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Travel Blog » South America » Bolivia » Cochabamba Department » Cochabamba

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Background: Bolivia, named after independence fighter Simon BOLIVAR, broke away from Spanish rule in 1825; much of its subsequent history has consisted of a series of nearly 200 coups and counter-coups. Comparatively democratic civilian rule was established in 1982, but leaders have faced difficult problems of deep-seated poverty, social unrest, and illegal drug production. Current goals include attracting foreign investment, strengthening the educational system, resolving disputes with coca growers over Bolivia's counterdrug efforts, and waging an anticorruption campaign.

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By WoodlyDC
September 4th 2008

Oruro y Las Termas de Obrajes

South America » Bolivia » Cochabamba Department » Cochabamba

This past weekend my friend Sebastian and I took off to a smaller town about four hours from Cochabamba. After a bit of a harrowing drive in a micro bus (mini van), whose driver courageously passed slower cars and trucks while going around very tight turns with little vision of oncoming traffic, we arrived in the sleepy town of Oruro. It was late and we hadn´t really made a plan for a hotel so it was a bit of a challenge to figure out where we´d sleep for the weekend. However, we got lucky on our second search and found a [View Full Entry]

By WoodlyDC
August 20th 2008

Mystery Meat

South America » Bolivia » Cochabamba Department » Cochabamba

As part of my homestay costs, I recieve breakfast lunch and dinner each day. Althought strange to be served my meals everyday, I have had the chance to try some interesting cuisine. The Grandmother of the house, Dido, usually prepares the lunches since she is retired and spends her days at the house. The other day I came home from work ready for a big meal. As an aside, many families here have a very big lunch around 1 or 2 and have bread and tea around 6 for dinner. I usually get a big bowl of soup and then a [View Full Entry]

By WoodlyDC
August 15th 2008

Festival of the Virgin Urkupiña

South America » Bolivia » Cochabamba Department » Cochabamba

This week there is a huge festival in a town outside of the city called Quillacollo. It is the Festival of the Virgin Urkupiña The legend is that a shepherd girl from a poor family was out on the Orkupiña hillsides one day and an image of a celestial woman appeared in front of her. The woman told her to pick up some stones at her feet and take them home to her family. When the girl arrived at her home the stones had turned to silver, therefore releaving her family of poverty. When the people of Quillacollo heard the news [View Full Entry]

By WoodlyDC
August 11th 2008

Si o No

South America » Bolivia » Cochabamba Department » Cochabamba

Yesterday the Bolivian people voted in a referendum for or against the current president, Evo Morales. Things are pretty heated right now as there is a very strong divide between Bolivians. My host family invited me to go with them to vote. Another volunteer came over to the house to join us and around 11 we walked to the nearby school where they vote. The law states that no cars are permitted on the roads unless given permission so things were strangley quiet. When we arrived at the school there were some people mingling outside where a few food stands were [View Full Entry]

By Droppers
August 8th 2008

Arequipa and Lake Titikaka

South America » Bolivia » Cochabamba Department » Cochabamba

The lads rafting

Hi all, So much has happend since the last blog entry, from the nazca we got on the nicest bus to arequipa and woke up quite fresh. We stayed at the point hostal again however this one wasnt as lively as the lima one. We met up whith a couple of ppl in the hostal and had a little look around the town that day, there was a protest on about something or other but it was interesting to see. Then went to a museum with a frozen inka sacrafice mummy inside which was nice...zzzzzz oh sorry bout that lol. Went [View Full Entry]

By WoodlyDC
August 7th 2008

I don´t want to hear it cause I know what I´ve done

South America » Bolivia » Cochabamba Department » Cochabamba

Spelunking

Last weekend I was invited by three other volunteers to travel to a small town south of Cochabamba called Toro Toro. While a fairly ambigous little town, it is surrounded by some of the most beautiful and historic parts of the country. I had little knowledge of what Toro Toro was all about or really what I was getting into. I had thought maybe it would be better to stick around the city to get better acclimated with my surroundings but I am sure as hell glad I didn´t. One of the volunteers, Laura, had organized for us to take a [View Full Entry]

By WoodlyDC
July 31st 2008

The Beginning

South America » Bolivia » Cochabamba Department » Cochabamba

Well after a long and exhausting two day trip, I have safely and succesfully made it to Cochabamba. For those who hadn't heard, I missed both AM flights in La Paz and the afternoon flights were totally booked. That meant I had to sit around the airport the entire day until 7:30 pm when the next flight left. That was pretty awful. Anyways, I arrived last night around 8 pm. One of the Sustainable Bolivia staffers came to pick me up. We drove to the director Erik's home to pick him up. Then we headed for my host family's place. I [View Full Entry]

By Eric from Boulder
July 12th 2008

El Lago Titicaca!

South America » Bolivia » Cochabamba Department » Cochabamba

Copacabana
Taken from our boat as we set out on the way to isla de sol

Buenos Noches! I finally have some downtime in Lima. Liz left tonight, and I look forward to a rest after 2 weeks of constant travel! I will be staying in Lima at Loki Hostel once again, for tonight and Saturday night. I plan on getting some Laundry done tomorrow, as well as making some progress on the planning of the second leg of my trip. So the past few days have been nonstop. After spending 2 nights and 3 days in La Paz, we booked a fare on a local bus for 15 bolivianos and headed to Copacabana (on the bolivian [View Full Entry]

By Karlson
July 8th 2008

Orphanage

South America » Bolivia » Cochabamba Department » Cochabamba

During this last week in Bolivia, I decided to change locations and started working at an orphanage by the name of Cuidadera. Come to find out, there are over 200 orphanages in Cochabamba alone. Most of the kids at Cuidadera are evidence of the lack of birth control education in Bolivia, and unfortunately, many of them are also the products of drug abusing parents. There are seventy-some kids at this particular orphanage, ranging in age from a mere couple of months to 18 years of age. My time is spent volunteering in the daycare where I mainly work with kids under [View Full Entry]

By Jono Dahna
July 7th 2008

Lake Titicaca and Isla del sol, birth place of the sun

South America » Bolivia » Cochabamba Department » Cochabamba

first glimpse of Lake Titicaca

Our next sojourn out of La Paz was to head for Lake Titicaca and Isla Del Sol (Island of the sun), the birthplace of the Sun, according to the Incas. We were trying to decide whether to go to Lake Titicaca from Peru or Bolivia. After talking with people and reading up a bit about it all, we decided on going from Copacabana in Bolivia. Apparently there is a lot of tension between the locals and the foreign owned tour companies in Peru, and as a tourist you can feel unwelcome as a result. It also fitted in with our plans [View Full Entry]

Travel Blog » South America » Bolivia » Cochabamba Department » Cochabamba