Bolivia

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: Diversity of ecosystems and heights corresponding

to the three most important river basins of South

America;

Titikaka Lake, Chaco and the Amazon. From high mountains and snow-covered peaks that are 6.000m

over sea level to the plains, pampas and the Amazon forests. When in high altitude it is recommended not to

eat nor drink in excess and when arriving to La Paz, Potosi or

Oruro carry out your activities calmly.

Seasons: Rainy from December to March, rest of the year mild

and sunny. In the pampas tropical rains throughout the year

with greater intensity from December to March.

Currency: It fluctuates according to the dollar.

Business Hour: 9:00 to 12:00 in the morning, 14:30 to 18:30 in

the afternoon. Government entities and some financial

institutions work strait from 08:30 to 16:30.

Local Time: 4 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT),

Bolivian Time is constant throughout the year.

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 luxury hotels and

rustic hostels in the rural area.

Entrance Ways: Several airlines operate in Bolivia’s

international airports. However, the most attractive way to

enter the country is crossing the Sacred Lake of the Incas by

Catamaran from Peru. The Titikaka Catamaran

Cruise Line offers daily connections from Cusco and 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 1st.

La Paz Day – July 16^th.

Corpus Christi - 60 days after Good Friday.

Independence Day - August 6th.

All Saints Day - November 2nd.

Christmas Day - December 25th.

Titikaka Lake: The most attractive sight of Bolivia, a must for any visitor. The Sacred Lake of the Incas, with its unusual deep blue color and a fascinating view of the Andes, is the birthplace of many ancient civilizations. Titikaka Lake a beautiful, enigmatic and full of cosmic energy aquatic space where splendor, culture and history are combined. The highest navigable lake in the world.

Sun Island Inti Wata Complex: The main Titikaka Lake attraction is Sun Island. In it Transturin Holding holds its Cultural Complex near the pre-Columbian sites for exclusive use of its Catamaran Cruise Ship clients. Andean flora, fauna and cultural heritage are the principal displays of the center.

Copacabana: It is the most important religious sanctuary of Bolivia. Thousands of pilgrims visit the Virgin of Copacabana every year, also known as the Colored Virgin and the Virgin of the Lake. The sanctuary is in a magnificent bay between two hills. The main square is generally full of vehicles covered with flowers and colorful bands made out of paper that have been taken there to be blessed by the Colored Virgin as a symbol of good luck.

La Paz: Located in a narrow valley of irregular and quaint topography, it is the most important city of the country and seat of the Bolivian Government. City of multicultural and multiethnic contrasts. Its location to the south of the royal mountain range of The Andes makes possible the magnificent view.

Tiwanaku: Ceremonial center of great importance for the pre-Columbian cultures of The Andes. One of the oldest, mysterious, enigmatic and complex civilizations of the continent (1,500 AC). Only 76 kilometers from La Paz we can appreciate the vestiges of the Tiwanaku culture, cradle of the American Man.

Yungas Valley: The trip to Yungas is the geographical synthesis of Bolivia. Only 2 hours crossing through the royal mountain range of The Andes, descending through a forest towards low territories of the Bolivian Amazon tropic. Cascades, exuberant vegetation and indescribable views accompany the passage towards the region.

Sucre: Historical capital of Bolivia declared Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. This colonial city, founded on 1538, is a living witness of the fights for independence. Colonial churches and valuable paintings of the time, furniture and religious sculptures, adorn at the present time the museums and colonial houses.

Potosi: A city of the past and the most impressive and alive example of the colonial art, declared by UNESCO Cultural Heritage of Humanity and Natural Heritage of Humanity for the extraordinary natural wealth of the department. In 1650, Potosi was one of the most prevailing, rich and populated cities of the world, being compared with Paris and London, where it was well-known for its rich silver mines, magnificent architecture and the extravagance of its aristocracy. At the moment, Potosi tells its own history with a language that has been engraved with the blood and sweat of the silver miners’ deep caverns where the greatest exploitation in the colonial history of the Spanish empire was carried out.

Uyuni Salt Flat: About 4 hours from Potosi and a 7 hour train ride from Oruro, is one of the most spectacular geological resources of the world: the Uyuni Salt Flat, with a beauty that escapes any description and can only be conceived seeing it by ones self. It resembles an impressive, overwhelming and solitary white ocean. It contains the largest lithium deposits of the world and in the interior of this sea of salt we find islands populated with giant cactus. In a seven-hour passage of the Flat in south direction we can appreciate natural stone sculptures and the gorgeous Red and the Green Lagoons in the National Reserve of Andean Fauna Eduardo Avaroa.

Jesuit Missions: The Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos are located a little more than 200 km from the city of Santa Cruz. To travel there is to be transported to the missionary world to discover the towns founded by the Jesuits at the end of XVII century; where these wanted to turn real a wonderful utopia: the creation on earth of the one City of God and pacific preaching and civilization of the native people. Built between 1691 and 1760, admiration and interest awakes within those who visit them for the architecture and mixture of baroque and mixed race style of the temples, where paintings, murals, splendid gold altars, colossal columns carved in wood and a variety of beautiful carvings which adorn the altarpieces, pulpits and tallboys stand out. The high artistic level and the deep cultural meaning of works motivated UNESCO to declare in 1991 Cultural Heritage of Humanity the towns of San Javier, Concepcion, San Miguel, San Rafael, Santa Ana and San Jose of Chiquitos.

Pantanal: One of the natural wonders less known in the world, cover over one hundred thousand square kilometers of permanent marsh and flooded plains, alternating with great areas of forest. Although the Pantanal is mainly situated in Mato Grosso western Brazil, a smaller part, but not less important, it is located to the east of Santa Cruz. The Bolivian Pantanal can have a greater biological importance due to the existence of great extensions of hills and dry forest not intervened, that form the western periphery of this region.

Madidi National Park: The Madidi National Park in northwest Bolivia protects a full array of tropical ecosystems. From the high Andes to the Amazon basin, its vast wilderness of 4,500.000 acres encompasses unparalleled biological diversity ranging from mountain cloud forest to dry tropical forest, humid lowland rainforest to savannah.