Bolivia Tourism - Travel to Bolivia

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Quick Facts
Capital	La Paz (seat of government); Sucre (legal capital and seat of judiciary)
Government	republic
Currency	boliviano (BOB)
Area	total: 1,098,580 sq km water: 14,190 sq km land: 1,084,390 sq km
Population	8,445,134 (July 2002 est.)
Language	Spanish (official), Quechua (official), Aymara (official)
Religion	Roman Catholic 95%, Protestant (Evangelical Methodist)

Bolivia is a landlocked country in Central South America. It is surrounded by Brazil to the northeast, Peru to the northwest, Chile to the southeast, Argentina and Paraguay to the south. It shares control of Lake Titicaca (Lago Titicaca), the world's highest navigable lake (elevation 3,805 m), with Peru.

Regions in Bolivia

Map of Bolivia

Administrative divisions: 9 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento); Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, Beni, La Paz, Oruro, Pando, Potosi, Santa Cruz, Tarija

Cities in Bolivia

La Paz - Capital (seat of government);
Sucre - (legal capital and seat of judiciary)

Ports and harbors: Puerto Aguirre (on the Paraguay/Parana waterway, at the Bolivia/Brazil border); also, Bolivia has free port privileges in maritime ports in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Paraguay

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Climate in Bolivia

Varies with altitude; humid and tropical to cold and semiarid

Natural hazards: flooding in the northeast (March-April)

Terrain

Rugged Andes Mountains with a highland plateau (Altiplano), hills, lowland plains of the Amazon Basin

Elevation extremes: lowest point: Rio Paraguay 90 m
highest point: Nevado Sajama 6,542 m

History of Bolivia

Bolivia, named after independence fighter Simon BOLIVAR, broke away from Spanish rule in 1825; much of its subsequent history has consisted of a series of nearly 200 coups and counter-coups. Comparatively democratic civilian rule was established in the 1980s, but leaders have faced difficult problems of deep-seated poverty, social unrest, and drug production. Current goals include attracting foreign investment, strengthening the educational system, continuing the privatization program, and waging an anticorruption campaign.

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Bolivia Talk

Languages: Spanish (official), Quechua (official), Aymara (official)

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External Links for Bolivia Tourism

http://www.murple.net/bolivia/ - Murple's Bolivia Journal and Photos

This article is an import from the CIA World Factbook 2002. It's a starting point for creating a real aTRAVELdirectory country article according to our country article template. Please plunge forward and integrate it into the article above.

Geography in Bolivia

Geographic coordinates: 17 00 S, 65 00 W
Area: total: 1,098,580 sq km
water: 14,190 sq km
land: 1,084,390 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly less than three times the size of Montana
Natural resources: tin, natural gas, petroleum, zinc, tungsten, antimony, silver, iron, lead, gold, timber, hydropower
Land use: arable land: 1.73%
permanent crops: 0.21%
other: 98.06% (1998 est.)
Irrigated land: 1,280 sq km (1998 est.)
Environment - current issues: the clearing of land for agricultural purposes and the international demand for tropical timber are contributing to deforestation; soil erosion from overgrazing and poor cultivation methods (including slash-and-burn agriculture); desertification; loss of biodiversity; industrial pollution of water supplies used for drinking and irrigation
Environment - international agreements: party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection

Economy in Bolivia

Economy - overview: Bolivia, long one of the poorest and least developed Latin American countries, has made considerable progress toward the development of a market-oriented economy. Successes under President SANCHEZ DE LOZADA (1993-97) included the signing of a free trade agreement with Mexico and becoming an associate member of the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur), as well as the privatization of the state airline, telephone company, railroad, electric power company, and oil company. Growth slowed in 1999, in part due to tight government budget policies, which limited needed appropriations for anti-poverty programs, and the fallout from the Asian financial crisis. In 2000, major civil disturbances in April, and again in September and October, held down overall growth to 2.5%. Bolivia's GDP failed to grow in 2001 due to the global slowdown and laggard domestic activity. Growth is expected to pick up in 2002, but the fiscal deficit and debt burden will remain high.

Communications

Telephones - main lines in use: 327,600 (1996)
Telephones - mobile cellular: 116,000 (1997)
Telephone system: general assessment: new subscribers face bureaucratic difficulties; most telephones are concentrated in La Paz and other cities; mobile cellular telephone use expanding rapidly
domestic: primary trunk system, which is being expanded, employs digital microwave radio relay; some areas are served by fiber-optic cable; mobile cellular systems are being expanded
international: satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)
Radio broadcast stations: AM 171, FM 73, shortwave 77 (1999)
Radios: 5.25 million (1997)
Television broadcast stations: 48 (1997)
Televisions: 900,000 (1997)
Internet country code: .bo
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 9 (2000)
Internet users: 78,000 (2000)

Transportation in Bolivia

Railways: total: 3,691 km
narrow gauge: 3,652 km 1.000-m gauge; 39 km 0.760-m gauge (13 km electrified) (1995 est.)
Highways: total: 49,400 km
paved: 2,500 km (including 30 km of expressways)
unpaved: 46,900 km (1996)
Waterways: 10,000 km (commercially navigable)
Pipelines: crude oil 1,800 km; petroleum products 580 km; natural gas 1,495 km
Merchant marine: total: 36 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 196,399 GRT/320,137 DWT
ships by type: bulk 3, cargo 15, chemical tanker 2, container 1, petroleum tanker 13, roll on/roll off 2
note: includes some foreign-owned ships registered here as a flag of Belize 2, China 2, Cuba 1, Cyprus 1, Egypt 1, Honduras 1, Latvia 2, Liberia 2, Panama 1, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1, Saudi Arabia 1, Singapore 1, South Korea 3, Switzerland 1, Ukraine 1, United Arab Emirates 5, United States 1 (2002 est.)
Airports: 1,109 (2001)
Airports - with paved runways: total: 12
over 3,047 m: 4
2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2002)
Airports - with unpaved runways: total: 1,069 1,096
over 3,047 m: 1 1
2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 4
1,524 to 2,437 m: 64 65
914 to 1,523 m: 225 236
under 914 m: 776 790 (2002)

Transnational Issues in Bolivia

Disputes - international: continues to demand a sovereign corridor to the South Pacific Ocean since the Atacama region was lost to Chile in 1884

Illicit drugs: world's third-largest cultivator of coca (after Colombia and Peru) with an estimated 24,400 hectares under cultivation in June 2002, a 23% increase from June 2001; intermediate coca products and cocaine exported to or through Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile to the US and other international drug markets; eradication and alternative crop programs under the SANCHEZ DE LOZADA administration have been unable to keep pace with farmers' attempts to increase cultivation after significant reductions in 1998 and 1999; money-laundering activity related to narcotics trade, especially along the borders with Brazil and Paraguay

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