The main street in Cochambamba

Photo: Alfredo Vasquez Meza

Known as the 'City of Eternal Spring', sprawling Cochambamba is Bolivia's third-largest city. And while its elevation (2448m) is well below La Paz, this fast-growing city is moving up in the world in every other sense.

First-rate restaurants and bars line the city's modern streets while La Cancha delivers shopaholics one of the largest and most cacophonous markets in South America. 

Surrounded by verdant rolling hills, Cochambamba is also an ideal springboard from which to tackle nearby Inca ruins, explore quaint agricultural communities or traverse the 5035-metre-high Cerro Tunari.