The three main types of public transportation are as follows:

Micros or Microbuses: Half-sized buses and minivans. These are the least expensive form of public transportation, costing about 18-cents per ride. Most of these buses are in poor condition, but they survive the narrow roads and steep hills in all weather. Micros follow set routes and can be hailed and stopped at any spot along their routes. They often have children shouting out their routes from the car windows as they pass on the street.

Trufis: Normal cars with specific routes. Roughly the same price as the micros. They offer boarding and dropping off anywhere along their route. While they are just normal-sized cars, it is normal for eight or nine people to croud into a five-seater car, often with their bundles of goods too!

Taxis: Same as US Taxis. These are the most expensive form of public transportation, but are still only about one dollar for a short trip. They can be hailed anywhere and are even willing to take trips out of the city. There are over 20 different taxi companies in La Paz.

Because it is so cheap to take public transportation, most people, even the wealthier residents of the Zona Sur, use the micros, trufis, and taxis. The residents of el Alto comprise the majority of drivers for these various vehicles; they are paid only around US$100 a month and must work seven days a week for at least 10 hours a day. Most often the drivers, or choferes, are not the owners, or proprietarios, of the vehicles. On the other hand, the owners make quite a lot of money from the passenger fairs they receive. As each bus owner/chofer is paid based on the number of passengers that use it, there is great competition to get a good route, such as one that goes by a market or popular downtown area. In general, the unions with more power (and more route lines) get better routes and make more money.

There are well over 100 routes alone in La Paz, with micros/trufis going by every couple minutes on each route. Each micro/trufi has a letter or number pasted on it in the window, along with signs indicating the main areas it visits. Choferes are also very good about telling people where they go, or what bus you should take to get to somewhere, as long as you ask nicely!

This is an example of the many motorcycles one sees when they are in La Paz.  The reason for this is that they are cheap and efficient.

Parking in the downtown area is somewhat of a problem, as there are only a few lots that charge by the hour. However, parking is allowed on side streets around the CBD, so most of the people who drive into the city park there.

Around La Paz, especially in the area of el Alto, the roads are not well kept up, and trucks like this one can be seen travelling along them, filled with people, animals, or produce.

In the entire country, less than five percent of the roads are paved, leading to extremely hazardous conditions. This is a large problem during the rainy season, when mudslides and severe erosion take place on the roads, making some of them impassable. Many of the streets in La Paz are paved with cobblestone or brick, which actually helps them retain their structure in the rain. The government is busy paving more and more streets in the city as well as around it, as part of their recent public investment projects.

Bolivia has four main highways that run throughout the country.  (Click on the map for a better view.) These are kept up in decent shape and heavily used by trucks and cars.  La Paz is connected by an East-North corridor (the yellow), an East South highway (the blue), and an East-West highway system (the brown).  The blue road is the Pan-American Highway. Through these roads, one can travel from La Paz to Peru, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, as well as the rest of the country of Bolivia.

The major highways that connect La Paz to other Bolivian cities and towns have all been paved since the mid-1950's, whenever the country had money to invest into the infrastructure of the land.

Prior to the early 1970's, it took over an hour to get from the airport on the Altiplano to the center of La Paz, with the only route being a narrow, infinitely curvy road on its way down to the metropolis. However, the construction of a wide highway, with considerably less winding and twisting, that covers most of the distance from the Altiplano to the city to now allows for a much more pleasant and timely trip. 

Two national airlines, AeroSur and LAB(Lloyd Aereo Boliviano), serve the city, as well as 11 International airlines. Air transport is still the fastest link between the various cities in Bolivia, and it has played a major role in connecting the various isolated parts of the country.