60 Fun Facts About Bolivia

Bolivia has two capitals. Which one is the constitutional capital and seat of the judiciary?

The executive and legislature sit in La Paz; the 2009 constitution names only Sucre as capital.

At roughly 3,650 m above sea level, La Paz holds what global distinction?

Its neighbour El Alto, at about 4,000 m, is even higher.

Which is the largest city in Bolivia, located in the eastern tropical lowlands?

It produces about 35% of national GDP and pulls in over 40% of foreign investment.

Bolivia is named after which independence hero?

A congressman argued: "If from Romulus, Rome, then from Bolívar, Bolivia"; the name was approved in October 1825.

Salar de Uyuni in southwestern Bolivia is the world's largest what?

After rain it becomes a mirror 129 km across; its brine holds a huge share of the world's lithium.

Salar de Uyuni's exceptional flatness makes it useful for what unusual scientific purpose?

Its elevation varies by less than a metre across more than 10,000 square kilometres.

Titicaca, shared by Bolivia and Peru, is often described as the world's highest what?

It sits at 3,812 m and is also South America's largest lake by both area and volume.

In Inca religion, which god was believed to have been born on Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca?

The first Inca, Manco Cápac, was said to have emerged from a sandstone crag on the island.

Cerro Rico, the mountain above Potosí, was for centuries the world's greatest source of which metal?

From the 16th to 18th centuries about 80% of the world's supply came from it, and Potosí was briefly the second-largest city on Earth.

Around 1600, Potosí was the second-largest city in the world after which city?

Cervantes immortalised the phrase "vale un Potosí", to be worth a fortune.

Bolivia lost its coastline to Chile in which conflict of 1879-1884?

It began over a nitrate tax dispute; Bolivia still keeps a navy on Lake Titicaca and its rivers.

Despite being landlocked, Bolivia maintains what branch of its armed forces?

The Fuerza Naval Boliviana had about 5,000 personnel in 2008 and patrols Titicaca and the rivers.

Bolivia's naval ensign has a large yellow star representing what?

Nine smaller stars stand for the nine departments.

Bolivia lost the 1932-35 Chaco War over land thought to contain what?

The victors took three-quarters of the Gran Chaco; about 2% of Bolivia's population died.

Which revolutionary was captured and executed by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces on 9 October 1967?

President René Barrientos ordered him shot in a schoolhouse in La Higuera to avoid a trial.

Which two American outlaws are believed to have died in a shootout with the Bolivian Army in 1908?

They had fled to Argentina and then Bolivia; the exact circumstances of their deaths remain unclear.

Evo Morales, who led Bolivia from 2006 to 2019, was the country's first what?

An Aymara former coca-growers' union leader, he oversaw GDP quadrupling before resigning amid the disputed 2019 election.

Before politics, Evo Morales was a trade-union leader of farmers growing which crop in the Chapare?

Bolivia is the world's third-largest coca cultivator; chewing the leaf is a millennia-old Andean tradition.

Bolivia's 2009 constitution changed the country's official name to the ... of Bolivia?

It recognised 36 indigenous languages alongside Spanish and made the Wiphala a national symbol.

How many indigenous languages have official status in Bolivia alongside Spanish?

Quechua and Aymara are by far the most spoken; Guaraní is third.

The Wiphala, Bolivia's second national flag since 2009, is what shape and pattern?

Its seven colours run diagonally; it represents the native peoples of the Andes.

Bolivia's tricolour flag has which three horizontal bands, top to bottom?

It dates from 1851; the state version adds the coat of arms in the centre.

Bolivia's Yungas Road, once the world's most dangerous, was cut in the 1930s largely by whom?

Until the mid-1990s it killed 200-300 people a year; uniquely in Bolivia, traffic drove on the left.

Why did traffic on the Yungas "Death Road" drive on the left, unlike the rest of Bolivia?

Falls from the 3.7 m wide track could be 600 m; at least 18 cyclists have died there since 1998.

Which pre-Columbian civilisation near Lake Titicaca collapsed around AD 1000?

Its ruins include the Akapana pyramid and Puma Punku; the modern Aymara claim it as their heritage.

Nevado Sajama, Bolivia's highest peak at 6,542 m, is what kind of mountain?

Polylepis trees grow on its slopes up to 5,000 m, among the highest forests on Earth.

Which triple-peaked mountain over 6,400 m towers over La Paz as the city's guardian spirit?

Eastern Air Lines Flight 980 crashed into it in 1985.

La Paz and El Alto are linked by Mi Teleférico, which holds what world record?

Opened in 2014, it was the first city to use cable cars as the backbone of its transit network.

El Alto, adjacent to La Paz, is what?

It grew from a 1903 railway settlement into a sprawling metropolis of mostly Aymara migrants.

Bolivia's Oruro Carnival was among the first 19 items proclaimed by UNESCO in 2001 as what?

Its famous Diablada devil dances honour the Virgin of the Mineshaft.

The Diablada, the signature dance of the Oruro Carnival, features performers dressed as what?

It blends pre-Columbian rituals to the Uru god Tiw and the Aymara demon Anchanchu with Christian imagery.

A salteña, Bolivia's signature snack, is an empanada distinguished by what?

They are a mid-morning tradition, and vendors are usually sold out by noon.

Chuño, an ancient Andean staple, is what?

Potatoes are left out to freeze on high-plateau nights and dry in the sun by day, then trodden to squeeze out water.

Ekeko, the god of abundance at La Paz's Alasitas fair, is traditionally loaded with what?

The fair opens on 24 January; the name Alasitas is Aymara for "buy from me".

Bolivia's national team beat Argentina 6-1 in a 2009 World Cup qualifier played where?

Argentina's worst defeat in 60 years came at the Estadio Hernando Siles; FIFA had tried to ban high-altitude matches in 2007.

Bolivia won its first Copa América title in which year, as host?

They were runners-up as hosts again in 1997 and reached the 1994 World Cup, their first since 1950.

Bolivia is the only South American nation never to have done what?

It has competed since 1936 and even sent skiers to the 1956 Winter Games.

Cochabamba's Cristo de la Concordia, completed in 1994, surpassed which statue it was modelled on?

The statue itself is 33.44 m tall, on a 6 m pedestal, above the city on San Pedro Hill.

Between 1999 and 2000, mass protests in Cochabamba forced the reversal of the privatisation of what?

The "Water War" targeted a Bechtel-linked firm that had sharply raised rates.

Bolivia's 1987 currency reform introduced the boliviano at what exchange rate to the old peso?

Hyperinflation had left a US dollar worth nearly two million pesos.

Bolivia's 1952 National Revolution nationalised which industry, then the country's main source of wealth?

It also introduced universal suffrage and a limited land reform under the MNR.

Which Aymara leader besieged La Paz for six months in 1781 before being executed by quartering?

Bolivia's first satellite, launched in 2013, was named after him.

Bolivia's independence struggle began with an uprising on 25 May 1809 in Sucre, then known by which name?

It is remembered as the "first cry of freedom" in Latin America; independence came on 6 August 1825.

Bolivia's Madidi National Park in the upper Amazon is famed for what?

The naming rights to a new titi monkey found there were auctioned off to an online casino.

Percy Fawcett's photos of a Bolivian plateau inspired which novel?

Conan Doyle wrote it in 1912; the park was named for a biologist murdered there by drug traffickers.

Bolivia's Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos taught indigenous converts what as a means of conversion?

Baroque scores survived in the jungle and are still performed at a biennial festival.

Bolivia has two national flowers: the kantuta and which lowland heliconia?

The kantuta's colours match the flag; the patujú represents the eastern lowlands.

Which South American plateau, mostly in Bolivia, is the most extensive high plateau outside Tibet?

Lake Poopó, once Bolivia's second-largest lake, dried up on it completely by 2015.

Bolivia is one of only two landlocked countries in the Americas. Which is the other?

Bolivia is the largest landlocked country in the Southern Hemisphere.

Which German dialect is spoken by some 70,000 Mennonites in Bolivia's Santa Cruz?

Portuguese is also spoken along the Brazilian border.

Bolivia's second most popular sport, in which it has won 15 of its 18 Pan American Games medals, is what?

Conrrado Moscoso became world champion and won singles gold in 2023.

Into how many departments is Bolivia divided?

They are Pando, La Paz, Beni, Oruro, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, Potosí, Chuquisaca and Tarija.

In 2008 Bolivia was declared free of what, following UNESCO standards?

It became the fourth country in South America to reach that status.

What was the country's original official name at independence in 1825?

Congressman Manuel Martín Cruz argued 'If from Romulus, Rome, then from Bolívar, Bolivia', and the new name was approved on 3 October 1825.

According to the US Geological Survey, Bolivia's lithium is at least what share of world reserves?

The estimated 21 million tonnes are the largest reserves on Earth, but mining them would disturb the Salar de Uyuni.

How long did the June 2024 military coup attempt led by Juan José Zúñiga last?

Police arrested Zúñiga the same evening it collapsed.

What share of the world's tropical glaciers are located in Bolivia?

Their tropical setting makes them especially sensitive to warming, one reason Bolivia is so vulnerable to climate change.

Whom did Rodrigo Paz defeat in the October 2025 presidential run-off?

The win ended years of MAS government and Paz took office in November amid the country's worst economic crisis in 40 years.

Under which 1903 agreement did Bolivia cede the rubber-rich Acre territory to Brazil?

Facing total war with Brazil, Bolivia gave up the region; overall it has lost more than half its territory since independence.

Which Bolivian university, founded in Sucre in 1624, is the country's oldest?

La Paz's San Andrés followed in 1830 and Cochabamba's San Simón in 1832.