Learn Spanish in Bolivia

Know Bolivia

Nicknamed the Tibet of the Americas, landlocked Bolivia is the highest and most isolated country in the Americas. With elevations ranging from sea level to over 21,000 feet, the Bolivia landscape offers a mind blowing array of complex ecosystems and stunning scenery.

Bolivia has as wide a range of elevation and topography and hence different climatic patterns as well. The overall temperatures are probably cooler than most people expect. Even in the humid forest regions of the north, frosts are not unheard of during a surazo, a cold will blowing from Patagonia and the Argentine pampa.

Bolivia’s unprotected expanses contribute to variable weather conditions. The two poles of climatic misery in Bolivia are Puerto Suarez for its stifling, humid heat, and Uyuni for its near-Arctic cold and icy winds.

Culture

Since pre-Columbian times, Bolivia had a great cultural and intellectual life. Architecture, ceramics, temples and other symbols scattered throughout the country give testimony to a culture with an advanced social organization. The Incas brought a new system of roads and aqueducts, hanging bridges, and surgical and medical practices. Other Incaic influences included new designs and geometric shapes on clay objects; new rituals and songs were also introduced.

Centuries later, with the arrival of the Spaniards, the age of the horse and the wheel begun. The era is also characterized by churches, and images, woodcarving and embroidery. During the colonial period, the intellectual center was the city of Sucre; it was also known then as Charcas or Chuquisaca.

Important scientific and legal works were written there. One example is El Arte de los Metales, or The Art of Metalworking by the Spanish priest Alvaro Alonso Barba, written in 1640. Another work concerns silver mining at Potosi, written by Nicolas de Martinez Arzanz during the 16th century.

Religious subjects and majestic portraits were the earliest forms of oil painting in Bolivia. Today, there is more of a tendency toward an art of manners and in this arena the following painters are notable: Arturo Reque Meruvia, Victor Cuevas Pabon, David Crespo Gasteld, Antonio Sotomayor, the muralist Roberto Berdecio and Gil Coimbra.