Charobamba

Besides being a pretty village in a magnificent forest environment, Charobamba deserves a visit from people interested in modern history. In the late 1930s there would have been an exodus of Jews from Nazi-Germany, if not for the near impossibility for them to get a visa anywhere in the world. One of the few countries that did accept Jewish immigrants was Bolivia , on condition that they would occupy themselves as farmers. Thus a small community was founded near Coroico, a booming territory in those days, as the road from La Paz to the Yungas had recently been opened (made by Paraguayan war prisoners, after the disastrous Chaco War). Most families left shortly after the end of the world war, but one of them stayed. One of their children now owns the local El Jiri Ecolodge, a beautiful forest hotel, and an excellent base for hiking in the forest. In the village the big Administration House reminds of the days of the colony, as well as the mule path on the other side of the valley, carved in those days to export their products.

Ironically, Nazi leader Klaus Barbie lived for years at less than 50 kilometres from Charobamba after fleeing Germany . Much less then extraditing him, Bolivian governments used his skills from time to time to solve internal conflicts.