Back in January I ordered 3 outdoor thermometers (2 from China and 1 from Hong Kong) and hoped that at least one of them would eventually make it to my living room. In the end I got one of the three. I got tired of going to the post office every month to ask for the other 2 and a book and maybe some other stuff. The answer is always the same "It´s already here but we need to process it. Come back in 2 weeks". The postal service is definitely one of the many negative things about living in Bolivia.
So I started using the thermometer sometime in June. The HORRIBLE TRUTH is that in the mornings the temperature in my living room was typically about 6 or 7 degrees (43F). Typically the temperature would peak at 14 or 15 degrees (58F) in the afternoon. I remember at least one day when the temperature in the living room did not reach 10 degrees (50F). I don´t know how it´s possible to survive that. There is just no escaping that kind of cold.
Suddenly, in the beginning of September the temperatures started to increase. At first 10 degrees in the morning felt like a salvation. Sometimes it was 12 degrees, and in October and November 15 or 16 is the typical living room temperature at about 8.30 in the morning. One time it was as high as 18.
In the daytime the inside temperature has been 18-20 or even 22,5 like today. (Edit: it´s been over 25C inside after writing.) I am typing this in a t-shirt and I´m not wearing shoes. So the conclusion is that in La Paz October and November is the summer time while people say it´s spring. It´s almost impossible that the rainy season from December to March is as warm as October and November have been this year, based on my experience.
We had a house built in the city of Cochabamba where the climate is super nice year round, but we simply prefer living in La Paz, at least so far.
In May it rained a lot and snowed a lot at higher elevations. The biggest snow came on June 9th. There was a solid snow pack from 4200 meters up for several days. I managed to go skiing only once on June 17th. I no longer have a car so I asked a taxi driver family member to take me to 4430 meters for 2$ and from there I walked up to 4830 where I skied for 1 hour 20 minutes. The place was an undulating mountain top and I made a short loop there. Then I walked down and ran/walked 6 km to 4200 and took a 15 minute minibus ride back home.
This area was very exposed to the sun and the snow was melting fast. Some days after skiing I went looking for a skiable area on the shady side of the mountains a couple of times but didn´t find any suitable (flat) area where I wouldn´t have to ski on a 20 degree slope.
There were also other heavy snowfalls but I was really busy with work and other things so in the end I only skied once even though it would have been an exceptional Bolivian ski season for someone with a lot of time and the freedom to take a car and head up to the mountains when the conditions look favorable. But it´s funny that many times when I go up to 4600 meters on a bike, it surprises me that there is no snow, and as many times it surprises me that there is snow! So it´s not a very predictable thing after all. Within the city of La Paz the weather is also quite unpredictable because it´s situated in about 5 valleys with most likely the biggest altitude differences in any city in the world, maybe 950 meters / 3100 ft.
Also climbing mountains would have been really good this year but I didn´t climb any. In September the mountains still looked very snowy.
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