Blogs from Oruro, Oruro Department, Bolivia, South America - page 3

Hola Amigos und auf zum vllt. letzten Eintrag....naja ein Resumee wirds auch nochmal geben. Diesmal schreib ich euch aus Oruro, Bolivien wo gerade Carneval ist aber zuerst mal zu den anderen Abenteuern nach Mancora, Peru. Huaraz war echt saugeil, da muss ich nochmals hin wenn ich wiedermal in Suedamerika unterwegs sein sollte. Da gibts jede Menge Gletscher, sehr geile Wanderwege und Klettergebiete und auch geile Mountainbike strecken. Ah solche haben wir auch gleich gemacht. Mit Rad im Kofferraum sind wir auf einen Berg hinauf wo wir danach nochmals so halb bergauf, halb gerade ca. 1 Stunde in den Bergen herumgeradelt sind ehe es dann rapido den Berg wieder runter ging. Also ich war ja noch nie so wirklich Downhillen und deswegen war das einfach Spitze da 40min lang den Berg runterzupruegeln. Der einzige Scheiss ist, das ... read more

So after our trip up Huanya Potosi it was time for a New Year celebration. We jumped on a bus early new years eve and were bound for Uyuni but decided to break the trip up and stay in Oruro for New years as we heard we could get a train to Uyuni. We arrived at lunch time in Oruro and found a nice little hostel opposite the train station to stay for 2 euro a night. Once settled in we headed over to the train station to buy our tickets for new years day but unfortunately the station was closed till 11 the next day. Insterad we wandered around the town which turned out to be quite a ghost town. The four of us decided to buy some wine and head out for dinner which ... read more

Sorry I haven't written in so long, this is in fact a good thing since I have not been bored for quite some time! New volunteers in Oruro as meant an expanded social circle and more to do after work I have a new roommate and so stuff around the house gets split in two and I have someone to hang out with at night. She organized my birthday party, that rocked :) I was woken up at 8h30 by singing at my door, my host-family brought cake and hot chocolate to wake me up! Then a great day at the markets, found some amazing shoes for 22$ (so now I can wear them to go out dancing!). Then supper with 14 of my new friends at a great grill house 2 steps from my apartment. ... read more

So I'm a horrible blogger and I apologize. To recap the last 2 weeks or so, I've accomplished the 1st part of the 1st step of my mandate (a database), settled into my new apartment, and went to Copacabana which resulted in 2 days spent in a Bolivian hospital due to bad trout. For those of you who don't know this yet, I'm here as part of my IDS co-op degree for the next 10 months working on a maternal and infant health project. My stage is part of the Uniterra program, a joint venture between the Center for International Studies and Co-operation (CECI) and the World University Service of Canada (WUSC). While here I will be working on a 10 month mandate for the Un Aguayo para un Parto sin Riesgos project, ie. and aguayo ... read more

Hello everyone! This ones coming at you from Oruru, Bolivia. La Paz locals who heard we were traveling there usually wrinkled their noses and said something to the effect of "ohhh... its dirty little mining town!" Well, it isn´t that dirty, but its not much to look at either. It is also very cold! We can see our breath in our unheated hostel room. Besides cold, I can declare Oruru to be an oddly interesting place. We met this man in a coffee shop one morning (turns out he was a professor of Anthropology at Oruru University) we had a long conversation about Oruru. According to him, whatever this area lacks in physical natural beauty it makes up for in its sense of Mystery. It seems the people are a superstitious bunch, praying to Pachamama (or ... read more