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Location: Located in the heart of South America.
Population: Approximately 8.000.000 inhabitants.
Area: 1.098.581 Km² (428,446 square miles)
Capital: La Paz (Administrative) and Sucre (Constitutional).
Official Language: Spanish, Quechua and Aymara.
Government Type: Democratic.
Religion: 90 % Catholics, but freedom of worship is guaranteed by law.
Environment: A safe country. Index of robbery and theft to tourists is the lowest in South America, Bolivia is probably the safest country of Latin America.
Shopping: Distinctive handicrafts at bargaining prices, gold, silver, alpaca wool, etc.
Altitude: Eat and drink moderately and take your time at first.
Seasons: Rainy from December to March, rest of the year mild and sunny.
Monetary: 7.35 Bolivianos per American Dollar.
Business Hour: 9:00 to 12:00 in the morning, 14:30 to 18:30 in the afternoon. Government and some financial institutions are now working strait from 08:30 to 16:30.
Local Time: 4 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), Bolivian Time is constant throughout the year and throughout the country.
Electric currency: La Paz runs on 220V and 110V current. The rest of the country is 220V, the current is in 50 cycles AC.
Accommodation: From first-class hotels to typical lodgings.
Entrance Ways: By air with several carriers, operating to Bolivia. However, the most attractive and usual way to enter Bolivia is from Peru, crossing the Sacred Lake of the Incas by catamaran. A Titikaka Catamaran Cruise Line offers daily connections from Cusco/Puno to La Paz.
Holidays: New Years day - January 1st.
Carnival - Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.
Good Friday - Friday before Easter.
Labor Day - May 1.
Corpus Christi - 60 days after Good Friday.
Independence Day - August 6.
All Saints Day - November 2.
Christmas Day - December 25. |
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If you would like a hard copy of our Explore South America Booklet, please send us an Email Request. |
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There is an ever-shrinking club of countries that still qualify themselves as countries for the adventurous traveler. Bolivia remains a chapter member and leads visitors to an authentic South American experience of Indian cultures and dramatic superlative landscapes.
There is no danger of falling into a tourist trap when traveling anywhere in Bolivia. It is not the place to find gambling tables, beaches bathed in eternal sunshine or historic sites packed with tour groups. Bolivia is a country of outstanding contrasts. You can get lost in the crowds of the downtown Indian Market of La Paz, or you can stand alone from all earthly things in the silence of the Pre-Columbian monoliths of Tiwanaku.
The climate ranges from extreme dryness of the plains of the Chaco in the Southeast, to the dense humidity of the rain forests of the Eastern foothills.
Bolivia is the breathtaking beauty of Lake Titikaka in the North and the brackish salt beds of the Salar de Uyuni in the South. And, while the country has a navigable river system, it is one of the two South American landlocked nations (Paraguay is the other). It borders Brazil on the North and East. Paraguay and Argentina on the South, and Chile and Peru on the West.
It’s a country which claims the highest navigable lake in the world, the highest commercial airport, the highest golf course, the highest ski run, the highest capital, one of the newest and wildest frontiers, one of the oldest ruins, and what is said to be the highest concentration of cosmic energy on earth. Bolivia is also a nation of contrasts which led a French explorer scientist to call it the “microcosmos of our planet”. It has every type of geological classified land, flora, fauna, minerals and tropical products.
THE PEOPLE
Between 50 and 60 percent of Bolivian people are descendants of the Aymara and Quechua pre-Columbian indigenous cultures. Thirty-five (35) percent of the population is mestizo and fifteen (15) percent is of foreign descent. Socially, the country is in a constant state of change. The once still social structure of the nation was destroyed by the 1952 social revolution that took political control from a small white oligarchy and passed it to the indigenous majority, under white and mestizo middle class leadership.
GETTING AROUND BOLIVIA
 By air, Lloyd Aereo Boliviano, the national airline, and the new private airline company Aero Sur serve most Bolivian cities. To reach tropical cities and towns Transport Aereo Militar (TAM) also provides regular service.
By train. Bolivia has 2,624 miles of railway. Trains link La Paz with Peru, Chile, Argentina, Potosi, Sucre, Oruro, and Cochabamba. Trains are often late, specially during the rainy season. There are also train services between Santa Cruz and Brazil or Argentina.
