Last week, we left off in Sucre awaiting the zombie apocalypse from underneath the local park aka burial ground. By the time we finished the cathedral and crypt tour, it was time to head back over to the Treasury Museum for the 3pm re-opening. We arrived a little after 3pm only to be told the only English tour was at 5:30pm. We told the employee we did not need an English tour but she would not let us join the next tour so we left with our money in our pocket. Evidently, the Treasury Museum did not need more treasure to survive. We stopped for an early dinner at a quiet Italian restaurant near our hotel. As we ordered, a group of children began singing upstairs and we were told they had choir practice. each afternoon. By the time our food arrived, we could have joined them in singing because we knew every word. I can say their teacher was very thorough! Just as the waitress placed our dinner on the table, dozens of children came running into the courtyard, chattering boisterously. Each child held a pan flute in his hands which struck instant terror in our hearts. They all began to blow and practice the song we had been listening to endlessly for the last hour. The waitress informed us that today was a very special day for them as they were doing a pan flute concert for their parents in an hour. We smiled, nodded, handed her our plates and asked for to-go boxes. There’s only so much fluting that one can take!
The next morning, we walked up a very large hill to the Recoleta area. The church we wanted to see was closed so we sat in the square and watched two wedding parties as they took photos. The mothers of the brides had a special short wedding dress so that must be a tradition of some sort. By the time the bride and groom in one party had finished their individual pictures, they had to run to catch up with the party which had already started. The groomsmen dragged out huge speakers into the square and the dancing commenced. I love a good wedding so it was very interesting to see all the Bolivian traditions. We spent the afternoon touring the San Felipe de Neri convent which had amazing rooftop views of Sucre. Our final day in Sucre, we toured a local castle that was built in the late 1800s by a local aristocrat. The castle was lovely but empty and in need of some TLC. We finished out the day with a stop by the Florida Palace which was in so much need of TLC that we were not even charged an entrance fee to wander through it. We also swung by the National cemetery which was unique because it had sections of very expensive gravesites, mausoleums that reminded us of a U-Haul storage center and an area that was obviously for the poor people. You just never know what you are going to find in a cemetery! Our final flight in Bolivia was to the city of Santa Cruz. Finally….back to sea level! As we sucked in copious amounts of oxygen, we checked into our hotel and set off exploring. It was a Bolivian national holiday of some sort so most things were closed. We wandered through the main square and had to eat lunch at a Chucky Cheese type restaurant which seemed to be very popular. Santa Cruz appeared to be a lively city with mostly young families so I guess the restaurant made sense. Santa Cruz was a newer city that had a population boom a few years ago so it was a typical new city without much pizzazz. Our survival Spanish failed us miserably in Santa Cruz because the people in the region spoke the Catalan dialect from Spain. They spoke very rapidly and did not seem to accept that we did not understand them because they just continuously fired off endless paragraphs and then looked at us expectantly. We finally went to my father’s theory that the answer to 97% of questions is ‘yes’ which seemed to satisfy them. The next morning, we headed to Guembe Nature Park. The park had three resort-like swimming pools, a zoo, nature trails and the largest butterfly atrium in the world (so they claimed). My favorite part was the aviary which had tons of parrots, parakeets, macaws and numerous other birds. At one point, a huge parrot landed on my camera bag and proceeded to try to eat through the mesh to get a tissue. No matter what I did, he would not get off the bag and I did not want him to eat the tissue because it might make him sick. No way was I going to reach near his very large beak so I finally took the bag off over my head with the parrot hanging on and squawking indignantly at me. Once I laid the bag on the ground, we were able to shoo him away. At that point, I hid everything in the main pocket so as not to attract anymore unsolicited attention. We figured out he was just hungry when the zookeeper walked into the aviary and hundreds of birds swarmed to the feeding stations. Bill made me leave without taking one home with us but some day….Galt will have a parrot! Early the next morning, we were picked up by a local guide and taken out to the Loma de Arena national park. On the way, the guide search diligently to find monkeys and slots but to no avail. The park was famous for huge sand dunes and it reminded me of Kitty Hawk, NC where the Wright brothers had their first flight. The guide was very excited to hear this information and immediately searched on his phone for pictures of Kitty Hawk. When I asked him how he learned to speak English (because so few people spoke English in Bolivia), he responded, “When I was twelve, I began listening to music by Eminem. I studied his lyrics over and over and that is how I learned English.” Considering his English was almost perfect, I think the public schools in the United States should adopt the Eminem curriculum plan! As we climbed to the top of the dunes, we enjoyed breathing and were proud that we made it to the top. Once at the top, the guide waxed some sand boards and we climbed onto them for a fast surf down the dune (sitting down, of course). As the guide explained how to get moving, he and Bill slid easily down the hill as I got stuck at the top. Finally, after much wiggling and pushing, I was on my way! The sand surfing was fun but the sand fleas swarmed and even invaded the car. There were thousands of them. The only thing in the park that outnumbered the sand fleas were the butterflies. Our guide said since it had been a drier year, the butterflies were abundant. As we drove out of the park, the butterflies parted like the Red Sea to allow the car to pass. Breathtaking. Our final day in Bolivia, we took a taxi outside of town to the Botanical Gardens. We have seen many gardens during our travels but we hoped to spot some monkeys or sloths at these gardens. Alas, it was not to be and the gardens were a bit boring for us. To catch a taxi back into town, we had to stand on the edge of the ‘highway’ and wait for a taxi to stop. We climbed into a very rickety taxi that had an automatic window control on Bill’s side of the cab and a manual window control on my side. The taxis never fail to entertain. We gave the taxi our hotel address and in a few minutes, he pulled into a local area with food stalls and tons of stores. We told him this was not our area but he said that was where he was dropping us so we got out of the taxi. We finally figured out that his taxi company could only cover a certain area and our hotel was not in his area. Bill was glad to have an opportunity to buy some meat on a stick from a vendor with a huge grill so no harm done. We caught a taxi back to our hotel and prepared for our 5:30am flight back to Cartagena. We had arranged a ride to the airport with our taxi driver who had picked us up at the airport on our incoming flight. At 3am, he showed up reliably but I am pretty sure he had been into the coca because he looked terrible. Our flight was painfully early and our day was long but we landed in Cartagena in time for dinner and went straight to bed. Southern Peru and Bolivia was an amazing trip filled with interesting characters and sights that we will never forget. Thank you for sharing this journey with us! ****See pictures tab for more pics
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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