Tourism

Bolivian city famous for its carnival announces emergency action to clean up a major environmental disaster on lake that has become a ‘sea of plastic’

by
Share this
Share

The city of Oruro, a major mining and tourist center with a World Heritage carnival celebration, is responding to videos showing Lake Uru Uru chock-full of plastic waste, which has resulted from urban dwellers dumping their trash into drainage canals.

Mayor David Choque announced a major clean-up of the lake on April 8–9 with the participation of a recycling firm, and asked the country’s environmental ministry to participate by providing logistics assistance.

The situation of the lake caused alarm when the environmental devastation on some 25 acres of the lake’s edge showed it mostly solid with plastic containers and the lake as a whole covered with garbage and mining residue contamination that includes arsenic and heavy metals.

By Milan Sime Martinic

Incan suspension bridge conserved yearly for more than 500 years collapses due to lack of maintenance

by
Share this
Share

The Q’eswachaka suspension bridge, which has been maintained in its original state from generation to generation since the 15th century and is a declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, collapsed due to the deterioration of its ropes that could not be renewed due to the pandemic, according to the cultural authority of Cusco in Peru.

The structure of the 90-ft long bridge over the Apurímac River is just over 3 feet wide and is built of a vegetable fiber braided into ropes. Farmers in the area have rebuilt the rope walkway every year between May and June for five centuries. It is the last bridge of its kind.

A technical team is assessing the damage.

By Milan Sime Martinic

Oklahoma banks tourism on Bigfoot, places $2.1 million bounty on capture

by
Share this
Share

The idea of legislation to capture tourists with a call to capture the mythical creature has grown in enthusiasm to pass a bill in the state’s legislature. Now there is a national tourism campaign planned around it, with the reward growing to its current number from $25k last week.

A hunting license will be required and regulated by the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission, says the Department of Tourism and Recreation. The state will be issuing license plates, decals, a stalking permit and will be setting Bigfoot checkpoints. To receive the reward, Bigfoot has to be brought in alive and unharmed, says the bill.

In neighboring Texas, it is legal to hunt Bigfoot on your private property.

By Milan Sime Martinic

Bolivian town wants to charge woman for calling town “ugly”

by
Uyuni Salts
Share this
Share

Authorities in the tourist town of Uyuni, famous for its salt flats, are demanding the extradition (from one department to another) and prosecution of a Bolivian singer who goes by the pseudonym Frances P. The musician in a social media post said the town was so ugly she would not move there even for $3,000,000.

Bolivian law has a “duties of tourists” clause that prohibits “discriminatory comments.” Bolivia has in the past arrested a newscaster for making derogatory comments about another city.

By Milan Sime Martinić