1: For the money this is the best Bolivian guide available
I have reviewed travel guides for seven years and this is one of the best I have used. Recently (5/04) I traveled for three weeks through Bolivia and found this guide to be very reliable, user friendly and exact.The guide has excellent maps, brilliant descriptions of what to see and do, a very good 'Brief History' section, a good 'recommended books' section and the layout is excellent. Everywhere possible James Read has included the internet addresses and web pages for additional information. Most important James Read's recommendations for accommodations were always "spot on". If there is a downside to the guide it is the restaurant recommendations. You need to take his recommendations 'with a grain of salt'. His praise of establishments (4 out of 11) did not live up to the hearty accolades he gives out, though most did. That and the accommodation price code (why not just state the US dollar amount?) are the only distracting aspects of the guide. So, if you are going to explore this isolated, landlocked, astonishing country, you will not find a better guide out today. This guide along with Herbert Klein's "Concise History of Bolivia" (see my review) would be a great package. Highly recommended 4.5 stars
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