Discover Bolivia: a land of beauty, culture blend and curiosity

If you follow us on social media, you might have noticed that we have talked about Bolivia in this last week. Together with Isotta from EatEsperienceMadrid we have started a new monthly appointment to talk about various Countries starting from food using #onerecipeoneculture!

The first recipe and Country was Bolivian: Sopa de Maní! But what else do we know about Bolivia?

Here some curiosities that will make you read the article twice! Ready?

• There are 37 languages listed as official languages in Bolivia. Spanish (Castillan) is not the only one. There are, in fact, dozen and dozen indigenous languages and languages of immigrants as well. Besides that there is a part of the population that speaks German or German Dialect and close to the Brazilian coast, also Portuguese.
• In Bolivia you can find the 40% of all species of animals and plants of the planet. Maybe this is why more than 17% of the land is a protected area.
• Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest salt flat and one of Bolivia’s most popular tourist destinations. It means you can visit it, there are more tours in Bolivia available depending on from where you start.
• Fascinated by dinosaurs? You must go to Caloncho then. There you can find a paleontological department with traces of more than 294 dinosaurs species.
• With a population of about 10.5 million inhabitants and its large area, Bolivia is one of the countries in Latin America with the lowest population density.

These are just a few curiosities about this Country in South America, there are many more Bolivian facts to find out.

Bolivia teaches that nationality doesn’t have nothing to do with ethnicity

The mix of cultures, traditions and heritage of this place is really astonishing, but you might have an idea by now considering the amount of official languages spoken. The 4 bigger groups are:

• Mestizo-Bolivians
• Indigenous Bolivians
• White or European Bolivians
• Afro-Bolivians

Cultural elements of any group are visible in anything, architecture, food, religion (even if 80+% is Catholic), clothes and dances.

Talking about clothes the most relevant is the ski that passed from being symbol of oppression (Spanish obliged indigenous women to wear it) to symbol of pride in being indigenous and nowadays it is a status symbol.

What about Expats?

It looks like that the poverty percentage is decreasing, anyway Bolivia is still one of the poorest Countries in South America, nevertheless there is a small part of expats. They are mainly in Sucre, Santa Cruz, La Paz.

According to Expat Arrivals the Bolivian government has implemented several policies to encourage foreigners to star businesses in the Country. So it might be an idea for some of you.

“Despite multiple barriers and challenges, those with a sense of adventures are sure to enjoy expat life in this land of unparalleled natural beauty”