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

At 6.20 we departed Tupiza by train on the Expreso del Sur in executive class! Not really but just passable, what do you expect for 19 quid each. We trundelled slowly north across the Altiplano towards Oruru. It was 12 hours later we arrived in a freezing cold 3700m windy Oruru, which is famous for mining and carnivals. The locals call themselves " Quirquinchos" ( Armadillos) and we found out why when walking the next day to the bus station. Each year the saturday before ash wednesday they hold the biggest carnival in Bolivia, we stumbled across a major dress rehearsal on our way to the bus station. Normally they would wear costumes and masks. There was hardly any shops open as most of the locals were in the bands or singing and dancing, and drinking ... read more

Hier noch ein paar Eindruecke von Oruro, als wir in die Uyuni Wueste gingen. Habe ein PC gefunden, wo man schneller Foeteli laden kann :-)) Oruro hat einen riesen Markt.... das Staedtchen hat mir gut gefallen. Als wir dort war, feierten Sie den nationalen Unabhaengigkeitstag (ein bischen wie bei uns der 1. August). Ich sage nur Paraden, Paraden..... :-))... read more

We have been fairly lucky with parades and festivals in South America seeing one in Agua Caliente and now being in Bolivia during their Independence day. We booked into a hotel we found in our Bolivia book it was OK, hot water, double bed, and fairly cheap (110 B´s for a double). Then we went to a restaurant also recommend in our Bolivia book I don't remember the name but it doesn't matter me and Hollie renamed it ´Por Favor´anyway. The waiter who was too smartly dressed for the restaurant said Por Favor before and after everything he reminded me of a Bolivian version of Manuel from Faulty Towers. The food was good me opting for a steak after using our phrasebook and being able to tell the waiter I wanted it with no blood with ... read more

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