Blogs from Oruro Department, Bolivia, South America - page 4

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

A friend who I met here told me the best way to describe Bolivia is that everything that is simple at home becomes impossible, and everything impossible at home becomes simple. Eg. morning latte very difficult to find a decent one, but weekend soaking in hot springs cheap and easy. Something I've found challenging since living in downtown Toronto is that restaurants have very limited opening hours, and if they aren't open they all but disappear behind corrugated metal gates and thus can be difficult to locate! But...when you do finally find them they rock! I had lunch for 10 Bs. (~1.50 CAD) at a vegetarian resto: cream of eggplant soup, veggie salad, lentil stew with potato taters, fresh apple/papaya juice and fruit salad and yogurt for dessert :D Then after a little work in my ... read more

In Bolivia Ben and I intended to visit a child that we sponsor through Worldvision. Because of the passport situation Ben could not do it as the visit had been booked and was arranged for a specific date. I arrived in Bolivia as we had planned and on 16/09/09 I was able to do the visit. Through Worldvision Ben and I sponsor three children. Alfredo in Bolivia, and a little girl in Senegal and another boy in Bagladesh. We have contact with the three of them by post and we thought it would be nice to be able to meet at least one of them. We exchange Christmas cards, birthday cards and speak about the differences of the worlds where we live. The project is for the development of the area and in fact we sponsor ... 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

My memories of Oruro Carnival are a wonderful blur of colourful costumes adorned with sequins, water bombs, climbing up and down between narrow wooden planks and chants of “Diablo, Diablo!” Carnival is celebrated across Bolivia but is best in Oruro given that it is Bolivia’s biggest annual cultural event. It’s pretty much a week long party of heavy drinking and water balloons. The carnival procession involves thousands of dancers dressed as devils, angels, bears and Incas. Each of the 50 groups has its own marching band and parades along a 5km route through Oruro. I went to Oruro with a friend called Claudia from university in La Paz. We were talking about Carnival and she said that she’s going with her family and that her parents have a house in Oruro, so I was more than ... read more