Advertisement
Published: August 9th 2007
Edit Blog Post
As mentioned before in Santa Cruz, being off the organised tour now, we more or less make up our plans as we go along. This was another example.
After a very nice stay at La Vispera, we got excited about NOT getting on a long distance bus to Sucre. Also, there was word that some of the roads to Sucre were closed for large vehicles as parts of the roads were washed away with the heavy rains at the begining of the year. And this is how we end up in another one of these old converted Japanese taxis to take the backroad to Sucre not in 1 day, but 4, and taking in the sights and scenery. In the end, it turned out to be another gamble with great results.
From Samaipata we looked into some different local tours and this one would actually include several. First part of the tour would focus on the "Che Guevara trail" as it is known here. Bolivia has a few famous people on it´s list of killings/suicides, Butch Cassidi and the Sundance Kid alledgedly also were tracked down, ambushed, and killed in southern Bolivia. As was the Che. Arguably, apart from
the recent film, we didn´t know an awful lot about him. In most western countries he seems to be more a fashion statement (or bad taste statement) than any thing else.
The road to Valle Grande, our first stop on the tour, at first still was paved, but within the hour we hit the "dirt road" turn off and from here it would be gravel and dirt roads. Valle Grande is a large village and like most Bolivian towns, has a central park/square. At this square is the Che Guevara museum.
The museum consisted of a mere 2 rooms, decked out with photo´s, posters, and panels with Che´s life and final hours set out in chronological order. Very interesting to get informed about his life and "work" this way. Maybe more amusing for us was the fact that we were 2 minutes late at the door, as it was closed for siesta! Gilberto, trying to stay in control of our time schedule for the day spent more than 10 minutes chatting/argueing/talking with the 2 young blokes at the door until we were let in. This was followed by the first of our set lunches in a local restaurant
which had many-a painting on the wall featuring El Che. Some were in tasteful red!
Vallegrande and it´s hospital made it´s way into the world news as it was the place were Che´s body was shown to the world (press). All done in a very tasteful fashion, bare chested with his eyes wide open. It is also the place where he was thrown in a mass grave with 6 other guerrilla mates. Again, Gilberto hassled the key from the 2 guys so we could get in after lunch. The mausoleum around the group grave (which was not discovered till the late nineties, the whereabouts of the grave have been secret for over 30 years) has only recently been built, and as it all depended on sponsorships, has not been finished yet. But there are no traces that there´s any work being done at the moment either. This hasn´t stopped many people from scribbling their name and details over the whole building.
The hospital, or better, the hospital´s former laundry, is even worse. Not a square centimeter left untouched by scribbling pilgrims. This was the place where they kept his body as a trophy to the world for a
few days.
The rest of the afternoon was a very scenic, winding gravel road to the very, very little town of La Higiera. This town´s name appears as the place where a wounded Che, with one living and several dead companions was brought to (after being ambushed by approx 800 soldiers). They were thrown into a very small school. The day after a clear command was radioed through and they were both shot inside the school. The next day, his body was transported on the landing gear of a helicopter to Vallegrande.
La Higiera is the proverbial town with one pub, except Bolivian villages don´t seem to have pubs, just chicken and rice restaurants, the staple diet of country people here. It´s also a vilage without any electricity, we had dinner by candle light. Luckily the shower had a gas boiler! Surprisingly for the size of the town our lodge was lovely, with a great view over the valley.
Next morning, a surprisingly hearty breakfast was enjoyed and a relatively early start for what was supposed to be the toughest drive day. Luckily, the weather gods were smiling with us and as bumpy as the road was,
we didn´t have any problems. Some of the pictures will show the great scenery, as well as the very impressive concrete bridge.
Short stop at Neuvo Mundo, "new world", a little town on top of a mountain (3300m), and small surprise that the town had a globe in the central square.
Villa Serano was our stop for the night. Again a town with a square/park, but also the world´s biggest charango (a local guitar type the size of a mandoline, normally, and for tourists they sell them with the shell of an armadillo as a soundboard). Again, also a local market in this town and few restaurants with a choice of chicken with or without rice and fried potatoes. Our resident vegitarian was enduring a chicken overload at this point. We also had a pretty big storm that night, which kept us up for quite a while. The luck for us was though that if it had rained the night before, we would have not made that day driving in the little taxi.
Next day did start with more rain, but clearing upin the afternoon. Much more of the same, scenic drives, but this time a bit
less with the rain and fog. Stop after 3 pm was Sureña, another small town with no pub. Small difference was another Jesus statue looking out over the village. This time with arials behind him.
The evening was passed with more chicken, rice and fried potatoes. This time though with a cold BEER and a local TV show called "giant saturday" which has it all: Cabaret, theatre, "Idol" style singing competition, interview and also murder investigation!!
Next and last day, last scenic drive to the well known Tarabuco markets, where almost anything was for sale. Some being sold by small stall owners or farmers, some in local dress, and most very old and worn. Bin was quite enjoying this of course, I was trying to count the amount of zip-off hiking pants worn by tourists (most probably dutch or german). Another intrigueing detail was the local table-football competitions, around, yes indeed, the central square!
You can see from the photo´s what great coloured crafts were being sold, but we´re not telling what we bought and for whom!
Thankfully, our last 1.5hours we were back on asphalt roads.
The scenery was fantastic and what we were
there ... the bumpy, dirty, dusty, uncomfortable means of travelling were easily washed away with a shower and a beer ...
As said, a great alternative route to Sucre, but maybe next time with one day less, and more vegetables............
Advertisement
Tot: 0.124s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 19; qc: 78; dbt: 0.0674s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb