Cotoca

Cotoca
	; Cotoca Church
Basic data
Residents (state)	19,482 pop. (2012 census)
rank	Rank 34
height	363 m
Post Code	07-0102-0100-1001
Telephone code	(+591)
Coordinates	17 ° 45 ′ S , 63 ° 0 ′ W Coordinates: 17 ° 45 ′ S , 63 ° 0 ′ W
	Cotoca
	Cotoca
politics
Department	Santa Cruz
province	Andrés Ibáñez Province
climate
	; Climate diagram Santa Cruz

Cotoca is a medium- sized town in the Santa Cruz department in the lowlands of the South American Andean state Bolivia .

Location in the vicinity

Cotoca is the central place of the canton of Cotoca in the district ( Bolivian : Municipio ) Cotoca in the province of Andrés Ibáñez , and the city is located at an altitude of 363 m halfway between Santa Cruz , capital of the department, and Puerto Pailas on the Río Grande .

geography

Cotoca is located in the Bolivian lowlands east of the Andes mountain range of the Cordillera Central . The region has a tropical climate with a balanced temperature profile.

The annual average temperature of the region is 24 ° C, the monthly average values fluctuate only slightly between 20 ° C in July and 26 ° C in December (see Santa Cruz climate diagram). The annual precipitation is about 1000 mm, the monthly precipitation is between under 50 mm in the months of July and August and over 150 mm in January.

Transport network

Cotoca is on the Ruta 4 highway , which crosses Bolivia from west to east, from Tambo Quemado on the Chilean border via Cochabamba and Santa Cruz to Puerto Suárez on the Brazilian border. The Ruta 4 at Cotoca is identical to the Ruta 9 , which crosses the Bolivian lowlands from south to north, from Yacuiba on the Argentine border in the south via Santa Cruz and Trinidad to Guayaramerín on the Brazilian border in the north.

From Santa Cruz the asphalt road leads first 20 kilometers in an easterly direction to Cotoca and after another 25 kilometers crosses the Rio Grande at Puerto Pailas. From there to the Brazilian border it's 758 kilometers on mostly unpaved roads. In the same way, a railway line from Santa Cruz to Puerto Suárez also runs through Cotoca .

In Cotoca, a dirt road branches off to the south, which after 16 km reaches the town of Paurito .

population

The population of the place has increased more than tenfold in the past decades:

year	Residents	source
1976	2 107	census
1992	9 229	census
2001	15 181	census
2012	19 482	census

Due to the historically increased population immigration , the region has a certain proportion of Quechua population, in the Municipio Cotoca 17.8 percent of the population speak the Quechua language.

Hogar Teresa de los Andes

About 10 minutes walk outside of Cotoca in the direction of El Pailon is the "Hogar Teresa de los Andes", a social facility for mentally and physically disabled people.

The home was founded at the end of the eighties by brothers of the Colombian order "FDP" (Hermanos de la Fraternidad de la Divina Providencia). There are currently around 150 children, young people and adults living in this project.

The home is divided into seven different pavilions, each marked with a different color. Disabled children, adolescents and adults live in these different areas - divided according to age and degree of disability. Another essential part of the home are the various therapy areas. These consist of physiotherapy, "Estimulación" (stimulation therapy), psychotherapy, the "Sala de la Recreación" (relaxation therapy), "Fono- / Audiología" (speech therapy) and the "Taller" (workshop).

In addition to the pavilions and the therapy areas, there is a small hospital, a bakery, a laundry, a tailor's shop, its own school, a day-care center for disabled children, adolescents and adults from the surrounding area, a daycare center for the children of the employees as well a small chapel. About 10 minutes by car outside in the direction of "El Pailon" there is a farm attached to the home. A total of between 130 and 150 people work in the various areas.

The facility is supported almost exclusively from donations. In recent years, the project has also been accompanied by voluntary services, mostly by teenagers or young adults from Germany and Spain.