Moving to La Paz for altitude training

Hey, I've spent a lot of time in La Paz. I really like it there, but I don't run any longer. You're not going to be running on the street, I can tell you that. There are some parks around. Some bad neighborhoods to avoid. Don't run in El Alto.

If you really want to get elevation, try Potosi. Even higher and plenty of good dirt roads outside town to run on.

Thanks. How much money would you need /month for a fairly decent living? I'm a 2:19 marathoner looking to give it a shot for a few years. Make or break pretty much.

Not much, it's a poor country. I'm sure you could live like a king on $1k per month. Probably live well on $700 per month. I see rents from $90-$300 per month.

If you're an American, a visa to get into the country is like $160. If you're staying longer term, there may be complications. USA and Bolivia don't have great relations.

Try Amsterdam, was very high within 15 minutes of stepping out of the Centraal Station

I'm from Australia actually. How do you get along with people over there? It's ok if you don't know that much spanish? Also i wonder if there are any training groups.

You will be taller than most of the native population. Just don't try and foment a revolution there like Che did. That didn't go down well.

Bolivia is a pretty closed society. It's hard to get to (or expensive). Most of the foreign tourists you see there are backpackers, climbers, people who really have to try hard to get there. Not like Peru where you get more tourists. Most people go there for Salar de Uyuni tours -- not to hang out in La Paz. Prior to traveling there I heard the people were rude. I did not have this experience. Most were very gracious. I do speak Spanish. You could get by without but negotiating a lease or filling out stuff like that is going to be tough. You might look for an expatriate group where someone could help you.

La Paz itself has its older central area in a valley, the city climbs up the walls. The airport is in El Alto, at the top. It's a massive sprawling place that is growing quickly due to people moving out of the country.

I'm a vegetarian and was shocked by the high quality of food I could find there. Great restaurants and cheap.

You will find that no one has a clue about Australia. Western news and consumer culture hasn't permeated quite so deep. You'll see coke and pepsi (maybe) but people generally have no clue or care about what is going on in places like the USA or Australia.

The women are very attractive.

There will be people who run, but they may be more in training for futbol (soccer).

It is too high up to be a good place for training. The sweet spot is about 8,000 ft for altitude. La Paz is at 12,000 ft. And if you are intending on living high, training low, it is a long way to get out of altitude in Bolivia.

If there was going to be an Iten of South America, it would probably be Quito, Ecuador. It is closer to 9,000 ft and it is a short drive out of the mountains for training. Weather is about the same all year, 45-65 deg.

If Ecuador, think Cuenca instead of Quito. Quito is a lot like La Paz, big hectic Latin American chaos city. Don't get me wrong -- I love places like that. But running on the street....dangerous.

Cuenca is about 8400 feet. Great weather. Has an expat culture so you'd have less troubles with language. The city is quite beautiful. Cuencas like RACEWALKING! Jefferson Perez (gold medal 1996) is from there. There is a track that is open, as well, but you'll be competing with race walkers on it.

Having run in Potosi back in the days of 2 million pesos to the dollar, I can tell you that it was very difficult to run in the city itself with uneven cobblestone streets and lots of loose dogs that would chase you if you started running. You had to go a long way to get out of the city. But there is a dirt track downhill a ways from the city center that has great scenery and was usually empty, which I used for all my daily running. It was very hard to do anything quick. If you walk past all the shanty towns opposite El Cerro Rico (on the other side of town), you get to a high altitude area with no people at all where the paths probably extend many miles and go no doubt from around 13,000 ft elevation up above 16,000 or more.

Sucre down at 8,000 feet or so was easier to run in and I was flying around after five weeks in Potosi, but I was just running around parks on sidewalks there. Make no mistake, though. If you train in Potosi, running back at sea level is going to be so incredibly easy at first, even if you are just running a few miles a day as I was. To replicate the intensity and speed of a lower altitude, you might do more hill sprints and track sprints. 8k is probably more suitable to real training but you can absolutely go and live cheaply, and if there is a smaller town around 8,000 feet in the mountains with trails and a track around a soccer field (and accessible to a railway line), you'd enjoy yourself greatly.

