Candelaria and Tarabuco

Candelaria and Tarabuco are small towns famous for producing the best quality woven textiles in Bolivia (and the Andes region in general) and I´d already seen amazing examples from this region in the museums I´d visited in Copacabana and La Paz.  Going to Tarabuco is easy because there is a famous (and touristy) Sunday market so there are plenty of tourist and local buses to take you there.  Getting to Candelaria is another kettle of fish.  The good old LP advised that there were very infrequent buses at not very useful times and not every day of the week (confirmed by a few local enquiries) so I asked around a few tour companies if they did combined trips to Candelaria and Tarabuco.  Most told me no or it would cost a few hundred dollars (???!!!).  In the end I found Candelaria Tours and I was lucky enough that two french couples had already signed up for the weekend tour to Candelaria and Tarabuco so I could join their tour.  My French is rubbish but luckily we all got by with a mixture of Spanish and English.

The first day was the drive to Candelaria in the 4×4 jeep.  The road wasn´t too bad but it was unpaved as we reached Candelaria.  The view through the landscape was amazing but I think I was a bit over taking pictures of amazing landscapes by this time because I don´t have any pictures for some reason?

The hacienda in Candelaria

We spent the night at an old hacienda which had been beautifully preserved but not renovated.  The history of the hacienda goes back to the 17th century and it felt like we were in the setting for an Isabel Allende book.  You can read the history of the hacienda here.  Our rooms were decorated with textiles from the region and we were invited to help prepare lunch in the traditional kitchen (i.e. the food was cooked on a traditional Andean wood fire stove).  As with all good Bolivian food, it was cooked from scratch and full of organic vegetables (vegetables in Bolivia are generally organic by default).

Making dinner at the hacienda

As well as our guide from Candelaria Tours we were accompanied by Dona Eli who has been instrumental in developing sustainable tourism in Candelaria and was previously the director of the (currently closed) textiles museum in Sucre.  She was so knowledgeable and enthusiastic as she introduced us to the weavers in their homes and explained the different techniques for the different types of textiles.

We visited several homes in the small town of Candelaria (about 200 inhabitants) to learn more about local life and to see the weavers at work.  It was amazing to have the opportunity to see first hand how the textiles are made and how much work and time goes into producing them.  We learnt how to identify high quality weavings from less quality ones and also learnt that the designs are produced from the weavers imagination – they don´t work from any patterns or planned designs.  The designs typically include scenes from every day life (making bread) or from special ceremonies and occasions (making chicha, the fermented corn drink).

Weaver at work in Candelaria

As a great admirer of Andean textiles I could go on and on here but I know that not everyone is as interested in textiles as I am.  If you want more info, let me know and I can send you some links.

Corinne getting a traditional bolivian hairstyle at Tarabuco market

The next day we went to the market in Tarabuco.  This market is famous in the region and local people and tourists travel there each Sunday to buy and sell goods.  I was very disappointed with the quality of woven textiles on sale (the ones on sale in Sucre and at the weavers houses in Candelaria were much better quality and not really more expensive) but that didn´t stop me doing a bit of shopping.  I picked up a traditional woven blanket, a modern day blanket that Bolivian women use to carry all they stuff in tied to their backs, and some Alto-Plano Cholita-style sandals made of recycled tyres (a bit heavy but should last a life time).  The market had a great atmosphere despite being a little bit touristy and was full of local people in traditionally dressed clothes going about their market day business.

After the market we had a delicious traditional lunch before heading back to Sucre.

Thank you to Bertrand and Corinne for letting me use some of their photos for this post!

And here are some textiles photos….

Traditionally dressed women at the market in Tarabuco (I have the sandals, bag and blanket but didn't think the hat was really my style...)

Typical Jalq'a textile made by Marui Romelo from the Potolo community

Detail of a woven textile piece made in Tarabuco.

