Bolivia
Bolivia is located within central South America and is a land-locked country surrounded by Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Chile. With a total land area of 1,098,301 sq km, Bolivia ranks as the 28th largest country in the world (just under three times the size of Montana). Bolivia has various climate regions which change due to altitude: humid and tropical to cold and semiarid. With the rugged Andes Mountains and a highland plateau (Altiplano),Bolivia also has hills and the lowland plains of the Amazon Basin. Although La Paz, the capital city, is located in a fairly centralized location with regard to north and south, it's location along the wester border near Lake Titicaca places the poltical center of the country clearly outside of a truly centralized location for the country as a whole. To futher complicate the location of La Paz, it is located within the crest of the Andes Mountains. Ultimately, the people of Bolivia have several physically geographic obstacles which must be overcome in order to directly interact with their political leaders. The land locked nature of Bolivia is an additional geographic issue of concern. In order to conduct international trade beyond its immediate neighbors, Bolivia must maintain productive relations with these neighbors in an effort to negotiate access to their navigable rivers and airspace for the purposed of transporting imports and exports. Bolivia's natural geographic hazards include both flooding in the northeast common in March and April, as well as volcanic activity within the Andes along the border with Chile (including both Irruputuncu and Olca-Paruma).