The heart of exotic South America. Review on Bolivia, General

Some of us travel on business, and most of us travel on leisure. Haven’t you sometimes felt like sharing your experiences and anecdotes with other like minded people, but didn’t have the time or the forum for doing so? When I saw this forum, I decided to share with you one of my most memorable travel experiences.

I’ve always had a passion for travel; wanderlust is a potent element in my blood! In the mid-nineties, I was chosen by the Rotary International foundation for a professional exchange scholarship. We were a group of five, the other four comprising an architect, a dental surgeon, an orthopaedist and a scientist. I represented the ‘business professional’. I made it into the award list perhaps supported by my B.Tech. & MBA background, and through four interviews and a group discussion!

Needless to say, I was keen to participate in what followed, with two months of hectic travel around the world. Our itinerary began in Bangalore, took us to London, Miami, and then to South America! We were to spend a few weeks in the land of the Andes and the Amazon, averaging two days in each city or town we visited. As you can imagine, a complete description of the trip would be very cumbersome, and so I have touched upon some highlights that will give you a flavour of the experience.

We started our South American odyssey by traveling through Bolivia, the country in the geographical centre of the South American continent. Our first touch-down was at La Paz, its capital city. La Paz is set amidst breathtaking mountainous scenery, and if I remember right, varied between 11,000 ft and 13,000 ft in elevation. La Paz airport is the world’s highest commercial airport.

A six lane highway takes you from La Paz airport to its city centre (the only one in Bolivia at the time). We were short of breath and nursing headaches on account of the low oxygen content at that altitude. A local concoction made of a tea-like leaf is said to cure altitude sickness. It worked on us! Mostly Spanish is spoken in Bolivia, and you will be hard pressed to get by without learning some basic Spanish (thankfully we were subjected to a crash course in spoken Spanish at the Berlitz Language center in Miami, the previous week).

City transport depends heavily on the so called ‘radio taxis’. These were pervasive some eight years ago, and we in India are seeing them only now in cities like Bangalore and Chennai. Government investment in public transport, except for roads, wasn’t visible at all.

Asians are not very common, and we invited curious stares from some passers by. South Americans have clearly discernible facial features, perhaps made famous by Herge’s Tintin comics! Most Bolivians are friendly and easy to talk to, and except for the language barrier, helpful.

The Bolivian economy comprises only two major elements: mining and agriculture. Agriculture is somewhat narrow in its scope: it’s mainly potatoes and grains (we were told there are over 40 kinds of potatoes in Bolivia). Well, grapes are another agricultural product, but these are used mostly for wine-making. There seemed to be quite a few wineries in Bolivia.

Our travels took us through other cities like Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, Tarija and Potosi. The last is a mining town with silver and tin mines. The highlight of our two day stay there was a hair-raising drive up and down an open tin mine in a Nissan Patrol 4x4 (these mines don’t have shafts; mining takes place on the surface of hills/mountains). I’ve always been sceptical of the need for a four wheel drive, traction control or brake distribution on the large SUVs I saw in North America, but this is one time I was truly impressed by those advances in automotive engineering. I mean, on the few occasions during the ride when I wasn’t white-knuckled with holding on to my seat handle, I noticed the way the vehicle gripped the loose soil on the gradient and moved as if it was on plain ground.

One other unforgettable experience was a visit to Lake Titicaca, the highest freshwater lake in the world. You can feel the purity of the air as you get out of your vehicle and set sight on the snow-clad Andean peaks in the distance.

The freshwater fish here are apparently unique in taste, and my four colleagues feasted on the fish; they also ate other exotic meat like llama meat (there’s the memory of Tintin again!). Lake Titicaca is bounded by Bolivia on one shore and Peru on the other. We took an hour long boat ride into the lake, and it was exhilarating.

Bolivia at once charms you with its simple and unassuming attitude. For a country that is economically poor and hardly known on a world map, the people are amazingly knowledgeable about the rest of the world! The geography is mountainous, but even within this country -- the ‘heart of SurAmerica’ -- each city has its own distinct identity.

Tarija struck us with its unspoilt greenery, Santa Cruz with its cosmopolitan and lively nature, and Potosi with its bare, lofty and rugged ambience. South America is a microcosm within itself, with so many cultures, climates, and economies. Brazil and Chile are known for their economic development while less developed countries like Bolivia and Peru are hardly known to the world at large; at least we Indians are not very familiar with these countries. Doesn’t the South American continent have so much in common with the Indian sub-continent?

(This article was earlier published by the author on his business school alumni site and his employer's web-portal.)