arrivals area, agreeing the fare before you ride, an airport minibus, or a short taxi ride to an El Alto cable-car station and the ride down into the bowl from there. Road times swing with traffic, so leave a generous margin in both directions.

Long-distance buses use the main bus terminal near the city centre, a short walk or taxi ride from the central cable-car stations. The Puno services arrive here, and the overnight buses for Uyuni leave from here or from the operators' offices nearby, which matters when you plan the onward trip in this site's Salar de Uyuni guide.

In Puno, stay in or near the centre if you have an early bus: pickups and the terminal run from there, and restaurants for a light evening meal are close. The lakefront is quieter, but it adds a transfer on the morning that matters most.

In La Paz the choice is about altitude and noise. The centre, around El Prado and the San Francisco church, is the closest base to the bus terminal, the markets and the oldest streets, with the widest range of budget rooms, and it is the loudest. Sopocachi, just west, is a calmer residential district of restaurants and mid-range hotels, well placed for the cable cars. The Zona Sur, the city's lowest districts around Calacoto and San Miguel, has the mildest air and the most modern hotels and malls, at the price of a taxi or cable-car ride to reach the sights.

Whichever district you choose, book the first night before you cross the border. You need the address for the SIGEMIG registration, and arriving at altitude is not the moment to go looking for a room.

Plan the arrival day around the altitude, not around a checklist. La Paz sits at about 3,650 metres, and the CDC's guidance for high places is to ascend gradually, keep the first day easy and take symptoms seriously. From the bus terminal, go straight to your hotel, check in, drink water and eat something light. A short rest is a plan, not a failure.

In the middle of the afternoon, ride one cable-car line up towards El Alto and back down. You stay seated, the city explains itself below you, and you get the measure of the bowl you will be exploring. Come back down before dark, walk a few level blocks around San Francisco square and the Sagárnaga street stalls if you feel well, and keep dinner early and light. Save the steep streets, the viewpoints on foot and any alcohol for the second day, when your body has had a night at altitude.

If a headache, nausea or dizziness gets worse rather than better, or breathing feels hard at rest, treat it as a medical question, not a toughness test: rest, tell your hotel, and seek medical advice. Travellers with heart or lung conditions should discuss the whole route, which never drops below about 3,600 metres, with their doctor before travelling.

For most of the drive, the road crosses the puna: high, open grassland between Lake Titicaca and the cordillera, farmed in small plots and grazed by cattle and sheep. Villages are adobe and brick, built around a church, a school and a football pitch; the school in the photographs on this page, with its murals and painted-tyre fence, is typical of the road south of the lake.

Above the lake's southern shore the fields climb in terraces, some of them farmed for centuries, and herders still move animals on foot along the road margins. Drive times on this leg are steady rather than fast, and altiplano weather can turn from strong sun to hail within the hour, which is the practical reason for keeping a warm layer and water in your daypack rather than in the luggage hold.

Spanish is the working language of the crossing; Aymara is widely spoken on the Bolivian altiplano and Quechua on the Peruvian side. A greeting in Spanish, Buenos días before noon and Buenas tardes after, opens every interaction at the border posts and in the villages, and a Gracias costs nothing. The pocket phrases below cover the requests you are most likely to make.

At markets and in villages, ask before photographing people, and accept a refusal without argument. Small purchases are usually paid in cash; carry bolivianos in small notes for the Bolivian leg, since the Desaguadero posts have basic facilities and no cash machines to rely on.

The official advice for Bolivia asks for the usual city care with belongings, and two border-specific habits: make sure both your exit and entry are recorded, and avoid arriving at a land border at night, when posts may be thinly staffed. Keep photos or copies of your passport and entry record separate from the originals.

Road travel on the altiplano can be disrupted by weather and, at times, by roadblocks linked to protests; both are a known feature of Bolivian road travel, and operators cancel or reroute when a road closes. Check conditions with your operator the day before any long leg, keep a day of slack in the itinerary if you can, and never try to pass a roadblock on foot.

Use authorised taxis at terminals and the airport, agree the fare before the ride, and keep valuables out of sight on night buses and in crowded terminals, as you would in any large city.