Bolivia

Hello all and welcome to a new postcards' episode :)

I must admit I've been a bit lazy this past week, but hopefully I will get through today's update which will open with a card from Bolivia.

I received this one as part of some lottery, that from this perspective I remember nothing about (well it was like 6 years ago so no wonder).
From what I could understand, on the card you can see people removing coca leaves - yeah, coca not cocoa as I had misread.
Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. The plant is grown as a cash crop in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, even in areas where its cultivation is unlawful and it is well known throughout the world for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. The UN Office of Drug Control estimated that 30,900 hectares of coca were planted in Bolivia in 2009, making Bolivia the third largest producer of coca after Colombia and Peru.
It is estimated that 35,148 of 54,608 metric tons produced in Bolivia is sold in unauthorized markets dominated by the cocaine trade, most of it from coca production in the Chapare (a rural province in Central Bolivia).

I wonder now if this card is legal in the first place :D

I love these huge cancellations, even though they sometimes give me the trouble having to delete the address and all without actually ruining the cancellation itself. As for the stamp, it is from a set of four stamps issued in 2008 for the 30th Anniversary of the Japan International Cooperation Agency in Bolivia.

Thanks a lot to Marisol for this card and I am really sorry I do not remember the exact lottery occasion for it.

Sajama, Bolivia

A bit more of Latin America as an intro....

And its such a great card! Showing the Sajama National Park in Bolivia, which features spectacular Andean landscape, with elevations ranging from 4,200 to 6,542 m. Here you can also see the snowy cone of Nevado Sajama, an extinct volcano located on the highest peak of the Nevado Sajama mountain (which is also the highest mountain in Bolivia).

the stamps are great too. The first and the second are a stamp issued in 2009 called The Bicentenary of La Paz Revolution. The other stamp is also from 2009, titled 50th Anniversary of BID (InterAmerican Bank of Development)

Lake Titicaca - Peru/Bolivia

I have a question, since im obviously struggling with this issue....if you receive a card, which shows something that in one way or another is "shared" by two or three states/countries...how do you actually label it? Do you put all of the territories that place belongs to, you put one....you put none? This is not the first time i come across a card which shows something of a "shared" territory and im really starting to wonder whats actually the right way to name it?

Now, after im done with my philosophies, lets get down to the postcard, which I absolutely LOVE!
Its a map card (sorry, but IS a map card indeed :P) and it shows the Lake of Titicaca, which lies on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is 3812m above sea level making it the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. By volume of water it is also the largest lake in South America.
Titicaca is notable for a population of people who live on the Uros a group of 42 or so artifical islands made of floating reeds.  These islands have become a major tourist attraction for Peru, drawing excursions from the lakeside city of Puno. Their original purpose was defensive, and they could be moved if a threat arose. Many of the islands contain watchtowers largely constructed of reeds.

Yukiko, the sender, says she had visited the Uros island and the Taquille Island as wel, which as she says, has ca. 500 steps to get to the top of it, and that it was exhausting.....hmmm, I can recall several places ive been to, which in order to get to them you need to climb a buuuunch of stairs! But its worth it ;-))

Thanks Yukiko for this terrific card and for all the other cards you had sent me!

Beni, Bolivia

A card from Bolivia...which as well makes it a new country in the collection.....its just that i dont know if i should be angry to myself about it, excited...happy...frustrated...or everything together...the story behind the card will actually make it clear....

I was going through some old mail the other day...all the letters i have received from penfriends throughout the years, mainly coz of cleaning up the drawers, and as well, coz i thought of actually selling some envelopes with the stamps along on them (if anyone knows a list of prices of how much stamps on envelopes are worth, please let me know...i need something like a catalogue with world-wide stamps shown....so its not single stamps, but like covers...)
Anyway....as i was going through the letters, i came across some quite unfamiliar to me...and among them i saw an envelope which had Bolivian stamps...i couldnt really recall i had ever received a letter from there, so i took a peek inside...and found a card...as on the front the name "Beni" is written, it didnt really tell me much...and my first thought was that its some ad-card promoting something....i dont know what.....its when i turned the card on the back when i was in total shock and amazement...and absolutely speechless, just stared at the card....first of all coz it was a real postcard....second coz it actually said Bolivia!!! I couldnt absolutely believe it!!!
I have had a card from Bolivia ALL THESE years and i had absolutely NO idea about it!!! See why im so angry with myself?!! Whatever card i had received, with or without envelope, i would put it aside....WHY on Earth i had left this one inside and never realized till now i actually had a card from Bolivia, i dont know...neither i will ever figure it out....i even had Bolivia on my list of cards to request since i have none from there...it would have been hilarious if i actually asked for a Bolivian card, got it...and eventually found this one in my drawers....I know, I know I should be glad and grateful for this...I mean, its Bolivia...not really an easy country to get a card from...but hell....this ignorance for ten years (the sender says "La Paz, September 6, 98") is really frustrating me!! If it was some usual country, i wouldnt have felt bothered....i feel bothered coz i somehow have a gem in my collection and i was totally unaware about it!! Aghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

PS. Yeah, i know you are jealous though ;-)