Blogs from Cochabamba, Cochabamba Department, Bolivia, South America - page 24

After Sucre the girls and I headed to Cochabamba. We had a spectacular light show on the bus trip, as we watched lightning constantly striking the distant hills. Cochabamba wasn't the nicest place I've been to in Bolivia but it gave us a chance to work out Visas and search, rather exhaustively, for places to eat (it's a pretty sad day when the finest dining experience you can have is in a restaurant called 'Dumbo', that has a giant elephant attached to the roof). From Cocahabamba to the most amazing experience so far; 3 weeks spent doing volunteer work at an animal refuge in Villa Tunari. ''Inti Wara Yassi' ' houses Capuchin, Spider, Squirrel and Howler monkeys, many pumas, ocelots, birds and tortoises, all of which were rescued from lives in captivity, often where they were ... read more

Well the town must´ve known I was coming as there was a huge festival here for my arrival. There was lots of street dancing, drinking, happiness and mercados. What more could I ask for? Well after a while of revelling, I realised it was not for my benefit, but a rather religious affair! It was the Festival of the Virgen de Urkupiña. Basically a huge excuse for the aforementioned street dancing and bands. Groups of dancers and bands from all over Bolivia converged on the small town of Quillacolla, about 12Km from Cochabamba to join in the festivities. They all wore mental costumes, very colourful and some very weird! Most groups danced through the tiny streets for a whole nine hours. This lasted for about 3 whole days. Well the Bolivians have certainly given me a ... read more

Well getting here was the first big adventure! we were very organised and bought our bus tickets in the morning to leave that night, full cama so we were looking foward to a good nights sleep. All was well we got to the bus station in plenty of time and our bus ticket man told us he was changing our bus but it was still cama so we agreed and made our way to the bus. hum. not quite what we had expected! no toilet for one! and the chairs were worse than the number 1 bus, okay not that bad but hardly cama, hardly semi cama! So as cross as we were we got off of the bus to have our first argument in spanish! Dom used every single spanish he knew, and plenty of ... read more

Cochabamba is a great place. Its in a valley surrounded on most sides by mountains which you can walk up at weekends. Lovely climate, blue all day, not too hot but hot enough. Everyone is pretty cheerful as if they know they´ve got it ok here. Lots of open spaces to relax, lots of bars and cafes etc which you can eat at, and street vendors you don’t touch with a barge pole. Really fallen on our feet here. We have a very nice ´granny flat´ attached to a large house and are left to our own devices by the owners. Good, safe part of town as well, although we have a private guard at night who patrols the street. Have joined the country club. This place is great, real touch of luxury, so we are ... read more