Best Traditional Charango and Bolivian String Craft Tour Destinations
Browse more guides: Bolivia travel | South America destinations Best Traditional Charango and Bolivian String Craft Tour Destinations TL;DR The charango is the small-bodied, ten-stringed Andean lute, played from southern Peru through Bolivia and into northern Argentina and Chile. Aiquile , a small town in central Bolivia, hosts the annual Festival Nacional de la Charango (typically October-November) - the deepest single-event immersion in the tradition. Add La Paz , Sucre , and Potosí for workshop visits and broader cultural context. About ten days for a focused trip, two weeks for a wider Andean string-instrument arc. The instrument family extends well beyond the standard charango - ronroco (larger, lower-tuned), walaycho (smaller, higher-tuned), charangón (bass-tuned), chillador (rural folk variant) - and most Bolivian luthiers build several at once. Background The charango is a small (about 60 cm) plucked-string lute with five double courses (ten strings total), trad...