Cochabamba

Cochabamba sits at 2,560 metres in a broad fertile valley, lower and warmer than La Paz, and it has been the granary of Bolivia for centuries, which shows in its reputation: Bolivians go to Cochabamba to eat, and the city's dishes, silpancho, pique macho, chicharrón and the maize beer chicha, are the national comfort food. La Cancha, the enormous open market, spreads over many blocks and is the largest in the country. Above the city the Cristo de la Concordia stands on a hill at thirty-four metres, slightly taller than the figure in Rio, reached by cable car or by more than a thousand steps. Palacio Portales, a mansion built by the tin baron Simón Patiño, is the other set-piece.

History

The fertile valley has been lived in for thousands of years; Topa Inca Yupanqui conquered it, and his son Huayna Capac made it a vast state farm worked by 14,000 settlers brought in from elsewhere, its maize kept in 2,400 storehouses on the hills. The first Spanish resident, Garci Ruiz de Orellana, arrived in 1542, and the city was founded as Villa de Oropesa in January 1571 by order of Viceroy Francisco de Toledo to feed the mining towns of the altiplano, above all Potosí; it declined in the 18th century as mining waned, was renamed the loyal and valiant Villa of Cochabamba by Charles III in 1786, and in 1793 had 22,305 people (Wikipedia, Cochabamba).

Highlights

• La Cancha market - blocks of trade in the country's largest market.
• The Cristo - the hilltop statue and the cable car up to it.
• Palacio Portales - the tin baron's mansion and its gardens.
• Valley food culture - the dishes and chicherías the city is known for.

When to go

April to October is the dry season and the most pleasant. The city is warm year round. Festivals and the Urkupiña pilgrimage in August fill the valley. Traffic is heavy at all times.

Before you go

La Cancha is enormous, crowded and a known place for pickpocketing; valuables should be left behind. The Cristo steps have had robberies and the cable car is the safer route. Air quality in the valley is poor. The city has few conventional monuments.

Nearby

Tunari park rises above the city; Quillacollo lies west.

Key facts