I have to make a decision until the end of the month anyway. Your help means a lot. I read some studies and talked to a local sports scientist and he said you could get benefit from training above 10,000 feet too. If your body adapts then you accelerate the process. I don't have a decade on my side. I want to give it a few years and see if i get where i want.

I agree with Cuenca, Ecuador. Lived there for a year and did some great training. Beautiful city, easy Spanish to understand and great people. Altitude is perfect. You can either go up or go down quite easily in altitude. Weather is also perfect. Quito is too busy for great running.

What about Cusco in Peru? High altitude, close to Macchu Picchu.

I liked visiting Cusco, but didn't even attempt to run there. It's at 11k-12k feet and there's nothing flat in areas you'd want to run with lots of cobbles, loose dogs and crazy drivers. If I was going to spend some time and train in Peru I could see living in the Sacred Valley. We found it to be very friendly, beautiful, great food,and plenty of ex-pats. Lots of dirt roads in the valley but plenty of trails up high if you want those. We especially fell in love with Ollanta.

How's the standard of living over there? The area is accessible? Also, how's the medical care in the region?

I traveled and ran in the highlands of Peru, Chile, and Bolivia. Bolivia is definitely the cheapest country to travel in, so your Dollars will go the furthest, but it is the most secluded. If I was going to pick a place to train, I would do so in Northern Chile (near San Pedro de Atacama) or more likely in foothills of the Peruvian Andes (Arequipa). I would chose the latter because there is amazing food, trails outside of town, and the ability to go up in altitude while staying at a high base (2300m).

I can't speak to Ecuador, but Bogota also has good altitude and training weather. It's humid but cool. The biggest challenge that I see though is trails and horrible traffic.

Other suggestions? I did some research and Cuenca or Ollantaytambo seem reasonable. A bit higher than Iten/Sululta. Though i can't stop thinking if Potosi would make me progress much faster or i would have difficulties to accomodate at that altitude.

You SHOULD go to Mexico, place like Toluca, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Zapotecas are amazing running spots, and those places are SAFE, Mexico has a way better running scene and running culture than the andean countries, so you WILL find a training group easily.

There is a LOT OF road races if you want to test your fitness, road race are more popular than track because most mexican runners focus on the 10k HM and marathon, the depth of mexican long distance running isn't as good as it used to be but you will eventually find training partner of your level. Mexicans are REALLY NICE and open to foreing people some of them speak english it's way easier to find an english speaker in Mexico than Bolivia Peru... (not sure about some places like Bolivia or Peru where most of the population is rural) they will welcome you, and treat you like as if you were a long time friend.

Altitude in Mexico might not be as high as La Paz, but you can train in pretty high places, Toluca is 2640m most of the top mexicans train there and even some kenyans (running marathon for most of them between 2.35 and 2.10). Zapotecas is 2400m, Puebla 2100, Tlaxcala 2600 in this state you can find a pretty good training center with a track located at 3000m of the flanks of a volcano called La Malinche not sure about the price but it shouldn't be so expensive).

To conclude, Mexico is a pretty damn good country to live, I would not spend my entire life there, but I spend amazing time there, country is beautiful, people are nice, some womens are so fucking beautiful in some parts of the republic, the country has pretty good infrastructure facilities (which Bolivia hasn't) you can travel in the whole country pretty easily by bus mostly or plane, you can find various running park in most of the big city (Guadalajara, Puebla, Mexico city, Monterrey)or train on the trail if you have a car it's pretty easy to drive one hour and reach a mountain from Mexico city or Puebla . There is some pretty nice colonial town, and a lot of history.

Source: I lived in Mexico (Puebla during almost a year).

Ollantaytambo is really small -- are you looking for that? Honestly, I can't imagine spending years there. It's the sort of place that you'll continually see backpackers and tourists moving through on their way someplace else, maybe spend the night but that's it.

I guess it depends on how isolated you want to be. In a place like Cuenca, you'll find other English speakers and would like have some sort of social outlet (albeit -- those folks will probably be older than you). A place like Ollantaytambo might provide a steady stream of backpacker chicks, I guess, if you're into something like that.