Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Getting There & Around
Access is entirely overland and the region's unpaved roads can get mucky and washed out
in the rainy season. Scheduled public transportation to many trekking and mountaineering
base camps is infrequent, so chartered private transportation from La Paz is used more of-
ten here than in other regions of the country.
If you are scared of heights, or just don't have much faith in Bolivian bus drivers, ask
for an aisle seat. Roads are narrow, drops are steep and some of the routes, such as the one
to Chulumani, are particularly hairy.
Traveling between towns in the region often necessitates backtracking to La Paz, a frus-
trating business.
THE COCA CONTROVERSY
The government estimates that as many as 1.2 million kilos of coca leaf are consumed monthly in Bolivia for tra-
ditional uses such as chewing the leaf, drinking it in
mate
and using it in religious ceremonies. In fact, its mild al-
kaloids are said to provide an essential barrier against altitude sickness and fatigue for farm workers and miners in
the highlands.
In the new constitution, Evo Morales declared coca an intrinsic part of Bolivia's heritage and Andean culture.
Following the expulsion of the US ambassador in September 2008, the US State Department placed Bolivia on its
'drug blacklist' for their unwillingness to cooperate on the drug trafficking problem. In retaliation, Morales sus-
pended the activities of the US Drug Enforcement Agency in Bolivia. At a UN meeting in March 2009 he an-
nounced that Bolivia would start the process to remove the coca leaf from the 1961 Single Convention that pro-
hibits the traditional chewing of coca leaf. Evo has been hard at work attempting to establish a new industry of
legal coca-based by-products such as tea, medicines and cosmetics, in hopes of creating a growing market and
boosting the income of coca growers. Some see this as opting out of the war on drugs. But, using the motto 'coca
yes, cocaine no', Morales has cracked down on illegal drugs; in April 2009, a new anti-corruption unit was estab-
lished in Bolivia mainly to fight drug trafficking and related crime.