By bus. Crowded buses often serve rural communities. Buses from La Paz to Oruro, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz are quite comfortable. To get to Sucre and Potosi it is better to take a plane to Sucre, from Sucre to Potosi there is a good bus service. To get to Tarija, Beni and Pando it is also advisable to take a plane.
By boat. A Catamaran Cruise Ship line operates on Lake Titikaka daily, with half day and full day guided tours to the different islands of the Lake. Also these Catamarans operate daily with a bus combination between Bolivia and Peru connecting the cities of La Paz (Bolivia) and Puno (Perú).
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La Paz Lake Titicaca Sun Island Tiwanaku
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| LA PAZ – The city on the top of the world
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In a dazzling frame of snow-capped mountains, displaying astonishing variations, leaping from ancient to modern styles, appears the outstanding La Paz, the highest capital city on earth. It ranges in altitude from 4.000 m. in El Alto, to 3.200 in La Florida. This city of more than one million inhabitants is the seat of the government and center of all industrial, cultural, banking and political activities. Living in a natural basin and protected from the harsh wind 6.439 meters high, snowcapped Mount Illimani provides a spectacular backdrop to the setting. The climate in La Paz is dry and a little cold, with an average temperature between 9 and 17 degrees c. The mixture of cultures can be noticed anywhere in the city. The population, still wearing the colorful outfits that were customary during the Inca Times, contrasts with the sober dresses of the business-class population.
Interesting sights to visit in the city are San Francisco Church, founded in 1548 by Fray Francisco de los Angeles, richly decorated with native and religious themes; the central market with rows of stalls teeming with activity, the Witch doctor’s market, where you can find preservatives and cures for every imaginable problem and illness; Moon Valley, a valley of unique landscape formed naturally by the wind and weather. There are many museums of interest including the museum of Tiwanaku with an excellent collection of the arts and crafts of the ancient Tiwanaku Civilization and Casa de Murillo, a carefully restored colonial home with paintings, furniture and national costumes and a separated room dedicated to herbal medicine and magic. There are excellent hotels and a wide variety of restaurants.
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| LAKE TITICACA - Sacred lake of the Incas |
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The Incas called Cusco “the navel of the world” and Lake Titikaka, ”The womb of Mankind”, lakeside dwellers of today regard themselves as the “oldest people in the world”. The lake covers approximately 9.000 Km2 and like many things in Bolivia, it takes another “highest” championship: it is the world’s highest navigable lake (12,500 feet) 3,820 meters, its depth was recently measured at 257 m.
Lake Titikaka has long been known to be not only the largest but also the most sacred lake in the world. Near it many cultures and civilizations have risen. The Tiwanaku culture began its rise around the time of Christ and lasted over a millennium, extending far into Peru and Northern Chile. Tiwanaku ceremonial sites were constructed along the shores of Lake Titikaka, indicating that the Lake was considered sacred at least 2,000 years ago. The Incas believed that they originated from Lake Titikaka and that their bearded, white leader/deity Viracocha began his acts of creation on this island. Clearly lake Titikaka played a dominant role in Andean beliefs for over two millenia.
Legends about the lake abound. Among them are several which describe underwater cities, roads and treasures. With the development of underwater diving equipment, it was inevitable that investigations of the lake began to be undertaken. Jacques-Ives Cousteau brought a small submarine to the lake. The potential value of the studies not only resided in the discovery of structures and artifacts, but in the excellent state of preservation that could be expected of some type of items found underwater.
The best known of Titikaka’s islands are those of the Sun and the Moon, places where, according to Indian Legend, the sun and the moon sought refuge during times of flood.
Outside the town of Copacabana is an archaeological site called “Horca del Inca”. This is an astrological observatory, presumably constructed before the time of Christ.
The Island of Suriki is famous for the construction of bulrush (totora reed) boats. Four residents of Suriki built the “Ra II” for the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, Two of the builders have a small souvenir shop in Suriki, the brothers Limachi.
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| Sun Island Inti Wata Complex: |
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At the main Titikaka attraction, Sun Island, right next to the Inca remains, Transturin Holding owns this cultural Complex for the exclusive use of its Catamaran Cruise Ship clients. Andean flora, fauna and cultural heritage are the principal mottoes of the center.
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| Tiwanaku: |
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The reminiscent of the oldest American Civilization (3,000 years old). The most mysterious ruins of the hemisphere. At 72 Km from La Paz, these are the ruins of one of the most developed cultures: “The Tiwanakota”. Tiwanaku is also known as the cradle of American man.
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