Sunday, March 6th - Sucre, Bolivia

This morning we were up early to take a bus to the Tarabuco Market, which is supposed to be quite amazing and is only held on Sunday.  Tarabuco is about drive 65 km from Sucre with driving on some good and some not-so-good roads.  As a result it took us a couple of hours to get there.  The weather was "iffy", threatening to rain. but really not doing much more than being cloudy and overcast.  However, apparently there had been some rain and this meant that the market was much smaller than normal as people obviously did not want walk miles to bring their goods to market or to buy stuff.

The village of Tarabuco is small (less than 3,000 people) and in an area of rolling hills.  It is built around the main square, as are most towns.  The church is on the main square, as are other important buildings but they are all quite small.   Only a few buildings are two storeys high.  Most are just one story.  The church itself is white on the outside and shite on the inside with wooden pews and ceiling rafters that made it look very clean and crisp.  Off of the main square there are small streets, all on a grid system and all full of vendors.  Many had bright awnings of red, blue, yellow, green and other colours.  I didn't know whether that was a regular thing or whether they were just used on days of rainy weather.  I'm guessing it's  used all the time because the sun would be really hot so the tarps would provide shade as well as cover from rain.

I'm sure you could find anything you wanted in this open-air market.  It was spread over many blocks and went into some open courtyards and some covered areas.  I'm sure if you couldn't find what you were looking for, someone else would be able to tell you where to go to find it.  There were lots of clothes (pants, shirts, jackets, shoes, socks, underwear, hats, etc.), household goods (paint, plumbing supplies, furniture, appliances, dishes, etc.), food (vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs, dairy products, spices, etc.), toys, farm supplies, animals, books, candy and much more.  

The streets further away were filled with vehicles of all sorts and some were already leaving.  Small trucks were packed solid with animals and produce and then a lot of people.  It was interesting to see these full vehicles moving through the street.  In other places, including by where our bus parked, there were many donkeys just standing around waiting for the masters to return so they could be loaded up and head home.

I wandered up and down the streets for over an hour and watched the locals.  Some of the local costumes are very unique including the small black hat (mix between bowler and cowboy hat) that the women wear on the top of their heads, colourful shawls and ponchos, and the black capes and helmet-shaped hats that the men wear - something that goes back to when the locals defeated the Spanish centuries ago.  It was interesting to see all the different outfits and also to hear/watch them bartering over their goods.  I didn't buy anything but some of the group did.  I spent some time talking to the lady at the tourist office in the main square, asking her what else we should see while in Bolivia.  She was very helpful.  She was also the one that explained that today's market was so small because of the weather.  Normally, when the weather is clear, it is at least twice this size according to her.

We left Tarabuco a bit earlier than a normal tour as some of our group wanted to go horseback riding and we had to be back earlier for that.  No one minded though as I think we were all through wondering the streets of the market.  We made it back to Sucre well before the horseback riding tour departed but, instead of getting back by dark, they didn't get back until after 9 p.m.  I'm certainly glad I didn't go on that tour!

Four of us went down to the corner cafe for lunch and it was very good.  We had no set plans for the afternoon so it was a very relaxing lunch.  After that we headed off to the Mirador Recoleta, which is a view point overlooking the city.  We only had about ten blocks to walk but most of them were up hill so it seemed like a long ways.  The others were way ahead of me, which is normal when going up hill, so when I came to the road I was sure we were to turn on, I turned.  In the end I beat them there because they took a slightly longer route and didn't turn until after the view point and had to come back down.  I may be slow on the uphill climb but, because I'm so slow, I definitely don't go any further than needed to to get somewhere.  That sounds smart to me.

The museums were not open as it was Sunday but there is a nice little square at the top and there were lots of kids around the area.  The old church at the top is a beautiful clean white symmetric building with two high towers.  The view point across the square from it is covered and has many pillars with high arches.  The church looked beautiful when photographed through one of the arches, across the square and against the green hills behind and the blue sky (when it was blue).  The white buildings of the original church extend all along the back and down the one side of the square.  At least some of the side section appears to be part of a university campus now, or was at one point.  Hopefully I'll be able to make it back for a tour of the church / museum tomorrow afternoon.

The view was fantastic and you could see all of the city, which seems to be in a valley very much like a shallow bowl.  The streets and buildings all disappear into the centre of this bowl and then come back up on the other side amongst the green hills.  The red roofs are virtually all you see except for occasional strips of white that appear below the roofs.  In a couple of places you do get a patch of green where there is a park or square of some kind and no buildings.  The streets are cobblestone in most places and there are generally sidewalks, albeit not to wide in places and sometimes not to level.  The white houses on both sides of the street make for a very clean picture and generally speaking there is no garbage to be seen anywhere.  There are of course exceptions but most of the time the street views were very pristine.

The streets are of course very hilly in places such as on our walk down from the lookout.  It was easier than I expected but still rather hard on the knees in the steeper parts.  We walked back down to the main square and I decided to leave the group there and head back to the hotel since I would have time tomorrow to do more sightseeing.  They went on about an equal distance in the opposite direction to get to another park, which they really enjoyed as it was incredibly busy with families out enjoying themselves on a lovely Sunday afternoon.  It probably would have been fun but I was just fine taking a break instead.

Tonight the same group headed out to a dinner show at Origenes Bolivianos.  The restaurant/theatre was not too far from our hotel and it was basically on the level so just a nice walk there and back.  We arrived early but that gave us time to enjoy the view of the city at night from their location.  The meal was very good.  I can no longer remember exactly what the meal was but it had several parts.  We thought much of the meal would be served before the entertainment started but in fact they didn't serve anything before the show started so we were there really early.  The young man who served us at lunch time also works at this dinner theatre so he had reserved us the best table in the place and it was really good - second row centre (no one in the first row centre).

The group was very energetic and the dances were very interesting.  They didn't explain too much in English but we did have a program we could follow along with if the lights were ever up enough so we could see.  But then we were quite sure that they really didn't follow the listed order so that made it a bit confusing too.  Some of the dances went back to colonial times when the slaves were still in chains and treated poorly while those in power did very well.  They did dances from many different areas of the country and they covered everything from farming to courting to mining to paganism to family life to revolution.  The dances were very lively and the costumes were varied depending on the meaning of the dance but most of them were fantastically colourful.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and that was the end of another great day in Bolivia.