Cochabamba

The Cochabamba valley has been farmed for thousands of years thanks to its fertile soils and mild climate. After the Inca conquest, Huayna Capac brought in some 14,000 colonists, called mitimas, to work the land as a maize estate for the empire. The Spanish founded the city in 1571 as the Villa de Oropesa, named after the title of Viceroy Francisco de Toledo, and the valley became the granary that fed the silver mines of Potosí. Its name comes from the Quechua qucha, lake, and pampa, plain, after the lakes that once covered the valley floor.

By the census of 1793 the city had about 22,000 people, and in 1846 it was the second-largest city in Bolivia after La Paz. Growth then stalled — in 1900 the population was still under 22,000 — before the city grew again in the 20th century. The tin baron Simón Patiño built his mansion, the Palacio Portales, in the north of the city.

Cochabamba became internationally known in 2000 for the Water War. After the city's water company was privatised to Aguas del Tunari, a consortium involving the American firm Bechtel, and rates rose sharply, the Coalition in Defence of Water and Life led months of protests, culminating in tens of thousands marching downtown and battling police; one civilian was killed. On 10 April 2000 the government agreed to reverse the privatisation. In 2022 the first lines of the Mi Tren light rail opened.

Cochabamba's identity rests on food, markets and festivals. Locals call it La Llajta, Quechua for "the town", and its people cochalas, and the city's food earned it a place in UNESCO's Creative Cities Network for gastronomy in 2017. Quechua is spoken widely in the markets and the surrounding valley towns.

The great festival is the Virgin of Urkupiña in Quillacollo, on the western edge of the metropolitan area, held around 15 August. Pilgrims come from all over Bolivia and South America, and the folk parade on 14 August brings about fifteen thousand costumed dancers.

The city has a strong student culture, centred on the public University of San Simón, founded in 1832, and private universities that draw students from the rest of Bolivia and abroad, which feeds the nightlife of Calle España and El Prado. The 2000 Water War remains a defining memory and inspired the 2010 film También la lluvia (Even the Rain). Football fans follow Club Jorge Wilstermann and Club Aurora at the Félix Capriles stadium.

About 665,000 people lived in the municipality of Cochabamba at the 2024 census, the fourth-largest in Bolivia. The city has grown well beyond its limits into a conurbation with Quillacollo, Sacaba, Tiquipaya, Colcapirhua, Vinto and Sipe Sipe, together forming the Kanata metropolitan region, the third-largest urban area in the country.

The local economy is the third-largest in Bolivia, built on trade, services, industry and the produce of the valleys and the tropical lowlands of the Chapare — bananas, citrus, pineapples and cocoa reach the city's markets. La Cancha is the commercial heart of daily life, while the central districts around Plaza Colón and Plaza 14 de Septiembre hold most of the formal businesses. The Zona Sur, near the airport, is much poorer, with adobe houses and unpaved streets.

Days are long and outdoor in the mild climate, with markets busy from early morning and lunch the main meal. Water is the city's chronic problem: rain is scarce, the Misicuni Dam north-west of the city was built to bring more, and supply remains a political issue. The national economic crisis, fuel shortages and road blockades on the Chapare highway to Santa Cruz weigh on a city that lives by moving goods.

Cochabamba has been part of UNESCO's Creative Cities Network for gastronomy since 2017, and silpancho is one of its best-known dishes: pounded, breaded beef served over rice and potatoes, topped with fried eggs and chopped onion and tomato. Trancapecho puts the same ingredients inside a bread roll, and pique macho, a heap of beef, sausage, chips, onion and chilli, is also among the city's classic dishes. Chicharrón here is pork cooked slowly for five or six hours and served with mote, boiled hominy, and potatoes.

Llajwa, a sauce of tomato and locoto chilli, accompanies many dishes, and Cochabamba is one of the cities that claim the best salteñas, the pastries sold in the morning. The markets, above all La Cancha, sell fruit and vegetables from both the cool valleys and the tropical Chapare, along with set lunches, juices and snacks at their food stalls.

Chicha, in Bolivia most often a fermented maize beer, is the traditional drink, served in chicherías, the chicha taverns. Restaurants along El Prado and the streets of the Zona Norte range from traditional grills to international cooking, and Calle España is the place for an evening drink.