Turco Municipality


Turco Municipality is the second municipal section of the Sajama Province in the Oruro Department in Bolivia, and was founded on February 15, 1957. Its seat is Turco, situated 154 km west of Oruro at an altitude of 3,860 m. The municipality covers an area of 3,973 km², not taking into account the area of Laca Laca Canton.
It is bordered to the north by the Curahuara de Carangas Municipality and San Pedro de Totora Province, to the south by the Litoral and Sabaya Provinces, to the west by Chile and to the east by the Carangas Province and Chuqi Quta.

Geography

The most important rivers are Sajama, Cosapa, Lauca, K'uwiri and Qullpa Jawira .
A couple of volcanoes and mountains of the Bolivian Western Mountain Range like Uqi Uqini and the volcanic complex of Kimsa Chata, a group of three mountains named Umurata, Acotango and Capurata in the west of the municipality are making up the natural border of Turco Municipality with Chile. Other mountains are listed below:

Subdivision

The municipality is divided into four cantons and nine ayllus.
CantonCreatedInhabitants
Asunción Laca LacaDecember 21, 1962342
ChachakumaniAugust 30, 1957374
CosapaNovember 11, 1950918
TurcoJuly 27, 19512,526

Flora and fauna

Part of Cosapa Canton is situated within Sajama National Park. This park was created to conserve the rare woods of the queñua species Polylepis tarapacana and to protect species of wild flora and fauna like yareta ', Andean hairy armadillo ', Darwin's rhea ', vicuña ', taruca ', Andean mountain cat ' and cougar or puma ', all of them occurring in the municipality, as well as their habitat.
The region has a rich diversity of native plants which are both useful for the inhabitants and the animals. The most important species are:
Common nameScientific nameUsability'
AñawayaAdesmia spinosissimaforage for llamas
WayllaStipa obtusaforage for llamas
IchuStipa ichuforage, handicraft
Iru ichuFestuca orthophyllaforage, handicraft
Qanlli kiskaTetraglochin cristatumforage
ChillkaSenecio pampaeforage, medical plant
Yarita, yaretaAzorella asorellamedical plant, heating material
Tara taraFabiana densamedical plant, heating material
Ñaka thulaBaccharis incarummedical plant, heating material
Supu thulaParastrephya lepidophyllamedical plant, heating material
AyrampuOpuntia soehrensii / Tunilla soehrensiimedical plant, forage
Muña muñaSatureja ovatamedical plant, forage
ItapalluCajophora horridamedical plant, forage
Kinwa, queñuaPolylepis tarapacanaforage, heating material, ornamental
ChachakumaEscallonia resinosamedical plant
Llapa, pasto banderaBoutelova simplexforage
Yawarilla, cebadilla comúnBromus unioloidesforage
Cebadilla de montañaAgrostis breviculmisforage
Chiji blancoDistichlis humilisforage
Chiji negroMulenbergia fastigiataforage
GarbancilloAstragalus garbancillotoxic
LampayaLampaya medicinalismedical plant, forage, heating material
QuraCajophora horridaforage
K’achuAnoda triangularis''forage

The people

Most of the people in the municipality are of Aymara descent known as Carangas. They are mostly bilingual. According to census 2001 the main languages spoken are Spanish and Aymara.

Transport

The international transit road from Oruro to Chile crosses Turco Municipality leading to Tambo Quemado situated in the Chachacomani Canton in the north-western part of the municipality at the border between Chile and Bolivia.