Even though I haven’t actually been to Bolivia. Today I’ll be reminiscing about the time I almost visited Bolivia.
Bolivia is the western hemisphere’s highest, most isolated and most rugged nation. I can certainly believe that having driven to the Chilean - Bolivian border next to the small Andes hamlet of Parinacota. This is the highest place I’ve ever been in my life and at almost 5000 meters I can report that altitude sickness is real.
The queue for the Bolivian border
This shipment was permanently delayed
We were so tantalisingly close to Bolivia - around a mile back from the border are lines of trucks waiting to cross the dirt road into Bolivia. Bolivia has been particularly reliant on this trade route ever since it became a land-locked country after the War of the Pacific.
These mountain roads are challenging to drive in a regular car, let alone an enormous lorry. The roadsides are strewn with burnt out wrecks of HGVs which didn’t make the journey. To this day Bolivia is in terse negotiations with Chile over it’s all-important Pacific trade route.
Bolivia is even exploring opening up Atlantic trade routes with the Paraguay-Paraná waterway. As South America’s poorest Bolivia really does need all of the trade routes it can get.
One surprising fact about Bolivia is that despite being land-locked, it has a navy - based in Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world.
Bolivia technically has two capitals. La Paz, and Sucre. Sucre is the constitutional capital where the Supreme Court is located, and La Paz is where all the seats of government reside. I’m keeping this in my stash of pub quiz facts.
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