In a continent of extremes, including the largest rainforest and driest desert, Earth’s longest mountain range dominates the geography of Bolivia.

Set elsewhere, the 5,500-mile-long (nearly 9,000-kilometer-long) Andes would stretch from San Francisco to London. Only the Himalayas reach higher than these snowy peaks.

The Bolivian Andes offer exceptional geographic and cultural diversity, from the shores of Lake Titicaca (the highest navigable lake in the world), continuing across the immense Altiplano to the eerie Uyuni salt flats and the multi-colored lagoons of Sud Lipez, or from the great snow-capped Andean mountains whose runoff feeds nourishes the Amazonian jungles 6,000 meters below. Between these two extremes are the eternal spring temperate valleys.

Along with a number of impressive landscapes, exotic plants and animals such as llamas and condors help define this region. Equally impressive are the vestiges of the pre-Columbian civilizations and the Tiwanaku temples on the Altiplano, as well as the opulent cities of the Spanish conquerors and the living cultures of today’s indigenous peoples - mainly Aymara and Quechua ethnic groups.