Dia de los todos santos (all saints day) 2 November 2011

Typical black and purple decorations and the typical bread with faces.

By luck I managed to find myself in a decent place (Sucre) on a holiday day (Dia de los Todos Santos).  I`d been told by various people that everything would be closed from the afternoon the day before and that it probably wasn´t a good day to catch a bus the night before, the actual day or the morning after, just in case the bus driver was still hung over (or still drinking, in some cases…).  I`d also been told that you could go knocking on doors with small black flags outside to get invited in for free food and drinks.

A type of alter for Dia de los Todos Santos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lovely family at Hostel Wasi Masi invited us to join their celebrations as their house is in the same place as the hostel.  I wondered what they`d been doing in the empty room/small hall off the courtyard the previous day or two and it turned out they had been building an altar for All Saints Day.  As we`d been invited by the family to join them, it didn`t really seem appropriate to take photos so the ones here are courtesy of Google Images.  The altar was made of a long table decorated in purple and black and covered with the dead people`s favourite food and drink, along with some other food typical for this holiday (i.e. the bread with faces).  We stood along each side of the altar while the grandma of the family asked someone(presumably a plain clothes priest or something) to say prayers for each of the dead family members (3 in total).  They then gave us a plate of food to eat and a small cup of chicha to drink.  We couldn`t drink the chicha without first spilling a drop on the floor for Pachamama and the dead family members.  I felt very grateful that the grandmother had invited us, a bunch of strangers, to join them for this ceremony.

Sucre cemetery

In the afternoon I headed up to the famous cemetery with some girls from the hostel.  My Spanish teacher had told be to be careful and not to take anything even vaguely valuable with me.  I don´t think I`ve been to a South American cemetery before but this one was massive!  It reminded me a bit of the ones I`d been to in Spain.  The place was packed with people but it didn`t feel dangerous nor sombre.  It was actually quite clam and peaceful apart from some blind people singing (not sure what that was about).  It was nice to walk around and see all the different architecture of the tombs.  Some were massive ones build by companies for their employees and in contrast there was another area full of small wooden crosses and a few small wooden tombs.

Sucre

The white city of Sucre

I was trying to remember something about the bus ride from Cochabamba to Sucre. It can´t have been that bad, or that good if I am struggling to remember it. But this is Bolivia, so of course it wasn´t straight forward! I had trouble finding a company that was going overnight to Sucre. When I found one, they told me that they only sell the tickets on the day and to come back in the morning. I came back in the morning to be told there wasn´t any tickets left (or no bus, I´m not quite sure). I eventually found another company with one seat left and they gave me a small discount because it was at the front and the semi-cama seat didn´t have the leg rest. No problem for me because I´m not that tall and I was just grateful to get a seat at all!  When it came to catching the bus I nearly missed it because it was parked behind another bus and I couldn´t work out where the bus was waiting.  Luckily, the driver of the bus was at the travel desk when I went to ask about the bus so he made sure me and my luggage got on the right bus.

 

 

 

Sucre - La Ciudad Blanca

What can I say, I loved Sucre! I stayed at a nice hostel and met some really cool people. The hostel also had a kitchen so I could cook for the first time in a few months. I had great fun buying random ingredients at the market – the best thing in Bolivia is that you can buy exactly only what you need at the market, no matter how little. I called my dish Aji de Soja (dried soya meat in a chili sauce with rice).

The best fruit salad lady in Sucre market

The highlight of each day was going to the market for fruit salad. There was a corner of the market with a bunch of ladies with stalls selling fresh juices and fruit salads. Fruit salads came in 6, 8 and 10 Bs. sizes. I always opted for 8 Bs. size and was never disappointed. The fruit salads were full of exotic fruits and topped with yoghurt, cream, shredded coconut, nuts and a wafer biscuit. What more could you want??!!

