Comment by yakireev

Russian who travelled extensively through South America here. I'm not sure what's wrong with altiplano bolivians, but my impression was that they are not just grumpy, but genuinely unfriendly (and Russian cultural background kinda helps with differentiating the two). I used to speak quite decent Spanish back then, so I tried communication - and anywhere else on the continent my attempts were enough to break the ice and become friends, but not in La Paz.

So far La Paz and bolivian altiplano in general is the only place in South America where I don't want to come back.

Down in Santa Cruz folks are cool though.