Free-Reprint Article Written by: Alex J Smith See Terms of Reprint Below.
***************************************************************** * * This email is being delivered directly to members of the group: * * [email protected] * ***************************************************************** We have moved our TERMS OF REPRINT to the end of the article. Be certain to read our TERMS OF REPRINT and honor our TERMS OF REPRINT when you use this article. Thank you. This article has been distributed by: http://Article-Distribution.com Helpful Link: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act - Overview http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/dmca1.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------- Article Title: ============== Bolivia: The Rugged High Plains Article Description: ==================== Bolivia is sometimes called the Tibet of the Americas, for its arid, high-altitude desert-like plateau, more vivid when called by its Spanish name altiplano. This is one of the toughest inhabited environments on earth from shimmering Lake Titicaca, the only lake to give birth to an empire, to the surreal Salar de Uyuni, the biggest and highest salt lake in the world; 12,000 sq km of blinding white, completely flat nothingness. Additional Article Information: =============================== 779 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line Distribution Date and Time: 2007-10-03 12:48:00 Written By: Alex J Smith Copyright: 2007 Contact Email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] For more free-reprint articles by Alex J Smith, please visit: http://www.thePhantomWriters.com/recent/author/alex-j-smith.html ============================================= Special Notice For Publishers and Webmasters: ============================================= If you use this article on your website or in your ezine, We Want To Know About It. Use the following URL to let us know where you have used this article, and we will include a link to your website on thePhantomWriters.com: http://thephantomwriters.com/notify.php?id=5279&p=load HTML Copy-and-Paste and TEXT Copy-and-Paste Versions Of Article Are Available at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/s/the-rugged-high-plains.shtml#get_code --------------------------------------------------------------------- Bolivia: The Rugged High Plains Copyright (c) 2007 Alex J Smith Unbiased Travel Information http://www.datravelers.com Bolivia is sometimes called the Tibet of the Americas, for its arid, high-altitude desert-like plateau, more vivid when called by its Spanish name altiplano. This is one of the toughest inhabited environments on earth from shimmering Lake Titicaca, the only lake to give birth to an empire, to the surreal Salar de Uyuni, the biggest and highest salt lake in the world; 12,000 sq km of blinding white, completely flat nothingness. Bolivia has also been called the Nepal of the Americas, for its Cordillera Real with almost a thousand peaks soaring over 5,000 meters and matching anything the Himalayas can offer in climbing and trekking, but with much less of the human traffic. The major attraction tourists have for Bolivia is its wild, unexplored natural beauty. The country, or the greater part of it, lies off the beaten track; a vast wildness waiting to be seen and appreciated. This land-locked country at the heart and peak of South America offers magnificent trekking, especially around Coroico and Sorata in the Cordillera Real. You can go to the Amazonian rainforests in its eastern parts by breath-taking airplane flights or by hair-raising, or rather, heart-stopping bus rides. Special Treats Some travel companies offer the adventurous a one-week ice-climbing and biking vacation. After a day of training on the mountain bike, you pedal away on a mountain road ringed on the sides with 800-foot drops. If that's not enough, another route will pass by a section with a 14,000-foot drop. The route takes you from the peak of the Chacaltaya Mountain and goes down into the impenetrable jungles of the Zongo Valley. A brief rest, and then you undergo one more day of training prior to a two-day climb up Huayna Potosi, one of the highest peaks in the world at 20,000 feet. What Else to Do Most parts of the country are remote, and can be reached only by long bus rides. Vacations lasting a few weeks would hardly be enough to see what should be seen. You may have to fly to other destinations. La Paz is the jump-off point for Bolivia's sites. >From the capital La Paz, you could take a trip north to the city of Tiahuanaco, which preceded the great Inca Empire; further north is Lake Titicaca. On the lake is the beautiful Isla del Sol, where legend says the Inca empire was created. You can also go down a terrifying but spectacular road to Coroico, a popular resort town in the sub-tropical Yungas valleys. With more time, you could explore the remote corners of the Southern Altiplano. Old colonial Potosi is said to be the most interesting of