Cochabamba

Cochabamba, a central department of Bolivia, with offshoots of the Eastern Cordilleras, and extensive plateaus. The climate is equable and healthy, and though the department is comparatively poor in metals, its fertile valleys render it the richest as well as the most picturesque district of the republic. Agriculture and cattle-raising are the chief occupations; but here, as elsewhere in Bolivia, trade is sadly hampered by the want of roads. Area, 21,500 sq. m.; pop. (1895) 360,500. The capital, Cochabamba (8396 feet above the sea), on a tributary of the Guapay, was founded in 1565, as Ciudad de Oropesa. It has some fifteen churches, a so-called university and high school, and an industrious population, estimated at 25,000, with a trade in corn and Peruvian bark.