Bolivia

Carnival in Cochabamba

Posted by on Dec 24, 2012 in Bolivia, Countries | 8 comments

Carnival in Cochabamba

Saturday 8th of November happened to be the Entrada Universitaria Carnival in Cochabamba. We were completely unaware of this event until we went downtown for a walk and found out about this great carnival, which is much smaller than the Cochabamba Carnival. Still, it was our first carnival, so it was great! Check out the summary and photos we took. While we were walking on our way to El Prado after having worked all morning and early afternoon, we started to see some Cochabambinos and Cochabambinas wearing uniforms like Cholitas and Cholitos, performing dances in front of a local orchestra. We thought, “There must have been an event that is now finished, and...

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A Whole Month in Cochabamba

Posted by on Dec 23, 2012 in Bolivia, Countries | 0 comments

A Whole Month in Cochabamba

Cochabamba is a middle town six hours east of La Paz. We went there basically to save money, to rest and to get a bit of privacy after three months of staying at people’s places. We choose Cocha for its very good climate. Check out what we did, and what events we attended in this great city during our stay. * 1$=6.95 BoB “Bolivianos” (2012) We arrived in Cochabamba on the 14th of November after a night bus trip of almost seven hours. We arrived in the very early morning at around 6.30 am. We had booked a room at the Residencial Familiar, a very nice hotel (130 Bolivianos for a double room with private bathroom) in calle Sucre. We then immediately started...

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Car-Free day in Cochabamba

Posted by on Dec 3, 2012 in Bolivia, Countries | 0 comments

Car-Free day in Cochabamba

This is how a Car-Free day looks like in Cochabamba a city of 500 000 people. Not only the atmosphere gets cleaner, but people go out, walking, biking, skating; you can find many stalls selling food, handcrafts, drinks; and others educating people about environmental issues and recycling; and of course a lot of activities for the children. This morning I woke up like every day, took a shower, had my breakfast and thought of what we were going to do today as we planed to go to the Cristo de la Concordia at last! But after a while I started to realize that I didn’t hear any noise outside (I thought: “another curfew maybe?”) and when I looked through the...

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Our First Days in La Paz

Posted by on Nov 25, 2012 in Bolivia, Countries | 6 comments

Our First Days in La Paz

We arrived in La Paz in the middle of the night after a very tiring flight from Los Angeles. The first thing you see from the plane—and then at anytime during the night—is the lights. La Paz, unlike many other cities, is illuminated by two different colors of lights—yellow and blue. This is so beautiful—it looks like a big Christmas tree. In addition, the different levels of the city increases the beauty of this night landscape. * 1$=6.95 BoB “Bolivianos” (2012) We found a room on Airbnb and stayed at a Bolivian family home (Natalia & her mother) in southern La Paz, a 20-minute drive from downtown. The family was waiting for us, and after welcoming us...

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Halal Food in La Paz

Posted by on Nov 21, 2012 in Bolivia, Countries | 8 comments

Halal Food in La Paz

We arrived in Bolivia two weeks ago as part of our round-the-world journey. Prior to Bolivia we were at my uncle’s house in Los Angles, and worrying about halal food wasn’t really an issue. The trip to Bolivia, however, made us question if we would be able to find halal food while traveling. In an attempt to answer this question, we did a search online and Google searched to find proper places for halal food. We found nothing, which was a bit depressing, since we planned to spend around three months in this country! But on our second or third day we went to extend our visas, and from there we wandered around downtown La Paz. While we were walking, we saw a big...

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Census day in Bolivia

Posted by on Nov 21, 2012 in Bolivia, Countries | 0 comments

Census day in Bolivia

After one week in Cochabamba and two days in the apartment we’ve just rent for one month, we experienced a census day in Bolivia. This is the first one after 11 years and for that, the government took some special measures… Of course as foreigners we didn’t know anything about that event until the guy from who we rented the flat came yesterday at 7.30 pm with the land lord to introduce us to her, and told us that we could’t go out tomorrow! They explained that in order to count the people, the government imposed a curfew from 12 tonight until 6 pm tomorrow…They suggested that we bought some food if we didn’t have some and anything...

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Getting a Yellow Fever Vaccination in La Paz

Posted by on Nov 11, 2012 in Bolivia, Countries | 4 comments

Getting a Yellow Fever Vaccination in La Paz

Summary: This is how we got our free yellow fever vaccine in La Paz, Bolivia. Details and directions are provided at the end of this post. * 1$=6.95 BoB “Bolivianos” (2012) As a French citizen, entering Bolivia was piece of cake. I wasn’t asked for anything—neither a visa or a certificate of vaccination. Bassel, on the other hand (and because of his Syrian passport) was asked for a visa, which he obtained at the Bolivian embassy in Ottawa Canada. In order to get the visa, he had to bring a proof of his yellow fever vaccination (which he did). The cheapest yellow fever vaccine in Toronto was $160 at that time (price as of June 2012). At first we...

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Our long & tiring flight to Bolivia…

Posted by on Nov 10, 2012 in Bolivia, Countries | 6 comments

Our long & tiring flight to Bolivia…

In our way to Bolivia, we had a very tiring day and for that we thought to share our experience as a result of buying cheap plane tickets! Disclaimer: We are not against buying cheap tickets, but sometimes this can lead to tiring experience and this post will set your expectations prior to any plans you make. The story started when we bought our round trip tickets from Los Angeles to La Paz, to Guayaquil, and finally to Madrid. We booked with Taca Airlines and our first leg included 2 stops. It took us 3 hours to pack our stuff (I don’t know why but when you stay a long time somewhere, you tend to spread what’s in your backpacks like everywhere!), we left...

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