Bolivia's cities and the site of the Spanish silver mines. Nearby is the official capital, Sucre, with its fascinating colonial architecture. Southwest of Potosi is Uyuni, which sets you off on a 3-4-day tour to the Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt lake. Further south, near the Chilean border, are deserts, volcanoes and multi-colored soda lakes carpeted with flamingoes. The south is also home to the vineyards of Tarija and the graveyards of dinosaurs. The Sajima National Park, near the Chilean border, includes the highest peak in Bolivia. East of La Paz, you escape the cold of the altiplano and go down the Amazon jungle towards Brazil. The Torotoro National Park is full of fossils, dinosaur footprints, caves and waterfalls, the real trip for those who love the unbeaten paths. Bolivia's newest attraction is the Chalalan Eco-lodge, in the Madidi National Park, right in the Amazon jungle. This is ecotourism in capital letters, and the place has the greatest biodiversity in the whole planet. There are over 300 types of birds, 1,200 butterfly species, monkeys, jaguar, tapir, caiman, and other wildlife. Best time to go Bolivia's roads are notoriously poor, so you'll want to avoid the rainy season from November to March, if you want to visit the jungles. The Altiplano does not get much rain, so timing is not so crucial although hiking trails can get muddy. June and July, the winter months, are colder but the nights are clearer, and these are the best months to visit the Salar de Uyuni. June to August are the busiest tourism months and hotels will be full. The best festivals (Carnival and Holy Week) happen during the rainy season. Planning your trip Airlines are busiest from early December to mid-January and July to September. The best connections to La Paz are through Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires or Miami. The main cities have their hotels, but away from them, there are suitable hotels for every budget, which offer excellent value; not luxurious but clean and popular with travelers. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Alex J Smith writes for http://www.datravelers.com It's a website where travelers can host their own travel blogs, (http://blogs.datravelers.com) upload photos and find unbiased travel information. --- END ARTICLE --- Get HTML or TEXT Copy-and-Paste Versions Of This Article at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/s/the-rugged-high-plains.shtml#get_code ..................................... TERMS OF REPRINT - Publication Rules (Last Updated: May 11, 2006) Our TERMS OF REPRINT are fully enforcable under the terms of: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2281.ENR: ..................................... *** Digital Reprint Rights *** * If you publish this article in a website/forum/blog, You Must Set All URL's or Mailto Addresses in the body of the article AND in the Author's Resource Box as Hyperlinks (clickable links). * Links must remain in the form that we published them. Clean links should point to the Author's links without redirects having been inserted into the copy. * You are not allowed to Change or Delete any Words or Links in the Article or Resource Box. Paragraph breaks must be retained with articles. You can change where the paragraph breaks fall, but you cannot eliminate all paragraph breaks as some have chosen to do. * Email Distribution of this article Must be done through Opt-in Email Only. No Unsolicited Commercial Email. * You Are Allowed to format the layout of the article for proper display of the article in your website or in your ezine, so long as you can maintain the author's interests within the article. * You may not use sentences from this article as an input for any software that steals sentences from others in order to build an article with software. The copyright on this article applies to the "WHOLE" article. *** Author Notification *** We ask that you notify the author of publication of his or her work. Alex J Smith can be reached at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** Print Publication Reprint Rights *** If you desire to publish this article in a PRINT publication, you must contact the author directly for Print Permission at: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ..................................... If you need help converting this text article for proper hyperlinked placement in your webpage, please use this free tool: http://thephantomwriters.com/link-builder.pl ===================================================================== ABOUT THIS ARTICLE SUBMISSION http://thePhantomWriters.com is a paid article distribution service. thePhantomWriters.com and Article-Distribution.com are owned and operated by Bill Platt of Stillwater, Oklahoma USA. The content of this article is solely the property and opinion of its author, Alex J Smith http://www.datravelers.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ---------------------------------------------------------------------
