As you'll see, there have been an unusual number of uprisings in Bolivia, a country damned by political instability. Like too many places in our world, the divisions among the social classes and ethnic groups are very wide, and getting wider. The government has neglected the people for hundreds of years, and the poor often rise up and unseat their elected presidents. The revolts continue, but sadly the complex problems do as well. In recent years, the biggest problem in the region has been the production and trafficking of drugs, mainly the coca trade.

We weren't aware of all of this when we visited Bolivia. It seems that after you travel to a new part of the world, you become more interested in the people you see and the ones you meet, and from then on you begin to become a student again.

Pat and I went there as bright eyed tourists in 1992 after tripping through Ecuador and Peru, and we'd like to show you a bit of our visit.