Give Cochabamba three days. Spend the first in the centre: Plaza 14 de Septiembre and the cathedral, the Museo Arqueológico, then the cable car up to the Cristo de la Concordia for the valley at sunset. Give the second to La Cancha in the morning and Palacio Portales after lunch, with silpancho or pique macho in between. Use the third for Quillacollo, Tarata or the Tunari foothills, or leave for two nights at Torotoro.
Cochabamba is Bolivia's fourth city and its kitchen. It fills a green valley at about 2,560 metres, low enough to escape the altiplano cold, under the Tunari range. Bolivians come here to eat; travellers come for the Cristo, the markets and the road to Torotoro.
The statue of Christ on Cerro San Pedro stands 34 metres tall, a few metres taller than Rio's, and the city spreads below it on three sides. Ride the cable car up for the late-afternoon light over the valley, then stay for the city lights coming on.
Bolivia's biggest market district: five markets and blocks of street stalls selling everything from potatoes to car parts. Go on a Wednesday or Saturday morning, when the ferias swell it, and eat lunch at the food stalls inside La Pampa.
The French-style palace that tin baron Simón I. Patiño built in the 1910s and 1920s and never lived in. The interiors, all imported marble, silk and carved wood, are seen on a guided tour, and the formal gardens are worth the visit on their own.
The main square takes its name from the uprising of 14 September 1810, and the arcades, the cathedral and the shoeshine stands make it the centre's meeting point. Start here: most of the old town is within six blocks.
A canyon, a cave and hundreds of dinosaur footprints in a park three and a half to five hours south of the city on a rough road. It needs at least one night: arrive, then spend a day on the canyon and the Umajalanta cave.
The state university's museum holds about 40,000 pieces across archaeology, ethnography and palaeontology, with the best Tiwanaku display in the valley. It is the right first stop before Incallajta or Torotoro.
A Carmelite convent from 1760, restored as a museum of sacred art while a small community of cloistered nuns still lives in part of it. The visit takes in the church, the cloister and the murals uncovered during restoration.
The hill where the women of Cochabamba fought the royalist army on 27 May 1812, now Mother's Day across Bolivia. The monument to the Heroínas sits on top, with a view back over the centre.
The range behind the city is a national park of about 3,000 square kilometres, the only one in Bolivia that starts at a city's edge. Day hikes climb from the northern suburbs into puna grassland; the 5,000-metre Cerro Tunari is a long day for the acclimatised.
The tree-lined boulevard north of the centre, known to everyone as El Prado, runs up to Plaza Colón. It is where the city goes for an evening walk, a drink or dinner, and the easiest place to find both.
A 1760 Carmelite convent turned sacred-art museum, nuns still in residence.
The valley's natural history museum, named for the French naturalist who mapped Bolivia.
The Patiño family's country house at Pairumani, with its rooms and arboretum. Reservations required.
Founded in 1581 and rebuilt in 1782 and 1925; the cloister is the older part.
The corner of Lanza and Ecuador, where Celia La Fuente is credited with creating silpancho.
The Saturday parade a week after Oruro's carnival, with over a hundred dance groups.
Holy Week processions from the cathedral and the colonial churches. Dates follow Easter.
27 May, Mother's Day, honours the Heroínas de la Coronilla with a ceremony on the hill.
21 June, the Andean new year, a national holiday since 2009, greeted at dawn.
Around 15 August in Quillacollo: nearly a million pilgrims and a huge folkloric entrada.
15 August marks the 1571 founding of the Villa de Oropesa, with civic events.
14 September, the anniversary of the 1810 uprising: parades and a holiday.
1 and 2 November, when families build altars and bake t'antawawas for the dead.
On the southwest edge of the city, a short taxi ride from the centre. BoA, based here, flies to La Paz, Santa Cruz, Sucre and Tarija.
The metropolitan light rail opened in 2022. The Green Line runs west to Quillacollo in about 40 minutes; the Red Line runs southeast toward the Valle Alto.
The terminal is south of the centre, near La Cancha. Flotas run overnight to La Paz and Santa Cruz, and daily to Sucre and Oruro.
Numbered minibuses cover the city by day. After dark, call a radio taxi, and agree the fare before you get in.
Beef pounded thin over rice and potato, a fried egg and a tomato and onion salsa.
Beef, sausage, chips, egg and locoto chillies, piled high and meant to be shared.
A baked pastry with a sweet, juicy beef or chicken filling, eaten mid-morning.
Pork cooked in its own fat with mote corn, the Sunday dish of the valley.
The valley's fermented maize drink, low in alcohol, served in a gourd.
Rabbit fried in a spiced coating, a valley speciality.
Silpancho stuffed into a bread roll, the city's street sandwich.
Hot purple-corn drink with a fried cheese pastry, the market breakfast.
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