Bolivia is a land-locked country in South America. Land-locked just means that it has no coastline, none of its borders are an ocean. It is named after the Venezuelan statesman, Simón Bolívar, who led it and many South American countries to independence from the Spanish Empire.
Check out the book Miss Rebekah about Bolivia here.
She also read this book about pink river dolphins. You can put a hold on that one here.
Bolivia is one of a few countries having TWO capital cities. Sucre is the constitutional capital city. That means it is the official capital city. La Paz is the administrative capital. Power is divided between both cities.
The people of Bolivia come from many ethnicities. The country recognizes many indigenous groups of people. Thirty-six languages have official status in the country.
Bolivia has more than fifty volcanoes, some are still active.
Even as late as the 1950s, Bolivian music was heavily influenced by the Spanish culture, but then WOW an excitement for the traditional music of indigenous people broke out. The most popular Bolivian artists are folklorico musicians. Check out this video from the Smithsonian featuring Los Masis, a band that has been playing traditional Bolivian music for more than forty years. Music described in this way captures the spirit of lively dancing and is very joyful. Rock and reggae music have also become recently popular, influenced by traditional Bolivian styles.
Lunch, almuerzo, is the most important of the day in Bolivia. Businesses close between 12:00 and 2:00pm so that everyone can go home for lunch. After lunch, people take a short nap, siesta.
Parades are very popular in Bolivia. Dancers often try to get people in the crowds to dance along with them!
For the past 19 years ZEBRAS have been helping people cross the street in La Paz. Check out the Facebook page. It started as a volunteer program to make walking in the city safer, and now has developed into a volunteer program that does a lot of good for all.
Here is an article from the Atlantic about how the program was started. What a cool, cool way to help the community.
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| Simón Bolívar |
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| Aymara mom with kids |
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| smiling and studying |
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| geysers smoke near Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia |
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| market in the city of La Paz |
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| Bolivian Independence Day parade |
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| Prana Reggae, Bolivian reggae band |
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| cuñapé- a bread baked with LOTS OF CHEESE |
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| community volunteers dress as zebras in La Paz |
