Tipuani

Tipuani is a country town in the department of La Paz in the South American Andes State of Bolivia.

Location in near space

Tipuani is the central place of the district ( bolivian: Municipio) Tipuani in the province Larecaja. The village lies at an altitude of 420 m above the Río Tipuani, the Coming flows from the northern slopes of the Illampu at Guanay in the Río Mapiri, a tributary of the Río Beni.

Geography

Tipuani located northeast of Lake Titicaca on the eastern edge of the Andes mountain range of the Cordillera Real.

The mean average temperature of the region is about 24 ° C, the annual precipitation is about 1400 mm (see climate chart Mapiri ). The region has no distinct temperature pattern on the monthly average temperatures vary only slightly between 21 ° C in June and July and 26 ° C from November to January, and the day and night temperatures have only small fluctuations. The monthly rainfall range from less than 50 mm during the months of June and July and 200 mm from December to February.

Economy

The Tipuani Valley is the most important gold mining area of Bolivia. Degradation occurs both in open pits and underground mines that are located up to 100 m depth. For the stabilization of the mine shafts has been cleared around in the past few centuries to a large extent of natural forest to the Tipuani Valley, so here have spread barren grasslands, which no longer give the steep slopes of the valley Tipuani sufficient support. So called in March 2003, a landslide above the village Chima over a hundred deaths, and also in two other villages in the valley occurred in the meantime, similar disasters. Since the discovery of gold in the river and the mines were of little fertility, 90 percent of the population live below the poverty line, so that the village Tipuani is characterized by great poverty.

Traffic network

Tipuani located approximately 270 kilometers by road north of La Paz, the capital of the department of the same name.

From La Paz, the partially paved highway Route 3 leads in a northeasterly direction over 160 km Cotapata to Caranavi, then branches off the unpaved Ruta 25 from which further leads reached after 70 kilometers Guanay and after Mapiri and Apolo. From Guanay from leading a three hour drive on paved roads hardly in a southwesterly direction along the Río Tipuani to the city Tipuani.

Population

The population of the city has declined sharply in the past two decades:

Because of the historical immigration, it presents a not insignificant percentage of indigenous population in the municipality of Tipuani 28.8 percent of the population speak the Aymara language and 15.5 percent of the Quechua language.