Humanitarian projects in South America took me to Cochabamba, Bolivia late last summer. Between road trips into the high elevations of the Andes to scout construction sites, struggles with hypoxia, and eating llama, I managed to see some remarkable architecture.
Ruins of a Spanish mission constructed in 1785 at an altitude of 12,000 feet.
Oruro, Bolivia
Dry joint stone masonry walls serve as llama pens among the thatched roof adobe homes of the Indigenous village of Coiyuma at 13,000+ feet.
Coiyuma, Bolivia
Cochabamba, in the center of Bolivia at an elevation of 8,300 feet above sea level is the beneficiary of a mild climate and often called the "City of Eternal Spring." The public square is occupied well into weekday evenings in late winter under the cathedral belltower.
The Teleferico provides the primary mass transit of La Paz, carrying passengers from the higher elevations at the rim of the expansive city down several thousand feet of elevation into the various urban centers of the dense metropolis.
A web of telephone and power cables tangles its way over the cobblestone sidestreets of La Paz.
Downtown La Paz, with modern-day colonial governmental buildings.