Even attempting to describe Bolivia produces a kind of breathlessness. The landlocked nation bordered by Peru (in colonial times they constituted a single viceroyalty) and four other South American countries is beguilingly beautiful, dizzyingly extreme, economically poor, biodiversity mega-rich – and is the undisputed heartland of indigenous cultures.
Bolivia has two Andean mountain ranges, an immense altiplano or high plateau and a pocket of the Amazon basin, as well as the world’s highest capital city, highest navigable lake and largest salt flat. It has coca, coffee, llamas, alpacas, jaguars, anacondas, condors and macaws. Its people speak Aymara and Quechua before they speak Spanish, and are as likely to revere Pachamama, an Inca fertility goddess, as the Virgin Mary.
A 10-day trip can’t possibly take all this in. But my own introduction to the country, 25 years ago, was not much longer and held enough wonder to make me realise I was visiting a very special land – I remember waking dreams from cold buses, as I peered out on a landscape that evoked Tibet, or Mars, or Salvador Dalí – and would need to return, time and again.
Reports of a “coup” in Bolivia in November and clashes on the streets of La Paz led the Foreign Office (FCO) to advise against all but essential travel. However, the warning was recently lifted.
Source link : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/south-america/bolivia/articles/perfect-holiday-bolivia-experts-ultimate-itinerary/
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Publish date : 2019-12-05 03:00:00
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