San Vicente Canton, Bolivia

San Vicente is a village in the department of Potosí in the highlands of South American Andes State of Bolivia.

Location in near space

San Vicente is a central place in the canton of San Vicente and is located in the district ( bolivian: Municipio) Atocha in the province Sur chichas. The village lies at an altitude of 4498 m and is an old mining town, zinc and silver are mined in the surrounding area. The mines are in the hands of " Emusa ", a consortium of the Canadian mining company Pan American Silver and the Bolivian COMIBOL.

Geography

San Vicente is located on the Bolivian Altiplano in the northern part of the Andes mountain range of the Cordillera de Lípez. The region's climate is arid and has a time of day climate.

The mean annual temperature of the region is about 4 ° C (see climate chart San Vicente), with a monthly average value of just below 0 ° C in June / July and 7 ° C in December and January. The annual rainfall is low 190 mm, with the months of April through October, virtually rainless. Only from November to March fall precipitation, with a maximum of 50 mm month precipitation in January.

Traffic network

San Vicente is located at a distance of 369 kilometers of road southwest of Potosi, the capital of the department of the same name.

From Potosí from the unpaved highway Ruta 5 runs in a southwesterly direction 208 km to Uyuni, from where the Ruta 21 about another 96 miles to Atocha. From Atocha from a country road leading in a south-easterly direction along the old railway line 23 km to Escoriani and then leaves the railway line in a southwesterly direction. You reached after thirteen kilometers Portugalete and after a further 29 kilometers of San Vicente. From there take the unpaved but fairly well-developed road in a southwesterly direction into the 88 km distant San Pablo de Lípez.

Population

The population of the town has risen in the past two decades by more than half:

Due to the historically evolved population distribution, the region has a high proportion of Quechua population in the municipality of Atocha 60.1 percent of the population speak the Quechua language.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

At the local cemetery is a memorial plaque which commemorates the death of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1908 in San Vicente. Allegedly, the two U.S. bandits were buried in the local cemetery after they had raided a money transport near Tupiza and had lodged in San Vicente with its prey rest. In 1992 they exhumed at the specified location the bones of the " U.S. Desperados ", the subsequent DNA testing revealed, however, that it was at the salvaged remains of a German engineer named Gustav rooms, a contemporary of the two bandits. However, the nameless grave continues to target foreign tourists, without the village has been able to capitalize from it.