Blogs from Oruro Department, Bolivia, South America - page 6

South America » Bolivia » Oruro Department » Oruro February 8th 2008

-- "Hello. Where are you from?" - "England." -- "Do you like Peru?" - "Yes, it's very nice." -- "What do you think of the foreign policy of your government?" - "Um, I haven't lived there for a while, I don't know much about it." Meanwhile, some other bloke on the other side of me, was trying to pickpocket the contents of my jeans pockets, namely a torn photocopied map of Lima, and a flyer for some discoteca. Needless to say the last question gave him away. It's a novel one at least. I had another brief stopover in Lima before getting the 26 hour non-stop bus to La Paz. It was actually a very good, tranquil journey, with none of the rocketing antics of previous bus rides south, and my night in La Paz was ... read more

Carnaval!!!

South America » Bolivia » Oruro Department » Oruro February 5th 2008

Unders

Wow its been a long time since I let the world know what ive been doing and its a lot! Well to start with I am just going to let you all know that this weekend, for the first time ever i got my phone stolen! But that will all come later...Well last weekend and this weekend I went to Oruro for Carnaval! last weekend was the dress rehearsal and this weekend was the real thing. Both weekends we left on friday evening and arrived early saturday morning, the reason for this is that you have to fight against several thousand people to get tickets and in our case wait til one company opened up another bus because all the tickets sold out by midday! Anyway after 8 hours in the bus terminal, the boys taking ... read more

Carnaval

South America » Bolivia » Oruro Department » Oruro February 4th 2008

Carnaval

Leini

The Carnaval in Oruro is the biggest in the country. The procession goes on for two days, all day long. It was interesting. It´s a custom to throw water balloons (gringos are preferred targets) and spray ¨fake snow¨ at each other. For a while it was fun but carnaval isn´t over yet and I´m still getting wet, even here in Cochabamba, where I´ve been since yesteday. The carnaval bands sound surprisingly similar to our ¨Guggemusige¨ in Switzerland, if with a bit less variety in their songs. At one point a guy fell off the grand-stand right above us. It was scary, we thought he died and it took forever until some medical people got there. I heard back from my organization. The buses are supposedly running again, they said they can use all the help they ... read more

Bolivijske mesta a doprava

South America » Bolivia » Oruro Department » Oruro January 28th 2008

Hlavny tah do Chile

Janoo

We bought direct bus tickets to La Paz from Uyuni (where we finished our 4 day tour). Normally, it should be 6-7 hours journey. But unfortunatelly, our bus got stucked in the mud after the 1st hour. Everybody tried to help. We spent there an hour trying to get bus back on the road. 3 other buses came and tried to help. But the bus did not want to continue anymore. So we were split to the other buses (with some difficulties because the buses were already full) and had to travel to Oruro which is the town on the way. We got money from the bus driver, so we can buy tickets from Oruro to La Paz. When we got to Oruro, there was a strike and bus could not get to the bus station ... read more

Lake Titicaca, Bolivia. . . . Argentina, Here we come!

South America » Bolivia » Oruro Department » Oruro November 25th 2007

Paddle boats on Lake Titicaca.

Elyse and Matt

Here we go again. . . it feels like every time I come to update this a months worth of events have taken place. I´ll do my best to catch the big events of the last week(ish). Oh, and today is a special day because you will have 3 new blogs to read/glance over. Matt is writing his own take on the journey so far. I am as curious as you to see what he has to say about the adventure! Last time I wrote I believe we were off to see Lake Titicaca for the first time! The Peruian side of the lake, in Puno, is very different from the Bolivian side. The lake is really pretty, but polluted close to the towns. There is a small amusement park and a ton of people trying ... read more

Cordillera Real Traverse in 11 dagen

South America » Bolivia » Oruro Department » Cordillera Real August 12th 2007

Dag 2

stevekatrijn

Hola Chicas y Chicos, We zijn net terug van een ongelofelijke trektocht van 11 dagen langs/over de Cordillera Real in Bolivia. Onze hematocrietwaarde heeft intussen serieuze dopingwaardes overschreden. We passeerden een 15-tal passen boven de 4500m, waarvan 3 boven de 5000m. De laagste kampplaats lag op 4100m, de hoogste op 4750m. Volgende week kunnen we een marathon lopen :-) Het was een uitputtende tocht met gemiddeld 6u stappen per dag. De tocht bracht ons langs de zelden bezochte (in de eerste 6 dagen zagen we 5 toeristen), ruwe oostkant van de bergketen via een ongelofelijke vallei met lagunes naar de beroemdere westkant, waar de sterk vergletsjerde bergen imposante flanken hebben. Onze gids Selso toverde ongelofelijk lekkere maaltijden uit 5 ingedrienten en vergezelde ons langs de soms fel, steile rotspaden naar vergezichten die je adem letterlijk ontnemen. ... read more

