BOLIVIA - Plurinational State of Bolivia Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia (Spanish) Buliwya Mamallaqta (Quechua) Wuliwya Suyu

Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia (Spanish: Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia ) is a landlocked country located in western-central South America. The constitutional capital is Sucre, while the seat of government and executive capital is La Paz. The largest city and principal industrial center is Santa Cruz de la Sierra, located on the Llanos Orientales (tropical lowlands), a mostly flat region in the east of the country.

The sovereign state of Bolivia is a constitutionally unitary state, divided into nine departments. Its geography varies from the peaks of the Andes in the West, to the Eastern Lowlands, situated within the Amazon Basin. It is bordered to the north and east by Brazil, to the southeast by Paraguay, to the south by Argentina, to the southwest by Chile, and to the northwest by Peru. One-third of the country is within the Andean mountain range. With 1,098,581 km² (424,164 sq mi) of area, Bolivia is the fifth largest country in South America, after Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Colombia (and alongside Paraguay, one of the only two landlocked countries in the Americas).

The country's population, estimated at 11 million, is multiethnic, including Amerindians, Mestizos, Europeans, Asians and Africans. Spanish is the official and predominant language, although 36 indigenous languages also have official status, of which the most commonly spoken are Guarani, Aymara and Quechua languages.

Bolivia was formerly known as Upper Peru and became an independent republic on 6 August 1825. It has produced its own postage stamps since 1867. Stamps from Bolivia are marked as Correos de Bolivia. Tensions between Chile and Bolivia have influenced both countries' stamps and postal history. Up to 1895 postal routes were composed mainly of the Oruro-Antofagasta railway, riders on horseback and river boats. Internal postal routes remained poor until the introduction of airmail in the 1920s.  British stamps were used between 1865 and 1878 at the port of Cobija, which no longer exists, and they may be identified by the cancellation C39.

Chilean stamps were used in occupied areas of Bolivia between 1 December 1881 and 11 October 1883. Bolivian postage stamps are a classical illustration of the problems caused by irregularities in production and the impact of large-scale inflation. Bolivia was one of the South American countries that made efforts to commemorate pre-Columbian times in the images used on the stamps. The "Gate of the sun" set of nineteen stamps was authorised in 1926 to commemorate Bolivia's independence. The stamps were engraved and printed in Germany, and on learning that the stamps had been sold without permission in Europe, the authorities ordered the rest to be locked in a bank vault where they remained for thirty-five years. When eventually they were released in 1960, inflation had caused havoc to Bolivia's currency and they needed to be surcharged, sometimes to 10,000 times their original denomination. The highest value five boliviano stamp was surcharged to become five thousand bolivianos.

 

The cover posted from La Paz, the capital city of Bolivia on August 19, 2016 and I received in my hands on September 19, 2016.

This cover posted from Cochabamba, Bolivia. Unfortunately the post office staff did not postmark the stamps. The cover posted on August 28, 2016 and I received in my hands on September 20, 2016.