Sucre II and Tarabuco

My first few weeks in Sucre revolved mainly around learning Spanish, teaching English and drinking lots of beer. And rum.

So I decided after getting back from carnival in Oruro to try and be a little bit more focused on the other things Sucre had to offer aside from going to Café Florin, Joyride and Mitos with alcoholic regularity.

One of the highlights of my ‘cultural’ agenda was going to the Pujllay festival in a nearby town called Tarabuco. Pujllay is a celebration of Bolivian culture with its historical origins in the battles fought against the Spanish by the indigenous people. It’s also time to give thanks to Pachamama (Mother Earth) for the many resources she provides. It’s a very colourful, festive celebration which revolves around traditional dancing and music. The costumes were fascinating, the instruments were unusual and the people involved danced with determined euphoria. The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, was there and even he joined in on the dancing. There was an offering to Pachamama which consisted of a huge variety of food attached to a massive wooden structure. It even had bottles of beer and ketchup. It was a unique and fascinating experience and my cultural reserves were topped up nicely.

During the last week I was in Sucre, Mike and I went to an eco-lodge just outside of the city for a night to get out into nature. Sucre is surrounded by beautiful scenery and we had a great evening around a campfire with some other travelers. The only detraction was the French alcoholic who owns the land (but doesn’t run the lodge) who insisted on talking at us incessantly in a mixture of terrible English and indecipherable Spanish. Eventually we all had to pretend to go to bed just so he’d bugger off. The next day we walked to the ‘Seven Waterfalls’ which are close to the lodge. It was an awesome, relaxing day in some extraordinarily beautiful surroundings.

The rest of my time in Sucre was awesome. I finished off my Spanish lessons and taught my final English lesson. My students threw an unexpected ‘leaving do’ for me during the last lesson. It was somewhat different from the leaving dos I’ve experienced in London. Instead of copious amounts of beer and a late night stop at the fried chicken place, we had soft-drinks and hamburgers. The usual drunken reminiscing was replaced by random conversations in a mixture of broken English and broken Spanish.

The students and my co-teacher Juan-Carlos were extremely grateful for the time I gave. It was really touching.

I also visited the Mercado Campesino which is a fairly standard Bolivian market filled with everything from food to kitchen utensils to car parts. The only reason it warrants a mention are the few small ‘witches’ stalls aligned randomly next to the standard book and confectionary stalls. Although Bolivia is largely a Catholic country there is still a strong influence of traditional mysticism. When building a new house, for example, it’s tradition to make an offering to Pachamama to ask for good luck. Sometimes this involves simple foodstuffs. Occasionally it means burying a llama foetus on the building site. These were available in gory abundance at the market. Alongside the llama foetuses there was an array of strange, twisted animal parts and carcasses. Toucan beaks and a dead owl to name just a few.

Having had a good dose of culture I decided to have one last party weekend before leaving Sucre. It was a lot of fun if not a bit predictable. We went to the usual three nightspots having consumed vast quantities of rum and danced to the same songs for the last time.

By the time I left Sucre it felt really familiar and comfortable. The people I met were amazing and the energy of the city is wonderful and vibrant. I would highly recommend a stop in Sucre to anyone planning to learn Spanish. And to anyone who wants a decent party and who doesn’t mind listening to the Black Eyed Peas many times every night.


Check out the photos here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150147365446890.283807.514871889&l=742eaba2a9