Santa Bárbara (Potosí)

Santa Bárbara (also: Chorolque ) is a country town in the Potosí Department in the highlands of South American Andes State of Bolivia.

Location

Santa Bárbara is the most populous city in the district ( bolivian: Municipio) Atocha in the province Sur chichas to more than 500 inhabitants from the provincial capital of Atocha. The city lies at an altitude of 4774 m at the foot of Cerro Chorolque, a 5552 m high mountain which is rich in ore deposits of tin, bismuth, silver, gold and copper and the mine " Chorolque " from different sides is exploited.

Geography

Santa Bárbara is located on the Bolivian Altiplano in the northern foothills of the Andean mountain range, the Cordillera de Lípez. The climate in this region is semiarid and is characterized by a clear diurnal climate.

The mean average temperature of the region is about 5 ° C (see climate chart Santa Bárbara ) and varies only slightly between 0 ° C in July and 7-8 ° C from November to March. The annual rainfall is low 220 mm, with the months of April through October, virtually rainless. Only from November to March fall precipitation, with a maximum of 50-60 mm month rainfall in January and February.

Traffic network

Santa Bárbara is located at a distance of 334 kilometers of road south 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. Four kilometers south of Atocha branches off a dirt road in an easterly direction from whose end points are after 26 kilometers, the city of Santa Bárbara and the Cerro Chorolque.

Population

The population of the town has declined slightly over the past two decades:

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.