The Bolivian Magic

Un tour por Bolivia. Bolivia is divided into nine departments (departamentos); capitals in parentheses: Beni (Trinidad) Chuquisaca (Sucre) Cochabamba (Cochabamba) La Paz (La Paz) Oruro (Oruro) Pando (Cobija) Potosí (Potosí) Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz de la Sierra) Tarija (Tarija) Geography of Bolivia At 1,098,580 km² (424,135 mi²), Bolivia is the world's 28th-largest country (after Ethiopia). It is comparable in size to Mauritania, and it has about 1.5 times the area of the US state of Texas. [10] Bolivia has been a landlocked nation since 1879, when it lost its coastal department of Litoral to Chile in the War of the Pacific. However, it does have access to the Atlantic via the Paraguay river. An enormous diversity of ecological zones are represented within Bolivia's territory. The western highlands of the country are situated in the Andes mountains and include the Bolivian Altiplano. The eastern lowlands include large sections of Amazonian rainforests and Chaco. The highest peak is Nevado Sajama at 6,542 metres (21,463 ft) located in the department of Oruro. Lake Titicaca is located on the border between Bolivia and Peru. The Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat, lies in the southwest corner of the country, in the department of Potosí. Major cities are La Paz, El Alto, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and Cochabamba. Bolivia's ethnic distribution is estimated to be 30% Quechua-speaking and 25% Aymara-speaking Amerindians. The largest of the approximately three-dozen native groups are the Quechuas (2.5 million), Aymaras (2 million), then Chiquitano (180,000), and Guaraní (125,000). So the full Amerindian population is at 55% and the remaining 30% is Mestizo (mixed Amerindian and European) and around 15% are Whites. Bolivian culture has been heavily influenced by the Quechua, the Aymara, as well as by the popular cultures of Latin America as a whole. The best known of the various festivals found in the country is the "Carnaval de Oruro", which was among the first 19 "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity," as proclaimed by the UNESCO in May of 2001. Entertainment includes football (soccer), which is the national sport, as well as table football, which is played on street-corners by both children and adults. Zoos are a popular attraction, with a diverse population of interesting creatures, but with lack of proper funding.