Estadio Hernando Siles – La Paz (high altitude Football)

I had to see what all the fuss is about. 🙂 No admission fee, you are welcomed with open doors and a warm Bienvenido (the nicest I felt in Bolivia). We could go directly to the pitch (which looks really nice by the way). Personally I can´t imagine playing high intensity football at this altitude so now I completely understand James, Messi, Neymar (in random order :)) when they have problems beating the Bolivians. 🙂

The stadium opened in 1931 and has a capacity of 41143 seats. Why is it so special? It is one of the highest lying stadiums in the world, at an altitude of 3637 metres above sea level. You immediately see why Bolivia´s national team gets most points at home. Visiting teams don´t have enough time to acclimatise to the high altitude. The Bolivian national team were actually banned from playing here in 2007. You can read more about Fifa Altitude ban here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estadio_Hernando_Siles.