Gluten Free Bolivia

Before heading to Bolivia, I tried searching online information regarding celiac and gluten-free awareness in the country but couldn’t find much info (see other resources at the end of the article). After 3 months of traveling through Bolivia, here is a summary that will hopefully assist other celiacs on the road!

In general, celiac disease is uncommon in Bolivia, and awareness is low. Some naturally gluten-free foods are available widely throughout the country – I stuck to those. In addition, some “gringo” places offer gluten-free western food. Cross-contamination is common, as well as confusion regarding stuff that contains gluten (caldo = broth is widely used), therefore I suggest using the gluten-free Spanish card and sticking to cooking yourself when possible.

Typical Gluten-Free Bolivian Food – Vegetarian

Bolivia is a challenging place for Vegetarians – meat is the most common food and is often eaten at least twice a day (!). If you eat meat, you can always find options like grilled meat (“a la brasa”) with rice/quinoa/potatoes or other starchy veggies like Platano or Yuca.

Some good news: in the districts of North (jungle) and east Bolivia (Santa Cruz), pastries are traditionally made of flour and starch that aren’t wheat. They often use yuca (cassava), corn, rice or platano (plantain) as the base. Here are those I found and loved:

• Cuñape – cheesy (addictive) baked pastry made of yuca flour and cheese. It’s mostly common in Santa Cruz area and the north (Beni) region and is yummy fresh.
• Pan de Arroz – baked bread made of rice flour and cooked yuca. It’s also available filled with cheese, onion and sweet pepper.
• Humitas de Choclo – humitas are like tamales: ground corn with spices and veggies, baked or boiled while wrapped in the corn leaf. I ate the “classic” humitas once and got stomach issues (I think they might be using broth (“caldo”) as a spice). But the Choclo (sweet) version which is traditionally in triangle form, was always good and really yummy: similar to cake or pancake (and resembles the Colombian arepa de choclo).
• Masaco de plátano – another option from Santa Cruz region is a cooked and than baked platano with cheese.
• Sonso – you guessed right, we have starch (yuca- cassava) and cheese again! It sometimes just feels like mashed potatoes fried, which can be good but also a bit boring.

Things to be careful of

Soups (including the great Sopa de Mani – peanut soup common in the area of Cochabamba) often contain Cubo de Caldo (broth) and not just spices. Ask to see the package or show the gluten-free card, as often they just say it contains “especias” (spices) and don’t understand the consequences. Sope de Mani also traditionally contains fideos – noodles.

Cooked beans, lentils and vegetables are unfortunately also often made with broth.

There are no designated fryers so I would only eat fries in places that don’t have other breaded foods in the menu.

Common Brands Available in the Supermarket (and what Not to Buy)

Many (but not all…) gluten free products are marked with the “SIN TAAC” (sin Trigo, Avena, Cebada y Centeno) sign that looks like this:

• Bio XXI have cereals, pastas and mixes for cakes, bread and pizza.
• Valerie and me have gluten-free sweets and spreading.
• MATARAZZO pasta (red package) is often the cheapest option and I suggest to avoid it – the texture is terrible and it made me cry once and hate the fact I have celiac 🙁
• Don taco has tortillas de Maiz (corn) in a purple package – they are nice if you heat them, but if not they taste a bit weird.

Good to know: in Bolivia (similarly to Colombia) some of the soy sauce brands don’t contain gluten (they are not really fermented so don’t have wheat). Ask to see the bottle before saying you can’t eat it!

Supermarkets

A supermarket is not a very common thing in Bolivia – they are normally found only in the big cities in more “poche” areas, and don’t belong to a chain. Eco-stores are also available in bigger towns and can be a good solution for getting special gluten-free supplies. Some supermarkets I came across and had gluten-free items:

• IC Norte in Cochabamba
• SAS in Sucre
• Globus in Oruro
• HiperMaxi in La Paz

Gluten-free in Tours (Uyuni Salt Flats, Jungle-Selva/Pampas Rurrenabaque tour)

Tour agencies are experienced with celiac travellers and will say that they can handle gluten free. The good news: there is always something to eat, as it’s often some kind of buffet – for example I could always get rice or quinoa and vegetables. The bad news: not always the cooks know about things that contain gluten (like caldo – broth and some spices) and cross contamination. It’s best to present yourself to the chef upon arrival and show the gluten-free card. It’s never a bad idea to bring some backup food.

