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Published: March 30th 2012
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We were up early on our last day in Sucre to catch the bus to the famous Tarabuco markets which are held every Sunday in Tarabuco village about 64 klms from the city. The countryside that we passed through was stunning, the hills were multi coloured layers of rock strata and we also passed several canyons. It was very dry - however I’m not sure that the region would get much rain so probably looks like that all the time. The little town was buzzing when we got off the bus. The main tourist stalls were spread out around the main square - they were ablaze with colourful shawls, textiles and an endless amount of alpaca hats, socks and jumpers. There were, as expected, many tourists shopping and taking photographs. We first visited a shop run by Museum de Arte Indigena (ASUR) and once again (they have a lovely shop also in Sucre) admired (and bought some!) the intricate top quality crafts on display. The detail in the woven wall hangings was amazing - both the red and black Jalq'a weavings which predominately feature animals and the Tarabuco weavings, always on a white background and with bands of colour (more often
reds and oranges but I loved the blue and purple patterns). They featured a lot of bird designs.
After spending a short time wandering the tourist stalls we walked along the narrow cobbled streets, crammed with dozens of stalls selling everything from cocoa leaves, blocks of salt, all manner of plastic and tin household items, medicines, farm implements, children’s western style clothes and shoes. Most of the indigenous Yampara people were dressed in their traditional dress, or at least part of it. The men wore short white trousers, shoes made from recycled car tyres, ponchos (either black or stripes of orange/maroon colours) and some of the men even wore the traditional leather headdress which was inspired by helmets worn by the Spanish during their conquest of South America.
The women wear the gathered skirts, low heels and plaits that we’ve seen everywhere else but many had woven overskirts and amazing beaded hats - a bit like cheerleaders hats. Very colourful! Everybody seemed to have babies or produce carried in slings of brightly woven fabric on their backs.
We soon found the local market area at the edge of the town. It was crowded with people and animals, trucks loaded with
oranges, people selling vegetables from a basket on the ground beside them, kids everywhere, donkeys around every corner…. Total mayhem but so much fun. We spent ages enjoying the atmosphere and tried to chat to an old man who was more then happy to pose for a photo for a few boliviano before going back to the main square for a coffee. Whilst we were there Jaime appeared - we were very surprised to see him. He knew that we were spending the morning at the market and drove down to invite us out to lunch with him. Luckily at the next table was a couple from the bus we arrived in so after telling them we had found our own transport home (just in case any body noticed us missing!) we spent another hour wandering the market before meeting Jaime at a restaurant. We watched some of the staff dance some of the local dances , enjoyed our lunch, before driving back to Sucre. Jaime took us to the local park for another dulce de leche ice-cream before arranging to collect us next day and drive us to the airport for our flight to Santa Cruz.
That evening we
met Virginia and Lorena and spent another enjoyable few hours having a meal in a hotel overlooking the main plaza. We were very sad to say goodbye to them at the end of the evening - the whole family had made us very welcome and totally overwhelmed us with their kindness and generosity. Sucre was a highlight of our time in Bolivia and we would miss it a lot after we left.
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