Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ported materials available at the time - Carrara marble, French wood, Italian tapestries
and delicate silks. The European influence is obvious as you venture through the building;
the gardens and exterior were inspired by the palace at Versailles, the games room is an
imitation of Granada's Alhambra and the main hall takes its design inspiration from the
Vatican City. Construction began in 1915 and was completed in 1927. Today it is used as
an arts and cultural complex and as a teaching center.
Take
micro E
north from east of Av San Martín.
MUSEUM
Museo de Historia Natural Alcide d'Orbigny
(Potosí 1458; admission free but donations welcomed; 9am-noon & 3-6pm Mon-Fri,
9am-12:30pm Sat)
Adjacent to the Palacio Portales is the city's rather more low-key nat-
ural history museum. With its creaky wooden floors and array of stuffed birds and mam-
mals, this is a good way to kill half an hour while waiting for your Palacio Portales tour to
begin. You can also take a look at the small geological collection.
Museo Arqueológico
(Jordán E-199 cnr Aguirre; admission B$25; 8:30am-6pm Mon-Fri, 8am-noon Sat)
The Museo Arqueológico provides an excellent overview of Bolivia's various indigenous
cultures. The collection is split into three sections: the archaeological collection, the eth-
nographic collection and the paleontological collection. The first deals primarily with in-
digenous culture from the Cochabamba region. Look out for the Tiwanaku section; their
shamans used to snort lines of hallucinogenic powder through elegant bone tubes. The
ethnographic collection provides material from Amazonian and Chaco cultures including
examples of nonalphabetized writing, which is from the 18th century and was used to
bring Christianity to the illiterate Indians. The paleontological collection deals with fossil-
ized remains of the various creatures that once prowled the countryside. There's good in-
formation in Spanish and an English-speaking guide is sometimes around in the after-
noons.
MUSEUM
Cristo de la Concordia
This immense Christ statue standing atop Cerro de San Pedro behind Cochabamba is the
second largest of its kind in the world. Its 44cm higher than the famous
Cristo Redentor
in
Rio de Janeiro, which stands 33m high, or 1m for each year of Christ's life.
Cochabambi-
LANDMARK
