Bolivia is friendly to tourists

Clare Sammels at the Gringo Tambo blog makes some excellent points about a recent story on CNN about international tourism and attitudes towards tourists. Although the piece claims to evaluate how friendly individual countries are towards tourists, the size of the group that was surveyed seems small (79 people) and not directly related to the question of what do Bolivians think of tourists, or what do tourists think of Bolivians. This is worth paying attention to, because Bolivia gets so little press attention in the United States that this story could represent everything that many readers will hear about Bolivia. I have never found myself unwelcome as a tourist in Bolivia, and as the years have gone by, I have found that Bolivians have in fact been just as friendly as people in the United States, where I live. Clare is looking into the methodology, (that's three posts by her so far) so stay tuned. I am working on an article about poverty, tourism and archaeology in Bolivia, so I would be interested to hear what you have to say.

Turismo en Santa Ana del Yacuma

 

This sculpture sits on top of a pedestal on the circumvalación of Santa Ana, on the eastern side of town, as I recall. It depicts the leader of a cattle drive, using a trumpet made from the horn of a cow to rally his cowboys. The photo comes from the municipal government's tourism department, which has a large Spanish language website, with local music, photographs, and information about restaurants, hotels, parks, and pharmacies. Although it can still be challenging to get to there during the wet season, Santa Ana has a lot to offer, especially during the fiesta, which is celebrated on the 26th of July. The town was founded in 1708 as a Jesuit Mission.