High In The Andes, Bolivia's Gondolas In The Sky Ease Congestion
La Paz is a tough city for mass transit. It was built by Spanish conquistadors, who laid out narrow, winding streets, and sits in a bowl-like depression with neighborhoods rising up the craggy slopes of the Andes Mountains.
The landscape is too steep for a subway. So the Bolivian capital relies on 40,000 minibuses. These can handle the hills, but there aren't enough of them. What's more, the minibuses have made the city's traffic jams even worse.
So like other mountainous South American cities — Medellín, Colombia; Caracas, Venezuela; and Rio de Janeiro — La Paz is building a cable car system.
The first line, connecting La Paz to the mountaintop city of El Alto, began operating in May.
The Swiss-made gondolas have polished wood benches and broad, tinted windows. Unlike exhaust-belching buses, they run on electricity and make hardly any noise. The trip costs about 40 cents and takes 10 minutes — compared with 35 cents and a half-hour by minibus.
Passengers ride a cable car that links downtown La Paz with El Alto, Bolivia, in September. The trip costs about 40 cents and takes 10 minutes — compared with 35 cents and a half-hour by minibus.
Sandra Gutierrez, a La Paz homemaker, says the gondolas are safer than minibuses, which are often jammed with passengers and pickpockets.
Besides commuters, tourists are clambering aboard. Approaching El Alto, nearly 14,000 feet high, the gondolas provide a spectacular panorama of five snowcapped Andean peaks.
Cesar Dockweiler, the system's general manager, says that with eight lines planned by 2019, this will become the largest mass transit cable car system in the world.
A second line was recently inaugurated, with marching bands, folk dancers and an appearance by President Evo Morales, who was re-elected by a landslide earlier this month.
Bolivia is one of the poorest nations in Latin America. But thanks to rising natural gas exports, the economy is booming. Morales is spending some of the windfall on the gondolas and other major public works projects in an effort to change the country's image.
"We should never again feel like a small country or that we are underdeveloped," Morales told the crowd at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. "We need optimism. We need to look onward and upward."
The cable cars seem to be helping, at least to people like Rubén Fernández.
"This means so much," the college student says. "Just a few years ago, no one believed a project like this would be possible."
9(MDE1MTIxMDg0MDE0MDQ3NTY3MzkzMzY1NA001))
Transcript
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
Bolivia is in the process is of building the world's longest urban cable car system. The goal is to ease the lives of commuters who battle traffic congestion between the mountain cities of La Paz and El Alto. Two lines are already operating, and six more are in the works. Reporter John Otis has been riding along and sent this story.
JOHN OTIS, BYLINE: La Paz is a tough city for mass transit. It was built by Spanish conquistadors who laid out narrow, winding streets. The city sits in a bowl-like depression with neighborhoods rising up the craggy slopes of the Andes Mountains.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken).
OTIS: The city's landscape is too steep for a subway, so the city relies on 40,000 minibuses. These can handle the hills, but there aren't enough of them. What's more, the minibuses have made the city's traffic jams even worse.
So like the mountainous cities of Medellin, Caracas and Rio de Janeiro, La Paz is building a cable car system. The first line, connecting La Paz to the mountaintop city of El Alto, began operating in May.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Foreign language spoken).
OTIS: The Swiss-made gondolas have polished wood benches and broad, tinted windows. Unlike exhaust belching buses, they run on electricity and hardly make any noise. The trip costs about 40 cents and takes 10 minutes compared to 35 cents and half an hour by minibus.
SANDRA GUTIERREZ: (Foreign language spoken).
OTIS: Sandra Gutierrez, a La Paz homemaker, says the gondolas are safer than minibuses which are often jammed with passengers and pickpockets.
Cesar Dockweiler is the system's general manager.
CESAR DOCKWEILER: (Foreign language spoken).
OTIS: With plans for eight lines by 2019, Dockweiler says it will become the largest mass transit cable car system in the world.
The second line was recently inaugurated with marching bands, folk dancers and an appearance by President Evo Morales, who was reelected by a landslide this month.
(MARCHING BAND MUSIC)
(MARCHING BAND MUSIC)
PRESIDENT EVO MORALES: (Foreign language spoken).
OTIS: Bolivia is one of the poorest nations in Latin America, but thanks to rising natural gas exports, the economy is booming. Morales is using some of the windfall on the gondolas and other major public works projects in an effort to change the country's image.
MORALES: (Foreign language spoken).
OTIS: We should never again feel like a small country or that we are underdeveloped, Morales told the crowd at the ribbon cutting ceremony. We need optimism. We need to look onward and upward.
The cable cars seem to be helping.
RUBEN FERNANDEZ: (Foreign language spoken).
OTIS: This means so much, college student Ruben Fernandez tells me. Just a few years ago, no one believed a project like this would be possible.
UNIDENTIFIED TOUR GUIDE: Keep an eye out for the car on the way up.
OTIS: Besides commuters, tourists are clamoring aboard. Approaching El Alto, nearly 14,000 feet high, the gondolas provide a spectacular panorama of five snowcapped Andean peaks.
UNIDENTIFIED TOUR GUIDE: That's Illimani. That's 6,500 meters.
MAX CRUZ: (Foreign language spoken).
OTIS: Later, I meet first-time passenger Max Cruz. He's so awed by the view that he breaks into song about the beauty of La Paz.
CRUZ: (Singing in foreign language).
OTIS: For NPR News, I'm John Otis. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
300x250 Ad
300x250 Ad