Bs.8 size fruit salad

Because Emmanuel fell over (drunk) in Berlin and hurt his arm, he had to go to Venezuela for an operation which meant he wouldn’t be going to Australia until February (rather than November as planned) and because I couldn´t get a flight from Buenos Aires to Sydney until 23 January at the earliest, I decided to take the opportunity to stay longer in South America and go to Australia a bit later. 

 

 

While I decided what to do with my extra time I enrolled in Spanish lessons for a week at Sucre Spanish School.  I took 4 hours of one-to-one classes each day with an enthusiastic teacher called Johnny.  Fortunately, I didn’t really have much new grammar to learn so it was mostly revising bits of grammar and then reading a text on a topical subject before having a discussion about it.  The classes were a lot of fun and I learnt loads – oh, and they were a bargain at only US$6 per hour.  The school also organised after school activities so I got the chance to play wallyball.  Check out the link for more info but it’s basically volleyball played on a squash court and you can bounce the ball off the walls as well as hit it over the net directly.  As with my attempt to play volleyball in Peru, I was absolutely rubbish as wallyball.  It was super fun though and as always my Bolivian team mates (it was me plus 5 expert Bolivian wallyball players) gave me lots of encouragement and were super patient with my attempts to even hit the ball, let alone score any points!  We had a lot of laughs the next day when I showed them all the massive bruise on my wrist from my attempts to hit the ball.

Dinosaur telephone box near the hostel

In Sucre I wish I had the Cholas in Bowlers book to read (even though I’d already read it in London and passed it on).  I had no trouble finding the cafe mentioned in the book (Joy Ride Cafe) as it’s such a major traveller hangout.  They show films each night so I managed to see The Devil’s Miner documentary about the mines in Potosi.  I hadn’t realised the film was about children working in the mines, so it was even more hard-hitting than I expected.  I’d already read quite a bit about the history of the mines in Potosi and had already decided for my own reasons that I wouldn´t visit the mines.  I really recommend seeing this documentary if you can.  There is also a more recent documentary on a similar theme (that I’ve not seen yet) called Todos Los Dias La Noche.

As I ended up doing quite a lot in Sucre I’m going to break this post up into several smaller ones so I can share lots of pictures.

Cochabamba

In case you are wondering what the question mark shape is that appears on all my photos from now on, let me explain.  On my last day in Madidi National Park a small hair (or scratch?) appeared inside the lens of my camera.  I don´t know how it got there or how to remove it – I didn´t fancy opening up my camera myself, nor taking it to a Bolivian camera shop, nor trying to buy a new (decent) camera in Bolivia.  Hopefully the power of Photoshop will fix them when I get home.

After leaving Madidi National Park I flew back to La Paz and then caught a super cheap (7 hours for 2 pounds) but quite comfortable bus to Cochabamba.  After I eventually found a place to stay (the first three places I tried were full!) I spent a couple of days exploring the city and enjoying (more) delicious food.

Mini buses on strike (this one was called Emmanuel)

The first day all of the colourful micro buses were on strike and blockading the roads in the city centre.  There is always some kind of protest, march, blockade happening in Bolivia but it meant that the city centre was blissfully traffic free.

The north and south of Cochabamba were a real contrast.  The south side by the bus station was full of mainly indigenous people and a big and super busy market, while the north was very americanised with more of a mixture of people driving around in nice cars.  The north end reminded me a bit of Maracaibo.

Cheese empanadas in Cochabamba

I visited a not very good museum but did eat the most delicious empanadas ever!  First cheese ones, baked in the oven and full of delicious mashed potatoes and salty Bolivian cheese and then vegetable ones (though not on the same day).  I also discovered chirrimoya (an exotic fruit called custard apple in English) ice cream and at that point knew I couldn´t stay in Cochabamba too long otherwise I would get fat (and sick) from eating too many cheese empanadas and ice cream! I also got my first proper coffee in Bolivia in Cochabamba, so I was very happy.

My photocopy business in Cochabamba

It turned out my other life is running a photocopy business in Cochabamba.

