Blogs from Oruro, Oruro Department, Bolivia, South America - page 2

Our next destination wasn’t necessarily a place that we wanted to go to. The real reason for us visiting Oruro was more of a requirement. Basically, we were heading toward Uyuni in order to see the Salt Flats and there were two main ways of going about it. The first was to take a bus directly from La Paz to Uyuni and the second, to stop off in Oruro and get the train down there instead. Since we had yet to get on a train on this trip, we decided this would be a good alternative to the constant bore and repetitiveness of the ever present bus, and was therefore why Oruro was now on the agenda. So, on our return from the jungle to La Paz, we quickly made our way to the bus station ... read more

After crossing the border at Colchane we continued North-East towards Oruro, a city just over 200km south of La Paz. Close to the border is the Coipasa salt flat which we made a detour to see on the way. Coipasa is smaller than the more famous Salar de Uyuni just south of it, but it is really beautiful as it has a volcano in the middle and has the Volcan national park on the horizon. The problem with getting there was that it was a very sandy track down from the main road to reach it. Fine for going down but meant more pushing of our bikes to get back up! We spent a few hours getting there and walking on the salt flat before carrying on to the town of Sabaya before it got dark ... read more

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

Hallo zusammen Also nachdem wir von Copacabana gut in La Paz angekommen sind, musse sich Danielle am 30.07. verabschieden. Feur Sie ist die Zeit gekommen, wieder retour nach Zuerich zu fliegen, am 02.08.2010 faengt Sie mit Ihrem neune Job an ;-)). Es war eine laessige Zeit! Dafuer habe ich jetzt ein neues "Gspaendli" erhalten. Michele, meine Kollegin ist von Zuerich nach La Paz geflogen, am 1.08.2010 kam Sie an und nun gehts auf Entdeckungtour duch Bolivien. Wir sind noch ein bischen in La Paz gelieben, damit sich Michele auch anklimatisieren konnte. ich muss sagen La Paz hat mir sehr gut gefallen, eine "laessige" Stadt! Sie ist modern und zugleich auch sehr Traditionell. Die Stadt hat viele Gesichter (Fotos werden noch folgen :-)). Am 03.08.2010 fuhren wir dann mit dem Bus zu Oruro (ca. 3h Fahrt). Wir ... read more

You may know it as Mardi Gras in New Orleans or as the biggest party in Rio but not many people know that Carnaval is just as happening in Oruro, Bolivia as it is in these other monsters of party capitals. Rather than throwing beads or throwing back yards of margaritas, the only things thrown here are...water balloons and plenty of them. The best part about this is about ninety percent of the time they are directed at girls and young women. It apparently doesn´t matter how big of a target I am, basically screaming "HIT ME AT ALL TIMES," the young chicos love the ladies. It all started on our arrival to Potosi. Potosi was the box of sugar cereal called Cerro Rico and silver was the toy in the bottom; however, there wasn't just ... read more