While three centuries of Spanish colonial rule have left their mark on Bolivia's language, religion and architecture, this European influence is essentially no more than a thin veneer overlying indigenous cultural traditions that stretch back long before the conquest. Though Spanish is the language of business and government, more than thirty indigenous languages are spoken across the country . Bolivia is home to less than nine million people, the majority living in a handful of cities founded by the Spanish and graced by some of the finest colonial architecture on the continent.

Bolivia is dominated by the mighty Andes, which march through the west of the country along two parallel chains; between them stretches the Altiplano, a bleak and virtually treeless plateau historically home to most of Bolivia's population. Northeast of the Altiplano, the Andes plunge abruptly into the tropical rainforests and savannas of the Amazon lowlands, a seemingly endless wilderness dominated by the major rivers that flow north to the Brazilian border and beyond. East of the Altiplano, the Andes march down more gradually through a drier region of fertile highland valleys that give way eventually to the Eastern Lowlands, a vast and sparsely populated plain covered by a variety of ecosystems, from dense Amazonian rainforest in the north to the dry thornbrush and scrub of the Chaco to the south. This immensely varied topography supports an extraordinary diversity of plant and animal life, and the country's underdevelopment and lack of tourism have been blessings in disguise for the environment. Owing to its remoteness, Bolivia remains one of South America's least-visited countries despite its myriad attractions.