Alongside the bus station was a series of market stalls, which only seemed to offer sunglasses, fortune-telling, or road-side tattoos.  I certainly wasn´t tempted to get a tattoo on the side of a busy, dirty road in Bolivia!

The Jesus Christ statue in Cochabamba

Cochabamba is proud to boast the tallest Jesus Christ statue in the world, beating the one in Brazil by a few centimetres or so. According to the signs it was too dangerous to walk up and down to the statue so I took the cable car.

Statue stats

Madidi National Park (Mashaquipe)

Can´t believe that I actually ummed and ahhed about going to the Bolivian rain forest! In the end, another traveller in the hostel in La Paz recommended it so enthusiastically that I booked it straight after talking to her. Just as well because it was fantastic!

The small plane to Rurre

Rather than take the bus, which is very cheap but takes (at least) 20 hours and is considered the worst bus journey in Bolivia, I decided to spend some money on the 45 minute flight from La Paz to Rurrenabaque (Rurre).

The plane only had a row of seats down each side, maybe 18 passengers in total, and we could see through to the cockpit and the pilots and out through the front windscreen. The flight was a bit bumpy so I just kept telling myself that it was safer than the bus and it would be over in 45 minutes. The whole way I held onto my seat with one hand and onto the seat in front with the other. The view (through the scratched and dirty windows) was pretty spectacular. At first we passed over the snow-capped mountains close to La Paz, then up into the clouds before descending down into lush green rain forest. All within a 45 minute flight. The runway in Rurre was a strip of land in a green field surrounded by trees.

 

 

The runway in Rurre

 

Compared with La Paz and Copacabana, Rurre seemed like another country. In many ways it reminded me of Venezuela because it was so hot and humid. There weren´t really any cars and everyone was zooming around on motorbikes and scooters (without helmets, of course) and everyone was dressed for the hot weather in shorts, vests and flip-flops.

 

 

Madidi National Park

My tour to Madidi National Park started the next morning. I wasn´t really sure what to expect because in the office the day before they couldn´t really tell me much about the group I would be in. So that morning we all set off in a couple of boats, first to go and get our tickets for the National Park and then onto the Mashaquipe camp. The journey up the river was spectacular with lush rainforest on each side. Again it reminded me of the journey up the river to see Angel Falls.

The boats

The sugar cane press

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way to the camp we stopped to visit a local family to see the sugar cane growing and try some sugar cane juice. I tried a piece of raw sugar cane and when I bit into it all the delicious sweet juice came out. Then we had to help process some of the sugar cane so that we could all drink the juice. The canes are put through a type of mill that is powered by a horse (or tourists) pushing a giant lever round in a circle. As the juice came out of the cane it was filtered through a cloth into a bucket. We were then given cups made of some kind of giant seed shell to scoop out a cup full and add a squeeze of lemon/lime before drinking it. It was one of the most delicious drinks I´ve ever tasted!  I am still none the wiser about lemons and limes though – what is called a lemon here looks like a lime and vice versa.

Drinking fresh sugar cane juice - delicious!

Crossing the little river to the Zurita family to make and drink sugar cane juice

The Mashaquipe camp was lovely and we were invited to lounge in the hammocks for a while before having the first of many super delicious meals. It turned out I was in a spanish speaking group of 3 people plus the guide – Ana (from Canary Islands), Theepan (English) and Reinaldo (our Bolivian guide). This turned out to be great as I got to practice my spanish and learn loads of new words (that might only be useful in the rain forest or a zoo but nevermind). I was staying one extra day than Theepan and Ana so I was in another (spanish speaking) group with a guy from Switzerland and a guy from Australia the last day.

