On the Road Expenses and Statistics, Month Four

Is it expensive to travel around the world? How much would you spend while traveling? This series of posts is aimed at helping travelers to plan their budgets before hitting the road. When we started traveling we always had the worry about how much money we would need—so we’ve decided to share our expenses, as this might help other travelers.

Our fourth month has been all about relaxing—very laid back. It also contained a few unexpected and unplanned events. It all started after our second night in Cochabamba, when we discovered that there would be a curfew the next morning and we could not go out or else we would get arrested. What?! Yes, it was the census day in Bolivia, and we were lucky to witness such a day, knowing that it was the first census in 11 years!

Census day, no one in the streets!

The last weekend we planned to visit El Cristo de La Concordia on Sunday so we could have access to the inside of the statue. But when we stepped out of the house we found there are no cars, no buses and no motor vehicles! The reason was that it was one of Bolivia’s car-free days. It was an incredible experience!

Car-free day, only pedestrians allowed

On another weekend we went to have a nice walk in the city, and we found one of Cochabamba’s beautiful carnivals. It was the Entrada Universitaria 2012 Carnival, and we didn’t know about it until that day. It was a great surprise.

Entrada Universitaria 2012 Carnival

On the same weekend we went to visit El Cristo de La Concordia and spent the whole day there—a remarkable view and stunning scenery.

Cochabamba from top

The city of Cochabamba gave us one of our best and most enjoyable times on our journey so far, and the city insisted on surprising us many times! We highly recommend that you visit this city while you are in Bolivia.

Travel statistics:

• Countries: 1 (we are still in Bolivia).
• Cities visited: 2 (Cochabamba and Oruro)

• Accommodation:

Paid accommodation: 30 days

Free accommodation: 0

• Transportation:

Number of buses: 1 from Cochabamba to Oruro.

• Money spent: We ended up spending $633

Our major spending for this month went to transportation, as it included a plane ticket to Paris from Madrid for $180. But we also knew that Internet is more expensive than some other countries when compared to the speed, as we paid $50 for 2 megs speed and were limited to only 20 gigs per month!

Spending by city:

• Cochabamba: 28 days on an average of $21/day, and this includes the ticket to Paris
• Oruro: 2 days so far on an average of $33/day

• The next month travel plans:

We are in Oruro for some time, as we are planning to spend Christmas with a Bolivian family we met in La Paz. From there we will head to La Paz to catch a flight to the Amazon in Rurrenabaque, where we will spend few weeks before going back to La Paz to take our flight to Ecuador. And you can always check our travel plans the coming winter.