Peaks and Troughs 'innit

South America » Bolivia » Oruro Department » Oruro August 10th 2007

Pack your bags and be ready to move on out

Ranron

So, after the delights of Rio, we had to retrace our steps a wee bitty. This involved getting a very long bus back down to Foz de Iguazu (the big-daddy of waterfalls that we'd previously seen from the Argentinian side, for the benefit of those with short-term memory issues). Here we did not go to the waterfall, but to the ITAPU dam further upstream. It's a beast of a dam and we booked ourselves on the super-duper extreme tour of the dam. Here Spange started getting crazy excited about the prospect of wearing a yellow hard hat (which you didn't get on the normal, non-super tour). I was much more excited by the shower cap you got in the hard hat to stop you from catching fleas from the person who'd been wearing it before. Anyways, ... read more

Plastic is a litter problem here and everywhere in SA

South America » Bolivia » Oruro Department » Oruro August 9th 2007

Oruro

Josie and Paul

We did an overnight bus trip to La Paz and then a 3 hour bus trip to Oruru in a really hot bus that sounded like it was going to konk out at any time. I found this town to be surrounded by rubbish, in particular plastic bags that blow and catch on any little plant. There is rubbish all around the town. We stayed in a Hotel across the road from the Train Station and bought train tickets for the following afternoon to Uyuni. Oruru is quite a big town, in the middle of nowhere. We went looking around the market for camera batteries without luck and had a nice meal of empanandas. Other than this we just hang out, trying to deal with the altitude again and waiting for the train. Friday 10th. We ... read more

Coral island in the middle of the salt flat

La Paz til Tupiza

South America » Bolivia » Oruro Department » Oruro July 1st 2007

Landskab omkring Tupiza

P S Thomsen

Bus og togturen fra La Paz til Tupiza lykkedes fint. Det var spændende at se landskabet i stedet for at flyve. Der var godt styr på bagagen, den blev indleveret og udleveret mod bagagemærker. I toget sad vi på den bedste klasse. Der var TV der viste musikvideoer fra 60'erne til 80'erne. Vi spiste aftensmad i en spisevogn. Da vi skulle sove fik vi hver et tæppe og en pude. Der var nogle metalskodder som blev rullet ned for ruderne om natten, måske for at holde en lille smule på varmen. Ruderne var fyldt med tykke isblomster så det var pænt koldt uden for. Pigerne og jeg sov nogenlunde, men Annette fik ikke meget søvn. Vi kom til Tupiza om morgenen og tog direkte hen på hotel Mitru vi havde reserveret et værelse på. Hotellet måtte ... read more

Janq'uma

South America » Bolivia » Oruro Department » Cordillera Real June 23rd 2007

Ito (Stoamanderl) vor dem Illampu

Apu1980

Servus Freunde! Nochmal ein Blog ueber die Berge, dann lass ich Euch in Ruhe mit dem ewig gleichen Gesuelz. Gestern Abend ist das Team Oberbayern wieder abgeflogen, womit ich wieder auf Solomission bin. An der Stelle noch mal: War superspitzenmaessig mit den Jungs. Ich haett mich echt gefreut, wenn unser Wrack von Taxi auf dem Weg zum Flughafen endgueltig liegengeblieben waere und der Aufenthalt zwangsverlaengert worden waere. Hat nicht geklappt, Schade. Bevor ich mich jetzt also irgendwohin absetz, wo die Sonne scheint & es keinen Schnee gibt, noch mal ein kurzer Lagebericht. Nach einer Zwangspause von vier Tagen mit Duennschiss und Fieber in La Paz Chaos City waren wir letzte Woche alle wieder soweit wiederhergestellt, einen letzten Berg anzuvisieren. Diesmal einen "richtig" hohen & moeglichst abgelegenen Zapfen. In Pepes Cafe Bar bei lecker Essen, Trinken ... read more

Brief history of Bolivia

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 1...more history

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