This year, Oruro will celebrate its carnival on Saturday, February 6th. On this day, more than 400,000 will gather in this former mining town to revel in non-stop folkloric dance parades and parties on a huge scale. See why this is the most popular annual festival in all of Bolivia, and one of South America’s most famous, by joining in on the fun as Lucifer and his devils show off their famous dance moves.
The U.S.’s WWF and Mexico’s Lucha Libre may be more famous, but if you want the craziest wrestling spectacle for your buck, you need to attend a Cholita Wrestling match in La Paz. Locals and tourists alike gather each Sunday evening to watch the theatrics. Like those of its predecessors, the highly entertaining matches are staged to showcase different tricks and storylines rather than truly fought, and the storylines emphasize humor and social justice. The uniquely entertaining matches are part of the culture of La Paz, with a surprisingly long history.
The North Yungas Road connects La Paz, Bolivia to the small town of Coroico in the tropical Yungas region. It was built by Paraguayan prisoners during the Chaco War of the 1930s and quickly gained notoriety, although it wasn’t christened the world’s most dangerous road until 1995, by the Inter-American Development Bank. At some points, the narrow, single-lane road’s sharp curves and sheer drops led to vehicles falling off, especially during the rainy season. (You can even search for videos of this happening on Youtube.) After a new alternative road was built, the Yungas Road became much less frequently transited by vehicles. At the same time, it became a popular tourist destination attracting mountain biking thrill-seekers…
Christmas is one of the year’s most important holidays in Bolivia, although in contrast to some other countries, Christmas Eve is more important than Christmas Day. While you’ll find the plazas and squares decorated with lights and large trees, most homes limit their decorations to the family’s nativity scene.
You’ll find that the streets are quite festive and crowded on Christmas Eve, with lots of people carrying freshly roasted turkeys home and shopping for last-minute gifts, firecrackers, and decorations from the street vendors and pop-up markets. You’ll also see people carrying their canastón, gift baskets of food staples, Christmas treats, and sparkling cider.
Those of you traveling through Bolivia or Peru during the holiday season will notice that Christmas here is quite different than in many other places. Firstly, it falls in summertime and, in the Andes, the rainy season. Rather than ubiquitous Santa Clauses on every corner and in every shopping mall, there’s the live-action neighborhood nativity with real animals and people.