Trinidad, Kimsantin officially La Santísima Trinidad (Spanish, 'The Most Holy Trinity'), is a city in

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

, capital of the department of

Beni is a Japanese R&B singer, who debuted in 2004 under the Avex Trax label. In 2008, Arashiro left Avex Trax and transferred to Universal Music Japan where she started to perform as simply Beni (stylized as BENI). She was initially best known fo ...

. The population is 130,000 (2010 official estimate). While historically a peripheral city in Bolivia, Trinidad is today an important center for the Bolivian Bovine industry and has enjoyed a modest economic boom in recent years and enjoys an HDI index of above 0.700. While technically on the periphery of the Amazon rainforest, Trinidad is a wet monsoonal location that is connected by the Mamoré river to the greater Amazon Basin. While wet enough to be a rainforest in total annual precipitation, dry monsoonal weather separates the year into dry and wet seasons as is common throughout much of the greater Amazon basin, particularly to the southeast. Trinidad is a growing city of medium size, and while not an important national center, has grown in importance for the local economy of the Bolivian orient north of

Santa Cruz de la Sierra Santa Cruz de la Sierra (; "Holy Cross of the Mountain Range"), commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the largest city in Bolivia and the capital of the Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia), Santa Cruz department. Situated on the Pirai River (Bolivia), P ...

. The city is also home to the

Bolivian Navy The Bolivian Navy ( es, Armada Boliviana) is a branch of the Armed Forces of Bolivia. As of 2008, the Bolivian Navy had approximately 5,000 personnel. Although Bolivia has been landlocked since the War of the Pacific and its 1904 peace treaty, Bo ...

flotilla.

History

The city was founded in 1686 by Father Cipriano Barace. In 1769 the town moved to its current location, 9 miles away, due to flooding. The original city was on the

Mamoré River The Mamoré is a large river in Brazil and Bolivia which unites with the Beni to form the Madeira, one of the largest tributaries of the Amazon. It rises on the northern slope of the Sierra de Cochabamba, east of the city of Cochabamba, and is k ...

, but flooding and disease forced a move on the location of the city. It is located in the province of Cercado, one of Beni’s eight provinces.

Languages

Camba Camba is a word historically used in Bolivia to refer to the indigenous population in the eastern tropical region of the country, or to those born in the area of Santa Cruz, Beni, and Pando. Nowadays, the term "Camba" is used predominantly to ...

Spanish is the primary vernacular

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...

spoken in the town. Trinitário, a Moxo dialect, is the main indigenous language spoken.Danielsen, Swintha; Terhart, Lena (2014). Paunaka. In Mily Crevels; Pieter Muysken (eds.). ''Lenguas de Bolivia'', vol. III: Oriente, pp. 221-258. La Paz: Plural Editores.

Infrastructure

One of the more notable features of the city is the open drains that surrounds every block of buildings. These are linked together by lidded ditches and thence to the local river. These are necessary due to the heavy rainfall that occurs between December and May.

Tourism

The city is surrounded by rivers, lakes and lagoons. There are many river tours and restaurants and resorts around the city’s main lagoons. Trinidad is also one of the first five Jesuit mission towns established and these are now part of the Misiones tour includes visits to San Javier, Loreto, San Pedro and San Ignacio de Moxos as well. Trinidad and San Ignacio de Moxos both take part in the International Baroque Music Festival every two years in Bolivia.

Climate

Trinidad, located at the southern edge of the Amazon basin on the

Llanos de Moxos The Beni savanna, also known as the Llanos de Moxos or Moxos plains, is a tropical savanna ecoregion of the Beni Department of northern Bolivia. Setting The Beni savanna covers an area of in the lowlands of northern Bolivia, with small portio ...

, is hot and humid most of the year. This region of the country is heavily forested and many large rivers (all tributaries of the Amazon river) run through

. Like most cities in Bolivia, it is built around a central plaza with a large Catholic cathedral as its centerpiece. Trinidad was originally a small Jesuit town but is now a large city with over 100,000 inhabitants. Its mission-style church was demolished and rebuilt in 1923. Despite these changes, many of the original religious relics, paintings and statues are still housed in the cathedral, which faces the main plaza. Under the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

, Trinidad has a

tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ...

bordering on a tropical savanna climate with a lengthy rainy season and a short dry season. The area receives ample rainfall, but is divided sharply between wet and dry seasons. Trinidad is technically Bolivia's wettest departmental capital, with more than 1,400mm in precipitation falling than in the capita La Paz (600mm).

Tourist attractions

Trinidad has two singular museums. The Museo Itícola (Fish Fauna Museum) is the third largest of its kind in South America and houses over 400 specimens of fish species found in the region’s lakes and lagoons. It is located on the UAB University campus. Visitors can see tiny fish, piranhas, and a preserved pink river dolphin (full sized floating in formaldehyde). The Kenneth Lee Ethno-Archeological Museum is also a great place to visit. Here, visitors can view exhibits of pottery, utensils and tools, textiles and other implements used by the Moxos culture. Of interest to ornithologists, the highly endangered

blue-throated macaw The blue-throated macaw (''Ara glaucogularis''), also known as the Caninde macaw or Wagler's macaw, is a macaw endemic to a small area of north-central Bolivia, known as Los Llanos de Moxos. In 2014 this species was designated by law as a natur ...

(''Ara glaucogularis'') in the surrounding countryside. Expeditions to see these can be locally arranged.

Transportation

Airport: Teniente Jorge Henrich Arauz
:Lat: 14° 48' 0'' S :Lon: 64° 46' 0'' W :Alt: 509 feet (155 metres)

Gallery

File:Catedral_de_la_Santísima_Trinidad.JPG, Trinidad Cathedral, in Bolivia File:Rio_Ibare.jpg, Ibaré River, Beni File:Trinfountain.jpg, Square in Trinidad, Bolivia File:José_Ballivián_Segurola.JPG, Monument in Trinidad File:TrinidadBolivia.jpg, Trinidad Cathedral File:Santisima.TrinidadBn.jpg, Trinidad, Bolivia

References

External links

Weather in Trinidad

Bolivian Yellow Pages

{{Authority control Populated places in Beni Department Populated places established in 1686 1686 establishments in the Spanish Empire Jesuit Missions of Moxos