Bolivia - The Land of the Bowler Hat |
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I visited Bolivia in 1992. On the airplane from Sao Paulo, vistas of lush forests and green pasture slowly made way for mountains and highlands with a more forbidding scenery. The arid moonscapes of the Altiplano with their snow capped mountains are a magnificent introduction to this exotic country. The highlands of the Altiplano make up a large part of Bolivia, and are mostly between 3,500 and 4,000 meters above sea level. The mountains on the Altiplano are averagely about 5,500 meters high. Afternoon temperatures can easily reach above twenty degrees, but at night the thin air retains little heat, and temperatures rapidly drop below zero. Particularly in the south, it is cold, windy, treeless, clear, and beautiful. The Altiplano has been used for farming for more than 2,500 years, with llamas and alpacas as the main animals around. Around 600 BC, the first great culture emerged in the highlands, when the Tiahuanacan empire on the southeastern board of Lake Titicaca built various cities and temples. Several other empires later conquered the area (their languages are spoken until today) until the emergence of the Inca. Although the center of the Inca culture was in Peru, a vast part of Bolivia was also part of their empire. The Inca empire was governed with an iron fist. Agriculture was planned, and farmers were organized in cells. With lots of gold, the Incas were rich enough to invest in fabulous monuments. Internally weakened by their own power struggle, the Inca government quickly fell to an army of 167 soldiers and 40 horses led by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro. Upon his capture, Atuahalpa, the last Inca, offered a room full of gold for his release to Pizzaro. Pizarro accepted the offer, but later accused the Inca of polygamy and idolatry. After a Dominican monk converted Atuahalpa to Catholicism, the Inca was strangled to death. The Spanish set out looking for precious metals, and found just what they were looking for in Potosí. More than 600 million dollars worth of silver was exported from Bolivia. It was rich bounty for foreign pirates, and one of the reasons for neglect of Spanish economy. After independence from Spain, the country named after Libertador Simon Bolivar enjoyed a shaky history of endless coups d'etat, about 190 in total. Bolivia lost every war it ever fought. During the War of the Pacific in the 1880's, Bolivia lost all access to the sea, and the navy had to restrict itself to patrolling Lake Titicaca, which they do until today. Since 1985, the political situation has become more stable. After a set of austerity measures, the economy improved, and ever since, the succession of power has been peaceful. Bolivians are mainly indian or mestizos. Only about 10 percent of the population is of European descent. Spanish, Aymara, and Quechua are the official languages. Most indian and mestizo women still follow a dress code decreed by an 18th-century Spanish king. The cholas wear various layers of skirts and bowler hats on top of their plaited hair. Bolivia's life expectancy in 1989 was 52 years for males and 56 years for females. Bolivia is easily the poorest country on the South American continent. The cocaine trade must distort the figures in both ways: it brings more money into the country than is officially reported, but it seems however that it does not bring much profit to the majority of people. |
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