Bolivia Guide
The southern Altiplano
Oruro
Huddled on the bleak Altiplano some 230km south of La Paz, the grim mining city of ORURO was the economic powerhouse of Bolivia for much of the twentieth century, centre of the country's richest tin-mining region and the hub of its now much-reduced railway network. Oruro owed its fortunes to the enormous mineral wealth found in the rugged, ochre-coloured mountains that rise to the east of the city. Tin mines established here in the late nineteenth century turned Oruro into a thriving modern industrial city and generated such huge fortunes for the mining magnates who owned them that they effectively ran the country. The same mines formed the crucible from which emerged the militant miners' trade union that was one of the dominant political forces in the country after the mines were nationalized in 1952. Since the fall of world tin prices in 1985, however, Oruro's fortunes have plummeted, and though it's still the biggest city in the Altiplano after La Paz and El Alto, with a population of about 170,000, more than fifteen years of economic decline have turned it into a shadow of its former self.
Situated 3709m above sea level, swept by the bitter Altiplano winds and often coated in dust from its few still-functioning mines, Oruro is a cold and rather sombre place, with the melancholic air of a city forever looking back on a golden age that is unlikely to return. This dour demeanour is deceptive, however. Every year in late February or early March Oruro explodes into life, celebrating its Carnaval in what is without doubt one of the most spectacular cultural events in all South America.