Backpacking South America

We had been pleasantly surprised by Bolivia in our first two weeks, but Sucre was truly a treat.

Bolivia is one of twelve countries in the world that has more than one capital city. La Paz is home to the administration while Sucre has the legislative and judicial branches. Besides that little factoid, Sucre is full of white, colonial buildings, giving the town a distinct European, colonial feel.

Also, it has a wide selection of delicious restaurants. Our favorite meal, however, was not traditional Bolivian food – though the saltenas at El Patio are amazing – but steaks at La Taverne, a French restaurant. This may be sacrilege, but I think the best steak dinner I’ve had in South America is not in Argentina, but in Bolivia… I cringe when I say this, but it’s true.

Argentina has the best beef, but in our experience (budget options), anytime they try to add anything, it actually depreciates the steak. What we had at La Taverne was phenomenal. The sauces were delicious. Suffice it to say, France got it down when it comes to sauces.

Aside from admiring the architecture and gorging on the culinary treats sprinkled throughout the city, we spent a great deal of time learning about the traditional art of weaving and the expressions and traditions of the various groups of indigenous peoples.

One of our first stops in town was the Museo Arte Indigenia – the museum of indigenous art. On display were centuries-old weavings. The indigenous people of Bolivia have a range of uses for this art form – from clothing to religious ceremonies.

In the museum, they have a local artist actively working on a weaving. After being mesmerized for quite some time, we asked if we could snap a couple photos while she worked. She obliged but made a clear indication that it would be appropriate to drop a coin or two for such privileges.

After the museum, we were quite excited to visit the Sunday market in Tarabuco, 60km outside town. We had heard that there were great deals on various items and that we would be able to see many Tarabucans in traditional wear. We made it to Tarabuco and had a fantastic time.

While the market was a bit crowded with tourists and repeats of the same souvenirs, we did get to see handmade weavings up close. Also, the weekend we visited happened to be a very important day for the Tarabucan people. There was a celebration of the day they defeated Spanish troops in Tarabuco. This day is so important to the people that a statue was erected in the center of town of a Tarabucan with one foot on a dead Spaniard, his heart in his hand and blood running down the cheeks. It’s pretty graphic…

This celebration brought out lots of locals in their festive wears, included shoes with spur-like attachments to make noise. All-in-all, the day was quite a treat – we even got a special visit from the Vice President of Bolivia.

We left Sucre the following day, satisfied that we got to partake in a bit of gringo traveling and local.