• Uyuni agency: discovery colored lagoons
• Pampas tour agency: fluvial – I don’t recommend the agency due to them feeding the animals 🙁 in terms of food, once I presented the gluten-free card to the chef, it was good (I got yummy pancakes from platano, cunapes etc). Before that, they put caldo and I had stomach issues.
• Selva tour agency: Ben Jaja – tour and food were great and highly recommended. Note it’s a french agency and all other travelers were french (but super nice).

Breakfast – the Hardest?

I heard from a fellow celiac traveller that for him, breakfast was the most difficult meal as it’s often based on bread and spreading (if you are lucky, some eggs and juice). I always had some kind of bread replacement with me for that case: tortillas, pan de arroz, rice cakes or corn flour that I used to make arepas with. Here are some ideas on how to upgrade a hostel breakfast.

Find me Gluten Free App – Keep Other Celiacs Posted

I used the find me gluten free app a lot, and tried updating it once I found something new that wasn’t mentioned or outdated. Please keep this great app going by adding some useful info!

Gluten Free Copapabana & Isla del Sol

Isla del Sol – We stayed on the north side of isla del sol, where choices are anyway limited to 3 restaurants. You can get rice, egg, meat and sometimes fruit / veggie in all of them. As for me, I brought with me rice crackers and oats (bought in Puno, Peru…) and we were cooking on our camping stove – everything is more expensive on the island but we could get quinoa, rice and veggies in the local store.

Copacabana – we ate in pizzeria pan america – pizza was yummy, but note it takes a long time, not really filling, and quite pricey. I would still recommend it if you crave pizza, as the atmosphere of sitting in the garden was great. They also offer other gluten-free options like lasagna and stir-fry. Note it’s new location – inside the casa del sol hostel.

Gluten Free Cochabamba

For a reason I didn’t crack yet, Cochabamba is the capital of celiacs in Bolivia and multiple restaurants are dedicated gluten free, so you can really eat safely without worrying about cross-contamination. I used the find me gluten free app and can especially recommend the following places:

• Punto y Coma – family-owned cafe with yummy cakes I haven’t seen anywhere else like tiramisu (!) and layered cream chocolate cake (28 BOB). They also have main courses (haven’t tried), empanadas and groceries like pasta, flour and crackers. Note their opening hours – they sometimes do a siesta 🙂
• Econatural (near the IC Supermarket) has all the regular GF products you can find, and also fresh gluten-free bread and nice cheese empanadas (sometimes) for 6 BOB.
• Tacabrón – if you are craving mexican food like me, this was one of the only places I could find only corn tortillas, el pastor was extremely good! No vegetarian options though.
• Sonso at Typica Cafe – apart from being our favorite cafe in Cochabamba, with a really nice atmosphere and garden, yummy specialty coffee and cool design, they also had the best sonso I tried in Bolivia (18 BOB). Not many other GF options though (they have pavlova).

Gluten Free Samaipata

• The best sonso of bolivia – cute stand just outside the market, selling cheap traditional bolivian food: Masaco de plátano (5 BOB), Sonso (5 BOB) and Cuñape (3 BOB). It’s baked separately but not sure about cross-contamination (I normally react fast to gluten and had no issues). Coffee is included if you sit in.
• There is a lady going around on weekends selling cuñapes for 2 BOB each – we found her near the market on a Sunday.
• Sebastian’s Alfajores – Sebastian is an Argentinian guy going around town with a basket of yummy alfajores. He has 3 gluten free options (10, 15 and 20 BOB) with dulce de leche and / or nutella, and they are all really yummy.

