2011 June 13 - Bolivia General Transportatin Strike - General Advisory

by David Schneider, Inside-Peru
(Los Organos, Piura, Peru)

Bolivia is essentially shut down today to travel by road. Strikers throughout Bolivia are upset about new regulations, one of which is that no cars older than 12 years can circulate on the roads.

Public transport would have seven years to bring their fleets up to date.

Also, the government is clamping down on illegal vehicles, which seems like a good idea. However, this has caused more problems.

In the first three days, 31,000 vehicles were run through the legalization process, about 3 times the total number expected.

Neighboring countries such as Brazil and Argentina have protested this situation, since allegedly vehicles stolen in those countries are being given legal papers without a proper review.

What does this mean for you?

If you are thinking about traveling to or in Bolivia, forget it for now. We have no reports on how long the current strike is expected to last, so keep in touch with the news.

In general, Bolivia is a great place to visit or live...but you do have to put up with the occasional transportation strike, an inconvenience at times.

Of course, transportation strikes put a big damper on tourism in the country.

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Having lived there in Cochabamba and Tarija for 3-1/2 years, Lin and I at Inside-Peru highly recommend Bolivia, in quiet times, as a great place to see majestic mountains, vast wild west type plains (el Gran Chaco), and a vast, verdant jungle (1/3 of Bolivia) with large lakes and rivers.