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Published: August 18th 2011
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Our last day in Sucre was Saturday 6th August, and to mark the occasion El Presidente came to town to bade us farewell – only the pedantic among you would point out that is the date of Bolivia’s day of Liberation so he would have been there anyway !!!
Liberation Day comprises of everything you have ever thought about South America. Crowds, parades,colours , noises, me, Wendy and Liz. It goes on for 3 days with much vino and beer consumed and the excitement of the president on the last day.
We got to the main plaza and got a good spot opposite the balcony where we thought Sr Morales (el president henceforth known as Evo – his name) would come out to watch the parades and wave to us all. Skilfully elbowing our way to near the front of the barriers we were well set.
The weather in Sucre that day was as it had been for the previous four weeks – deep blue sky and a scalding hot sun. Sucre is a fantastic city where a mixture of glorious architecture, fantastic people, sumptuous bars and restaurants, crazy bus drivers and a feeling of relaxation. We will
live here one day. Attached are a whole bundle of pictures of the city for your perusal.
Anyway, I sense your anticipation for the arrival of Evo. Well dear readers, while we were sweltering outside, he was within the government building giving a speech to the great and the good. It was transmitted outside to the thronging crowds. Spanish is his main and only language so there were many gringos trying to interpret his words. I picked up something about capitalism, pride and country, Bolivia (many times) pepperoni and anchovies and who the hell are all these people outside!!!
His speech finished to applause inside and out and we prepared for the big moment. Unfortunately at this moment, we realised that our vantage point had a slight problem. Apart from being beside a child on his dad’s shoulders who looked like he was going to be sick, in front of us suddenly appeared a military band!!! To compound our misfortune, we were behind the player of the biggest white tuba in the known world !!! yes, you read that correctly – our view of Evo was going to be obliterated by an oompah man. Even, even worse was
the fact that the band appeared to comprise completely of a group of men who had never seen an instrument before and played accordingly.
This was Bolivia’s 186th birthday of Liberation. Keep that in mind as it applies to the next sentence. To my left in the crowd was a youngish man with a rucksack and a mobile phone. Into the phone he was texting in Spanish – it is their 186th Birthday but thankfully they will not have another one “ ( told you it would come up). Now, at this point my sweat turned cold. Evo was about to appear. There had been no security searching of rucksacks and I had a possible terrorist beside me. What could your correspondent do ???? Did I become a hero ??? No. I just stared at him and he walked away. I did not hear any loud bangs.
Evo then came out and was ushered straight in to a waiting white car and whisked off. Bloody hell I thought (that was a mild version of what I actually said. We had been standing all that time – about two hours – and he is not even going to pose
for a piccie. Suddenly a rumour spread that he was going to appear at the town hall so we sped to the next corner of the square only to see in a television screen Evo leading a march right the point we had been standing at !!! aaaaargggghhhhh – we rushed back to the spot we were at but he had already entered the building. He had given us the slip.
But then, he appeared on the balcony !!! he stood for ages waving and smiling in a presidential manner to the roaring crowds in a very presidential manner. We were so happy at seeing him for a few moments that we went for a beer. Even then we were rewarded for being good gringos, as many military bands walked past our bar so we had ringside seats for them – it was like our own parade. So that was the end of our exciting day with El Presidente, or was it……..?
Of course not dear readers. Your correspondent has kept a little back just to tantalise you with.
On our walk back up hill to our abode, on looking to our left, we saw a motorcade
of motorbikes and cars. It was Evo and his friends !!!! They all drove past us and when Evo’s car went by, Wendy waved and a horn was sounded – without a doubt Evo had told him to do it. El Presidente had said hello to us after all.
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Albert
non-member comment
Nice!