Gluten Free Sucre

• Order from gluten free sucre – they bake freshly and deliver to Sucre’s city center for 5BOB. I loved their buns (pan redondo) but the empanadas were a bit dry.
• Unnamed cuñapes place near mercado central (estimated location) – this amazing cuñape place (2 BOB) also have pan de arroz, Sonso and Arepa (all for 5 BOB). All freshly baked and super yummy. If you order one of the more expensive stuff, you get a free coffee. Note they are closed at lunchtime and reopen around 16:00.
• Eco-tiendas – there are many spread around the city center. In Veritas Saludable near the market we could find gluten-free oats.

Gluten Free Potosi

• Kalapurka Soup at Tambo Señorial – a traditional ancient soup with a hot stone in the middle. It contains grounded corn, chilli and other veggies. Meat version is the traditional, but vegetarian version (that we tried) is also available and really yummy.
• Farmacia – on the south-east corner of the Plaza Principal, there is a pharmacy selling multiple gluten-free products including pastas, cookies, flours and mixes.
• Supersur supermarket had harina de maiz (for making arepas), great pasta from chickpeas and sesame/peanut treats.

Gluten Free Uyuni

We mainly cooked while staying in Uyuni, stocking up at the market. We also visited minuteman pizza which had a thin crust, quinoa-based dough and a super nice atmosphere.
For an easy tour in the Salar, I recommend stocking up with:

• Rice cakes are available in Supermercado Fortune – it saved me at breakfast.
• Nuts – we stocked up in Sucre market where it was cheaper, but also available at supermercado Fortune or Exito. In the market in Uyuni I could only find peanuts.
• Potato chips (sharing size 🙂 )
• Sesame sweets – replacing cookies

Gluten Free Oruro (and Sajama Village)

Oruru was our stop to get supplies before heading to Lagunas de Altura hike in Sajama. In Sajama village itself there are a few tiendas where you can get stuff that are naturally gluten-free, but no specialty products. It’s also probably a bit cheaper to stock up in Oruru / Patacamaya.

• Pan de Maiz at Mercado Max Fernandez – I got a tip (thanks Indi) that Pan de Maiz (corn bread) is available at this market – should be a lady selling it in a stand next to the eggs. I wasn’t able to find it, but if you did, please let me know!
• Supermercado Global had products such as pastas, cookies and tortillas
• Soria Galvarro st. is full with eco-stores selling gluten free products, including bread. I was searching for oats and couldn’t find them, but there are some freshly baked cookies and cunapes (not sure about cross contamination as they sell other breads too).

Gluten Free Coroico

We haven’t found any options in Coroico and mostly ended up cooking for ourselves. The culinary options were mainly burgers / fries…

• Carla’s Garden pub could make me (meat) a burger without a bun with loads of fries on the side. It’s a lot of stairs going down, so before you head there, check if the “open” sign in the main square is on.

Gluten Free Rurrenabaque

As mentioned, all the delicious Bolivian pastries actually come from the Beni region where Rurrenabaque is. Every evening (after 17:00, Bolivian time…) around mercado campesino it’s a party for the mouth: a family making pan de arroz; a child selling his mother’s cuñapes; an older lady specializing in humitas (including choclo) and pan de arroz. It’s a great opportunity to hang with the locals – they all pilgrim their way there for a treat after a hard day’s work. Our stable tradition in Rurre was heading to the market around 17:30, getting some of each of the daily specialties for take away and eating on a bench at the Beni riverbank, watching the sunset. You can also get a fresh slice of watermelon at the waterfront for 2 BOB. Make sure you have some napkins or paper and a drink – this meal makes you quite thirsty and oily.
How to find these vendors? Go on calle 18 de noviembre direction market (opposite from the river). On your left, you will find a sign where pan de arroz is made. Continue towards the entry to the market- that’s were you’ll find the cuñape kid and humitas.

Juliano’s was a nice dinner option – they were aware of gluten and the food was great.

More resources

• Gluten free Bolivia tips (2018) by Kanoo tours
• Ton Nederhof’s review of traveling Bolivia (including Potosi and Uyuni)
• Christina’s review (2009) has several travel tips and La Paz tips