Bolivia: cosa fare e vedere

La Paz, the seat of government, sits in a deep canyon at around 3,600 metres, with cable cars linking it to El Alto, the huge city on the plateau above, where a vast open-air market takes over the streets. Sucre, the constitutional capital, is a calm city of whitewashed colonial buildings, and Potosí grew rich on the silver of the Cerro Rico mountain above it.

On the Bolivian shore of Lake Titicaca, Copacabana is where boats cross to the Isla del Sol. The Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat, stretches white to the horizon beyond the town of Uyuni, which has a graveyard of old steam trains. Cochabamba lies in a mild valley with a hilltop Christ statue, and Vallegrande, in the eastern foothills, is a rural town tied to the last days of Che Guevara.

Salteñas, baked pastries filled with spiced meat and gravy, are a mid-morning habit, and soups, potatoes in many varieties and trout from Lake Titicaca fill the Andean table. In the lowlands, grilled meats and yuca take over. The dry season from May to October suits the high country, while the salt flat takes on its mirror look when thin rains fall from January to March.