December 16, 2013

Bienvenidos a la ciudad blanca! And white is was.

We arrived late afternoon to this beautiful historic city. It sits at 9,220 ft in elevation and is a place I promise I will go back to. Three days was enough to see a lot of the things we had hoped too but it seemed like the perfect place to stay and get to know. Even wikitravel thinks so but we had Christmas to look forward to and needed to move on so 3 days it was.

Our short visit started with a tour if the city. We started at Parque Boliviar and moved onto Plaza 25 de Mayo and Recoleta and the Mirador Cafe. We stopped at the Mercado Central for lunch and a multi-vitaminico smoothie which consists of eggs, beer, honey, fruit, and whatever else might be laying around. (Not as bad as you might think!) We finished up our day at the Museo de Arte Indigena which I loved. It was a museum dedicated to the arts but a majority of it was dedicated to weaving and the artisanal textiles produced throughout the country. The pieces and time (some take up to a year to make) that goes into them are incredible. If you have any interest in fabrics or textiles I strongly suggest going here. Even if your thinking of purchasing any, it will give you a really good idea for the quality and workmanship you should be looking for.

The next morning we woke up early for the Sunday market in Tarabuco. It’s about a two hour bus ride from Sucre and is known as the birthplace for many of the intricate tapestries and textiles produced in the region. Unfortunately, as soon as we arrived the rain did too. Many of the street vendors were forced to close up shop but we made the best of it and found good eats at the local market. Turns out they were fried chicken necks which I didn’t figure out till after I had eaten it but it was delicious none the less. The rain finally started to clear up enough that we could walk around and I have to admit that unless you are in the market for textiles, there is not a whole lot to see in Tarabuco. But we were here for the textiles so there was PLENTY to see. We had a limited budget but we ended up finding a really beautiful vintage aq’su to take home. After our purchased we were virtually penniless and made our way back to the bus where we watched some dancing and Brent made friends with a restaurant owner who like him so much he gave him a whole bag of coca leaves. So all in all a good day! We went back to the hostel, made some rice for dinner, and watched Steve Irwin in Spanish before going to bed.

Tomorrow well be headed for La Paz!