Tag: Bolivia

Bolivia’s little known tribal kingdom – the Kingdom of the Afro-Bolivians

Jordi Busqué, writing for the BBC »

There, hidden amid the tapirs, jaguars and spectacled bears that call the Yungas home is a remarkable community that has remained largely unrecognised by the outside world for nearly 200 years: the Kingdom of the Afro-Bolivians – the spiritual capital of thousands of Bolivians of African descent and one of the last kingdoms left in the Americas.

The roughly 2,000 inhabitants of this hidden, humble kingdom are mainly farmers who live next to their small land plots, where they grow coca, citrus and coffee. In Mururata, a village of around 350 inhabitants, free-range chickens cluck loudly on dirt roads, children play together in the streets, and men and women work the land with hoes and emerge from the forest carrying newly chopped bundles of firewood. Others sit in front of their tin-roofed homes, greeting passersby and waiting for the first stars to appear in the sky at dusk.

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Video » Lake Titicaca from Space

Lake Titicaca, which borders both Bolivia and Peru, is one of the largest freshwater lakes in South America.

The video is brought to us by the European Space Agency (ESA).

Covering an area of around 8300 sq km, Lake Titicaca lies on the high Andes plateau and straddles the border between Peru (to the west) and Bolivia (to the east). It is considered the highest major body of navigable water in the world, as it sits at an elevation of 3800 m above sea level.

More information is available from the ESA.

Video » Amazon River from Space

The European Space Agency (ESA) brings us a video of the Amazon River meandering through one of the most vital ecosystems in the world, the Amazon rainforest, and six countries in South America.

The Amazon River originates in the Andes Mountains of Peru and travels through EcuadorColombiaVenezuela, Bolivia, and Brazil before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Amazon river begins its journey in the Andes and makes its way east through six South American countries before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean on the northeast coast of Brazil. The river has a length of around 6400 km – the equivalent of the distance from New York City to Rome.

The Amazon is considered the widest river in the world with a width of between 1.6 and 10 km, but expands during the wet season to around 50 km. With more than 1000 tributaries, the Amazon River is the largest drainage system in the world in terms of the volume of its flow and the area of its basin. As a consequence of its ever-changing flow, older riverbeds can be seen as thin lines around the main river at the top of the image.

One of its tributaries, the Javari River, or Yavari River, is visible as a thinner blue line weaving through the tropical rainforest. The river flows for 870 km, forming the border between Brazil and Peru, before joining the Amazon River.

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A time-lapse video of beautiful South American landscapes by Morten Rustad

A beautiful time-lapse video of many South American landscapes by Morten Rustad.

Morten Rustad via Vimeo says »

One year of travel, nine countries, countless hours on busses, motorbikes, and cars. Hundreds of thousands of images taken. 30TB of data used, 5 months of editing. The time-lapse film features South America like it has never been before with images from Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador.

More about this project, including BTS videos, at Morten’s website.

The Telegraph has 25 suggestions for life-changing solo holidays

Heading out on a solo adventure can be one of the most rewarding travel experiences. It also comes with unique challenges.  Anna McNuff, Trisha Andres, Emma Thomson, Lois Pryce, and Richard Madden, writing for The Telegraph have put together a list of holidays the intrepid traveller can do alone. Some of the more adventurous include:

  • A multi- day hike through Bolivia, starting from the sprawling city of La Paz
  • Head off in search of the Northern Lights and explore the wilderness of Finland
  • Pedal through the Swiss and Italian Alps
  • Horseback riding in Argentina at Estancia La Rosita in northern Argentina
  • Meet the tribes of Papua New Guinea
  • Dog-sledding across frozen lakes in northern Finland
  • Survival skills in the African bush
  • Learn to dive in Zanzibar