Uyuni, Potosi, and Sucre are all top tourist destinations in Bolivia, and so I expected to see many more tourists and more Americans. I saw and met many more tourists, but I only met one group of Americans (the second group of Americans I have met in almost 2 months). Even this group said that they would not have come if they knew about the visa requirement and that they were only spending 3 days in the country. I listened to the different accents during our travels and asked anyone who sounded like they could be from America where they were from.
The Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt flat in the world and a prime tourist destination in South America. I had never seen anything like it: flat, white land that stretched beyond the horizon. The terrain offers a really unique landscape to take interesting pictures that create an optical illusion. The town's population is around 30,000 people, and I feel like I saw that many tourists as well. The town's main plaza was interestingly primarily full of pizzerias, and we encountered dozens of tourists at dinner. Still, they all had foreign accents or languages.
The highlight of the day in Potosi was certainly La Casa de Moneda, the mint that processed all of the silver and minerals mined in Potosi during Spanish colonization. The town had a much larger feel than I was expecting, considering that the population is a little over 200,000 people. The colonial architecture and historic sites were much better preserved than those in La Paz, but graffiti still adorned the walls. This town sits at an altitude slightly higher than La Paz, yet the foreigners still had a large presence in the city.
Sucre was the dainty cherry on top of this incredible weekend. With beautiful Spanish colonial architecture and the city ordinance that requires all of the buildings to be white, I could understand why everyone exclaimed, "Sucre es muy linda!" when I told them I was visiting the town. The city center and main attractions were largely free of graffiti and very well maintained. Additionally, Sucre is at a much lower altitude and the climate is more tropical. Beautiful trees and flora were omnipresent in the city, and I loved being underneath the big, mystical trees and among the greenery. Sucre is picture perfect and seems like a gorgeous, quaint place to spend some time during a trip through Bolivia. However, of all the tourists we encountered on the museum tour, the tourist-oriented restaurant overlooking the city, and in the famous chocolate shops, I only met Europeans and heard foreign languages. If Americans are fair-weather travelers, then I would expect Sucre to be dripping in them.
When we visited the US Embassy, they told us about the Bolivia-US relations. Several years ago Bolivia kicked out the DEA and the American ambassador. America reciprocated by also removing the Bolivian ambassador. Bolivia in turn began to require a visa for American travelers as America required a visa for Bolivian citizens. American tourists to Bolivia decreased from around 70,000 tourists in 2005 to 24,000 tourists last year. I read an article that cited the Bolivian Ministry of Tourism which stated that in 2005, 1 in 5 tourists were Americans, and that American tourists spent around $40 million each year in Bolivia.
After this long weekend, I have realized that Americans are not just skipping La Paz during their South American travels, they are skipping Bolivia altogether. How is Bolivia suffering from creating barriers between American tourists and itself? Is this loss in tourism significant enough for Bolivia to consider repairing relations with the US?
The Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt flat in the world and a prime tourist destination in South America. I had never seen anything like it: flat, white land that stretched beyond the horizon. The terrain offers a really unique landscape to take interesting pictures that create an optical illusion. The town's population is around 30,000 people, and I feel like I saw that many tourists as well. The town's main plaza was interestingly primarily full of pizzerias, and we encountered dozens of tourists at dinner. Still, they all had foreign accents or languages.
The highlight of the day in Potosi was certainly La Casa de Moneda, the mint that processed all of the silver and minerals mined in Potosi during Spanish colonization. The town had a much larger feel than I was expecting, considering that the population is a little over 200,000 people. The colonial architecture and historic sites were much better preserved than those in La Paz, but graffiti still adorned the walls. This town sits at an altitude slightly higher than La Paz, yet the foreigners still had a large presence in the city.
Sucre was the dainty cherry on top of this incredible weekend. With beautiful Spanish colonial architecture and the city ordinance that requires all of the buildings to be white, I could understand why everyone exclaimed, "Sucre es muy linda!" when I told them I was visiting the town. The city center and main attractions were largely free of graffiti and very well maintained. Additionally, Sucre is at a much lower altitude and the climate is more tropical. Beautiful trees and flora were omnipresent in the city, and I loved being underneath the big, mystical trees and among the greenery. Sucre is picture perfect and seems like a gorgeous, quaint place to spend some time during a trip through Bolivia. However, of all the tourists we encountered on the museum tour, the tourist-oriented restaurant overlooking the city, and in the famous chocolate shops, I only met Europeans and heard foreign languages. If Americans are fair-weather travelers, then I would expect Sucre to be dripping in them.
When we visited the US Embassy, they told us about the Bolivia-US relations. Several years ago Bolivia kicked out the DEA and the American ambassador. America reciprocated by also removing the Bolivian ambassador. Bolivia in turn began to require a visa for American travelers as America required a visa for Bolivian citizens. American tourists to Bolivia decreased from around 70,000 tourists in 2005 to 24,000 tourists last year. I read an article that cited the Bolivian Ministry of Tourism which stated that in 2005, 1 in 5 tourists were Americans, and that American tourists spent around $40 million each year in Bolivia.
After this long weekend, I have realized that Americans are not just skipping La Paz during their South American travels, they are skipping Bolivia altogether. How is Bolivia suffering from creating barriers between American tourists and itself? Is this loss in tourism significant enough for Bolivia to consider repairing relations with the US?
I like the observation of US-Bolivian relations "on the ground" through the lack of US tourists. Beyond the economic impact (which may be big or small), there's an interesting implication for ongoing Bolivian-US relations if Bolivians see and meet (and therefore get to know) fewer Americans than they did in the past. This raises interesting questions (beyond the economic) about what role tourism plays in international interactions between cultures.
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