Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Post office
Half a block north of the Plaza 10 de Febrero on Pddte Montes.
Telephone office
ENTEL, on Plaza Manuel Castro de Padilla.
Travel agencies
Charlie Tours ( 02 5252979,
charlietours@yahoo.com
)
, Leon 501,
runs tours both in and around Oruro, and further afield.
Around Oruro
There areahandfulofworthwhile excursions aroundOruro.Ifyou'reinneedofsomerelaxa-
tion, head to the
thermal baths
at Obrajes, 25km away.
Lago Uru Uru
, meanwhile, is home
to hundreds of flamingos during the rainy season. South of Oruro is
Lago Poopó
, Bolivia's
second largest lake, while to the southwest is a road leading to the
Chilean border
.
Aguas termales
About 25km northeast of Oruro • Daily 7am-6pm • Bs10 • Micros heading to Obrajes leave every half-hour or
so from the corner of Av 6 de Agosto and Caro
The
aguas termales
(thermal baths) at Obrajes are a good place to soak away the chill of the
Altiplano. Fed by hot springs with reputedly curative powers, there are also more expensive
private baths for rent, as well as places to buy drinks and snacks, and an overpriced restaur-
ant.
Lago Uru Uru and the Chilean border
Roughly 12km southeast of Oruru,
Lago Uru Uru
is a shallow, brackish lake fed by the Río
Desaguadero, which drains the overflow from Lago Titicaca to the north. During the rainy
season (between Jan and March, or later if it has been a wet year) you may see hundreds of
flamingos in the shallow waters of the lake. The marshy fringes of the lake have long been
home to small communities of
Urus
, the oldest ethnic group of the Altiplano.
From Lago Uru Uru a rough road heads southwest to the
Chilean border
at Pisiga, 228km
from Oruro, though relatively few travellers use this route. It cuts across the northern fringes
of the lake along a colonial-era raised causeway, the
Puente Español
, a thirty-minute drive
from Oruro. From the start of the causeway, a short walk around the lakeshore to the north-
west takes you to
Chusaqueri
, a virtually abandoned farming hamlet overlooked by about a
dozen pre-Columbian tombs known as
chullpas
. These 2m-high adobe structures sit on solid
stone platforms, with narrow doorways and roofs tiled with flat stones.