 

 

 

One of many yummy breakfasts cooked by Ellie

The 4 days of the tour were spent walking through different parts of the forest. We went to primary and secondary forest, flat forests and all sorts of parts of the forest. Reinaldo explained what the native plants were and how many of them could be used as natural medicines. There seemed to be a plant or tree bark to help every kind of health problem. We also saw the biggest trees in this part of the forest which are hundreds of years old and considered to be the spirits of the forest. The bottom part of the tree has folds which you can sleep in if you get lost in the forest. They say that if you sleep by the tree you can hear all sorts of sounds and voices, which is sometimes good and sometimes bad. The first day we saw butterflies, a pair of tortoises and chanchos (pigs).

Walking, walking, walking (and a little bit of resting)

The next day we set off with our packs, sleeping equipment and food to sleep out in the forest. We were accompanied by Wilson who cooked delicious food for us and kept us laughing with his jokes. We saw a few small monkeys, more chanchos and butterflies and more amazing plants and trees. At one point we had to cross a bridge that consisted of a log with a small branch on one side to steady ourselves. I managed the bridge but wasn´t quite so good at crossing the muddy areas without sticking my feet in the mud!

 

 

 

 

Camping in the forest

By lunchtime we arrived at our basic camp site.  We slept in mosquito nets set up under some tarpaulin and there was also a tarpaulin tent for the kitchen/dining room and even a toilet (of the eco-style glastonbury type). After eating our delicious (and massive) packed lunches we had a little siesta before setting of to the macaw lookout point.

 

 

Macaw mirador

 

 

 

The mirador had an amazing view of the river and forest and we saw loads of macaws and parakeets flying below us. It was also the spot where an Israeli tourist died a few years ago when he fell off the edge of the mirador! We sat there for ages enjoying the spectacular view before heading back to camp for dinner and our night walk.

 

 

 

 

 

Ana, Theepan, me (L - R) at the macaw mirador

During the night walk we had to turn off our torches a lot of the time to have a better chance of seeing some animals. In the end we saw the crazy ants (hormigas casadores, I think) that carry leaves to make their nests and travel in long lines as far as the eye can see, lots of fire flies and a spider. I’m glad I wasn’t at the front when we discovered the spider because its web was as wide as the path. As a moth landed in the web we watched as it ran down, spun it in silk and then carried it back to the middle of the web to eat it later.  It was like being in a David Attenborough program – completely fascinating to watch close up (even though I don´t like spiders).  I had some romantic notion that I would fall asleep listening to the sounds of the forest that night but instead it was an orchestra of snoring!

 

On our last morning we got up at 5am (!!!) to go to see from below where the macaw parrots nest.  The live in holes in the side of the steep banks of the forest. There were also lots of tarantula nests here but luckily we didn´t see any! I also found a macaw feather which got a bit grubby by the time I got it back to La Paz and posted it home.

Ready to go rafting

After a huge and yummy breakfast we had to walk to the river to build a raft to float back to the camp on. The raft was made from balsa wood tree trunks so it was super floaty and this is a traditional form of transport from this part of Bolivia. I thought we might only have to float half an hour or so to get back but it turned out to be a couple of hours and I had to steer most of the way while Ana and Theepan enjoyed the view and while Reinaldo had a siesta and occasionally told me to steer right or left a bit.  Despite getting totally wet, we all arrived back in one piece.

Rafting down the Rio Tuichi

 

 

 

Of course, there was more yummy food consumed and on the last day I got to do arts and crafts in the morning and go for another walk in the afternoon. I made a necklace from seeds that I´m sure Australian customs will want to confiscate of fumigate.  It was cool to make something from local materials with traditional techniques.

Going down the Rio Beni (or is this still the Rio Tuichi?) to Rurre

I was totally sad to leave Madidi Mational Park but enjoyed my last trip back down the river to Rurre and back to civilisation.

More updates on the way…

Argentina has better (but more expensive) internet access than Bolivia so I´ll be able to start updating my blog again.  In Bolivia it was hard to find places where I could update my blog with photos.  Not much point if I can´t post the photos, no ve?