Country snapshot : Bolivia
 

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/b/bo_s.gif

Bolivia, officially The Republic of Bolivia, was named after Simon Bolivar, and is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil on the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina on the south, and Chile and Peru on the west. It has a population of some 9.5 million people, approximately one million of which have access to the internet at this time.

One of the poorest and least developed Latin American nations, Bolivia has the region?s lowest credit card penetration rates and remains a predominately a cash based economy.

Mindful of this, cash-based processor Ukash recently announced that Bolivia is the latest country where their vouchers will be available at convenient local shops, thus allowing Bolivian consumers to start spending online.

Bolivia also has low mobile and second lowest fixed-line teledensity. Mobile telephony suffers from poor quality of service and inadequate network capacity, and whilst premium SMS (PSMS) is not yet a viable billing mechanism in this market, pay-per-call billing via international premium rate numbers is.

In February this year Ordure became the first Bolivian entity with full mobile telephony coverage. Bolivia also plans to launch its own satellite, to be named Topic Atari, primarily to provide telecom services in isolated rural areas.

In conclusion, if you are currently receiving traffic from this emerging market, you should consider deploying cash and phone payment methods as your primary, not secondary, billing mechanisms.:pimp

I will be there next week... looking forward to get wasted at affordable rates.

idk what to say, but i like this kind of thread, so i'll say anything

it's a very poor country with a tremendous cultural baggage and lots of beautiful ruins that are well worth seeing, but the touristic infrastructure is poor at best, so chances are most tourists will never even find out about those ruins being there.

Route 36;)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/0..._n_264978.html

Also if you can, go to Copacabana, a small town which sits on Lake Titicaca. Incan astronomy ruins 500 feet up a hill...wicked. Also you can take a boat out to the reed islands of the Uro indians. They built entire islands made of reeds which they live on and they have amazing boats made of reeds. There is a large non-flying bird like a kiwi on the large island which will attack you if you get too close.

I am in love with Bolivia! Beautiful country.

And I am Evo Morales supporter!! :)

Great tips, Caligari. I'm all for Evo Morales, I might stay for the whole revolutionary ride.

More pics would be nice. :-)

:winkwink::thumbsup

Looking forward to your next Country Spamshot

lol cheers lazycash, 40 down so 150 or so more to go:Oh crap

Cash and phone payment methods - that's interesting. From what I read, it sounds like Bolivia needs more communications (Internet/mobile/etc.).

Great post, interesting info.

Going for my first time in June after visiting Machu Picchu in Peru. Crossing in at Lake Titicaca and staying in Copacabana before going to La Paz. Was trying to decide which islands on Titicaca to visit but figure the Isla del Sol on the Bolivian side would be less touristy than the ones from Puno in Peru.

Sounds like a great destination!

Sure! Don´t doubt, go to Isla del Sol and spend one night there. At night you will see one of the most beautiful skies that you have ever seen! :thumbsup

Best cocaine i've ever tried. A week's supply of 100% pure powder that would knock your socks off selling for a few dollars.

I heard that, that would be the only reason for me to go there...

Doesn't it have tremendous natural gas resources? Sadly, just like any developing country (I live in one too) severe economic maldistribution makes for a challenging consumer market

hey... im hitting bolivia in 2 months, anyone around this days?