Sucre, Bolivia

One of the best parts of travelling is when you accidently find yourself in the middle of some national or provincial celebration. This has happened to us nearly every day for the past week and the challenge has been to work out exactly what is going on when everything is in Spanish.

Sucre is the judicial capital of Bolivia and nice city of white archways and colonial, well kept housing and churches. This week marks the bicennetary of independence, and we have found ourselves in the middles of parades of school bands, city marches and potlicial speeches from the balcony of the goverenment building in the plaza. Add to this, dynamite explosions (positive, we think) and chants and signs and general proudness of this citys liberal accomplishments. And then a similar parade about tubercululosis the next day? Alas, we know little about the detail but it´s fun to be part of it!

In Sucre we have chilled out and slowed the pace down a bit. We visisted the highly regarded Musuem of Indigenous Art yesterday which details the weaving and clothing of Bolivian and Andean people, and the stories of the designs and labour-intensive hand woven, methods of the unique clothing here. Really intersting place, and we have a increased respect for the weaving culture now and are off to buy a piece for our wall back home. Also checked out the Casa de la Libertad (House of Liberty) which is a beuatiful colonial house where the declaration of independence was signed and historical and political artifacts are on display. We aslo visited a Dinosaur park where hundreds of dinosaur tracks measuring up to 80cm in diameter were found in the quest for mining. Quite amazing to see (even if not up very close), and hopefully something they can presevere long term.

Have been eating lots of local food including saltenas - a folded pastry dish with chicken or meat, spice, potato, and date which is excellent. Have been adventourous with local food (within a fairly safe hygiene level still) and have not had any unwellness yet which is great. There are no real supermarkets in Bolivia and all foods are purchased from markets which are a fantastic array of colours, and smells and any goods you can want. The very exposed displays of meat and chicken and innards make me a little squeamish, but the fruit and veg area is fanastic.

Tonight we are going to watch a movie called The Devils Miner which is a Bolivian film about the mines in Potosi and the life of a 14 year child who worked in them. Tommorrow we are going to a indigeous village where there have great cultural markets, before taking a overnight bus to La Paz which is technically the capital of La Paz after taking the trophy from Sucre in the recent past. But dont tell Sucre that.

Bolivia

We arrived safely in Bolivia yesterday, after taking a few hours bus ride to the border. The terminal on the Argentinian side was a bit sketchy and we were prepared for the Bolivian side to be worse, but all was ok. We took a taxi from the Argentinian bus terminal and then literally walked over the border into Bolivian customs (which is not much more than a shack). No bag search, xrays, nothing. Walking through the main strip of the border town Villazon, we could instantly sense that change into a pooer, third world. There were lots of stalls on the main street selling black market and all kinds of necessities. We changed some money to Bolivianos and then got to the bus terminal. Lots of people, bit confusing with our new money and the exchange rate, and keeping our wits about us at all times, we managed to get tix for the next bus to Tupiza (about 2-3 hours from border).

The bus took off about 40 minutes late which isnt too bad for Bolivia. We were very cautious about our bags and making sure that they definitely went on that bus as we have heard some horror stories of people having things snatched from under their eyes. Bolivian buses are not great and certainly not like Argentinian buses so we were grateful for the shorter trip as our bums were already a little sore after 2 hours!

Tupiza is a very dusty town (we have surely swallowed tonnes of dust already and my thoat is perpetually dry). Its nearly 3000m above sea level so you can feel the change in altitude here. Its advised to take things slow in Bolivia so we have done that today. My favourite thing here so far is the old ladies everwhere in their traditional clothing of knee length swivel skirts, top hats, stockings, cardigans, and their hair plaited in 2 long plaits. They sit in the markets selling food and fruits (which is good here). The country has a very old culture and you can see it most in the weathered faces of the older genreations. People live in mud brick housing in villages along the roads or at the base of mountains. As in Argentina and Uruguay, the streets are quiet from after lunch for siesta and the action picks up again after 5. Even school kids break the day in two for siesta, and go back in the afternoon.

Tupiza is the final resting place of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids and you can follow their footsepts around the outskirts of town. We are going horseriding tommorrow which will probably be a typical way to check out the area.