Denise Milani Revealed

Challapata To go from Uyuni, we decided to take the train which leaves around 1 am. It takes time to get some sleep before catching the night from Chile, which we did arrive at 6am. The controller goes into the car: "Challapata! Aude answering "If" on, before he makes a weird face. We ask for more if we really wants to stay here ... Apparently no one stops there. At the same time there is only one hotel in the city. We ask business and we spend the day trying to soak up the place, how will spend our time here, see the encounters with people and maybe some stuff to do ... Finally after a Breakfast at dawn in the streets, with donuts and hot chocolate, we made a little nap. For the train, it was pretty cool, so we took advantage of the room before making a turn in the market. In fact, a small town and there was no contact that we wanted with people. Sometimes difficult to meet or create a contact for a little different with people unconnected with tourism. Too bad, this does not prevent us to go on instead to practice a little salsa, just for fun (also for review, especially after many steps, for example!). The next one starts with the morning bus to Oruro, a large city, known for its carnival among other ... in February ... Before you even get the name of Oruro reasoned already so the reel screamed on the bus will place the entire time we were there. Oruro is a name that I can play pretty well, but I lets see and hear an overview of the master ...

Finally, we arrive at Oruro, take a taxi to this place in search of a hotel. Com usual, it did not look on the guide that was on the computer, so it will be by feel and in less than 15 minutes, is the small hotel, hosted by Luis, Dueño, large smiling little face at D'Artagnan. Okay, we took the opportunity to do a little salsa almost Homestay! He will take great care to present his wife and her 4 children. We also explain that 4 is the minimum, because he himself has lost 3 of his brothers. So it takes 4, because 1 is not enough in case he dies, but 2 is not enough, because if one dies the other becomes an only child, so it takes 3. But after he told us that 4 is good too, because when you love, well, we Bah ... we stop anyway because he would be afraid of hair pulling! Like what the mortality is very present here. So, to cheer them up, I give my shoes to his wife, unable to wash since ... 1946 I believe. Congratulations to the lady who has risked almost his life! Meanwhile, you can imagine, we aerate the lungs is gone, time for a stroll in the city and be able to mount the foot of a cross overlooking the city (it's free, there everywhere!). That corner also lovers. It's one of those rides where you take the time to chat about many things, of what we see, what you hear, nothing, everything, what we want (or not elsewhere), what we think (or not in fact too!). The sun sets and it starts getting cold, so we returned, making a tour of the market that brings together all the town centers, activity economic and social as people here negotiate, discuss, make new ones, come to see, drink, eat, but for us they also make fruit juices. It's our daily take a little fresh fruit juice con leche in the day and some orange juice / grapefruit on the run in the street. We must correct for the early morning (around 11 is still "Buenas Dias"), go to the National Anthropological Museum Oruro.

This museum houses fine pieces of tracing the life of pre-Columbian here, known as the Tiwanaku culture, for over 2000 years and replaced / times Then in 1400 ("mas o menos") by the Incas. Peoples before the Incas were quite varied, with several dialects divided into 3 categories: Aymara, Quechua and Puquina, practices similar but different depending on where they live geographically. The exhibits, from the tribe of Chypaillan are stone, ceramic and metal, working the iron, gold or silver, using a system of clay oven shaped fireplace. Again, beautifully preserved, we can see mummies of more than 600 years. One can admire the details of skin, hair, nails, curled up in positions, often medium-sized (average not great). Once the viscera removed, bodies are wrapped in woven baskets to be placed in a cube-shaped shrine. Several sites are well scattered around Oruro. The most unusual seems to be a site crossed by a road that has taken care of "Do not alter / damage "?!?! not the site ..." Uh .... How to tell? "

In this culture, such regularly among Andean peoples, the skulls presented show strain marking the social rank and techniques variety of deformation by placing annular ring and clamp 2 boards ... angular

It gives skulls tubular, elongated, flat with the front, one sees although the illustrations it is a particular head .... It tells you?

But it is also the Oruro carnival, with some very pretty costumes based on various related beliefs, often feathered, grimacing, making the satire of a representative or an effigy of a deity.

The museum ends with a look at a small group of children who made the visit after leaving school, nice.

We leave Oruro after a tour of the market, good atmosphere, before taking the bus on a holiday. Direction La Paz, we will take a little altitude.