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Published: August 2nd 2008
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Festive Dancers
These men, most of them quite old, danced a most amazing, almost mesmerizing ceremony the evening after one of the wonderful concerts in San Javier. Hello
Perhaps you´d wondered if I´d fallen off the continent or wandered into the Amazon jungle. Sorry I haven´t been keeping this up to date too often. It´s not that I haven´t had anything to report - more that I keep forgetting to write it up or when I decide to do it, something else comes up.
So where are we? Since I last wrote, I travelled to the east of the province of Santa Cruz into an area called Chiquitano where there are some beautiful villages very different from other parts of the country. It is an area also called Missiones for the missions established by the Jesuits in the 19th century. Each village has a church designed and built by the Jesuits with most beautiful carvings inside and out and decorated ornately. Twice a year these villages play host to a series of concerts, funded by certain European countries. In late May I attended two concerts of the Baroque Festival in the village of San Javier. The church was packed and on both days the music was of a very high standard. I most enjoyed the concert of Sunday morning where both the orchestra, conductor and choir
Impressive Musicians
This is one of the choirs I saw at the music festival in San Javier. A very moving concert. were composed of purely local, indigenous people. The people and governments of the Low Countries have poured many resources into this area for the musical education of the local people and not only are they studying musical instruments and voice but making the instruments themselves too. It was so moving to hear the quality of their music. I felt privileged to attend.
In June I went with a friend to visit the city of Sucre to the west of the country. This entailed a 12-hour journey overnight by bus on a very bumpy road. Two days before, by chance I mentioned to a friend here in Samaipata that we were going and he told me of a very small hotel with spectacular views over the city. He rang and made reservations for us and his description of the views was in no way inaccurate. The little hotel had only three rooms and ours, the highest, had the most wonderful panoramic view over what is undoubtedly the prettiest city of Bolivia. Sucre has many white colonial-style buildings, a lovely large square and some very good museums. We were there for the annual anniversary festival of the city itself and for
View of Sucre
This is a view from a "mirador", a viewpoint over the city where many artesans and sellers of weavings come every day to sell their wares. the Fiesta de Chocolate!! Sucre is famous for its chocolate and we had ample opportunity to compare different providers. One cafe was even showing films connected with chocolate! I can highly recommend a visit to this lovely city.
As I mentioned in the last blog, I have been giving some English classes here in Samaipata and it so happened that one of my students had a house to sell. It is a little way outside the centre of the village and has lovely views. At a cost of $18,000, I felt that I could afford to buy it as a base, allowing me enough money to fund other future travels. So I now have a little house in Bolivia (picture attached) to which you are most welcome to visit when the spirit so moves you. It has two bedrooms plus another space for hammock near the garden. There are builders in there at the moment, putting in a fireplace for the winter (Bolivian houses don´t have central heating and in winter the nights and even some days can be cold), and a couple of new windows for more light. It is in the countryside and very quiet. I do
The new house
Well, it isn´t exactly new, but new to me. Please come and visit. hope to see you there one day.
A couple of days after the builders are due to finish work on the house, I plan to have a house-warming party cum "challa" which is a traditional Bolivian blessing to house or business and the following day I leave to take my flight back to England. I fly on 18th August in order to be in London for the birth of my first grandchild (we´re told it´s a girl) at the beginning of September. I will stay three months in England as the Bolivian government only allows residents (I had to apply for Bolivian residency in order to purchase a property) to stay out of the country for three months at a time. My idea is to return to the UK at least once a year for a comparable amount of time.
So that´s me for now. No doubt baby photos will follow in due course. Do hope this finds you well and enjoying the summer wherever you are.
Sending very much love
Eve x
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