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After checking out of our hostel we began the laborious and expensive task of posting home some presents, souvenirs and no longer needed winter clothes. 40 quid for 4kg seemed cheap after DHL quoted us 130 pounds, which I nearly agreed to after doing the currency conversion very wrong and thinking it was 13 pounds! We returned to Mayapata for lunch with a view and spent what was left of our day before another night bus in the museum of Indigenous Art. I had thought it was just going to be a few examples and history of different styles of weaves and some women weaving, but it was so much more! We got an A5 guide book about 30 pages long to guide us around the 13 rooms of exhibitions. I had no idea of the complexity and significance of patterns in the weavings, or the huge differences between different cultural groups' designs. The examples we saw were from Tarabuco and Jal'pa groups, the former using a mixture of abstract and colourful shapes (zigzags and rhomboids) and "language" to express key "pacha" (scenes from the world we live in) and the latter using solely figurative language and describing deeper more remote
parts of the earth with mythical animals.
Some weaves are used in ceremonies and rituals (e.g. sacred offerings to a deity, or for the belts of newborns or the deceased= and as such the women behave quite ritualistically during their work. For example, a small hand of metal is kept between balls of wool already spun and dyed and prepared for weaving, which functions as an "illa" (an amulet or lucky charm) to look after the threads and ensure the weaving "advances" and will be well accomplished.
We saw a tunic that was over 1000 years old but still retained its bright colours, like the scarlet red obtained from the cochineal insect.
There was a room dedicated to music and dance - showing the eccentric costumes and videos of the displays. The most interesting was the nearly extinct "Liberia" dance where people dress as demonic butterflies or condors; a dangerous dance due to the heavy iron wings that often caused dancers to topple over and break their backs. We could have spent all day there - it was fascinating to learn for the first time about the history and traditions of this and other Andean countries. The
videos reminded me a little of footage I have seen of African tribes, and I wish we had time to go off the beaten track a little and experience them for real. The town of Uyuni (and Sucre, but to a much lesser extent) did give us a glimpse of traditional female costume though - the skirts, bowler hats and 2 long plaits reaching all the way down their backs. Bags fashioned out of square pieces of colourful material tied to their backs to carry anything from groceries to babies! A very different world!
Our night bus to Santa Cruz smelled better than our last bus and my seat thankfully reclined, but most of the windows were jammed open so it was a cold night! We were the only travellers on the bus and I'm sure the locals were talking a weird dialect that I could not even recognize as related to Spanish. We had no idea how long the journey would be - one lady said we'd arrive at 7am, another at 8am. For some reason they enjoy lying about this - we actually arrived at 9:30am! A 14.5 hour trip, with only 2 rest stops. The first
was in a town - a cafe with a real toilet. The second was in the middle of nowhere, and when everyone piled off th bus I naively said to Chris, "There's gona be a long queue for the toilet!" Looking out the window I realised it was a side of the road with no shelter stop! The Bolivian women in their skirts had some degree of decency. Wearing trousers myself and not wanting to bear my behind, I did not join them. Men have it so much easier!
Chris's Corner Hanging out in the plaza with us were a number of locals in traditional dress, old men chewing the fat and kids finishing school at midday. What I did notice was this afternoon release increased the number of begging children and shoe shine boys. It was troubling to see children sent off by their parents to target specific people, but Bolivia is a poverty filled country.
Arriving at the bus station at the meeting time on our ticket (5:30pm) we were required to pay a 25p departure tax to leave the terminal, not expensive but an unexpected inconvenience nonetheless. What was also crazy was that when booking our bus earlier that day, all companies left at 4-4:30pm, except our own, who told us they left at 6pm, despite the sign advertising 4pm. As soon as we loaded our bags and boarded the bus, it reversed out of the station, already pre-loaded with Bolivian locals. I have the feeling they heard us turn down other companies, saying we wanted a later bus, and held the bus for us banking on us being early.
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