Bolivia in General

Although we still have a few more days before we cross into Peru, we are leaving La Paz today and not planning on coming back during this trip. We have to say that we thoroughly enjoyed our time here and found that Bolivia has so much more to offer than we had initially expected. The communities are generally much cleaner than we expected (even the bus station washrooms), the scenery and climate is extremely diverse and dramatic and despite the number of tourists, La Paz remains primarily a city intended to service the locals. Although the people in the large cities seem not unfriendly but rather reserved, many of the people that we met in the smaller communities were very sociable and interested in talking about their country and their lives. With costs at 30-50% of Chile or Argentina, great sites, and good food, we definitely wouldn’t hesitate to return.
It appears that the new Evo Morales government is trying to change things and the country is split between many of the poor in the highlands to the west and the traditional powerbase of the large farms in the eastern lowlands. It is unfortunate that the Canadian Government (and others) still post many warnings on their website, as this is probably keeping many travelers away.
As far as we can see, and from our very biased western perspectives, it appears that the country is on the right track, with a focus on access to healthcare to everyone. The photo here shows a poster on the window of a bus with the prices for available medical procedures in the tiny, remote village. (Prices are in Bolivianos and there are seven Bolivianos per US dollar).